2022.11.23: Bringing Up the Next Generation of Procurement All-Stars

Original article published on Linkedin by Dustin Lanier, CPPO

(This article was also recorded as a podcast, give a listen here!)

I used the LinkedIn audio capacity to host a conversation with Toysha "T.J." Jones Martin from the City of Phoenix. If you haven't heard her speak she's super compelling and authentic.

I had a chance when I was in Phoenix at the Arizona NIGP chapter event last month to give my speech "It's Go Time," where I go through:

• Why it's really important to understand what a critical time it is for job mobility in procurement right now,
• How we should take that into account when we are designing work,
• Understanding the mentality of young people as they're considering procurement, and
• The differences in how the generations think about work.

In the course of doing the speech, I have a challenge part where I talk about getting out into the field and talking to young people about procurement - could you do it, and would it be interesting?

It was a relatively large crowd so I asked "Is anyone doing that?"

One person raised their hand, and I found out later it was TJ - because I hadn't had a chance to meet her yet - and she said "I'm doing exactly that, and I'm speaking about that in about 3 hours."

So I stuck around and listened.

She has a great presentation on :

• How she's trying to bring procurement to young people,
• How she's creating job paths,
• How she's able to make it fun and irreverent and connect with people, and
• The kind of programs that she's doing now, and the ones that she is going to continue on to do.

So at the end of it, I said "We basically gave a two-hour version of the same speech - we ought to combine them and have a discussion."

So, therefore, that's what we're doing next week.

For any of you who have been around when we did our Clubhouse podcasts, where we would allow people onstage, have a discussion, and record an audio roundtable - that's basically what we're going to do here.

If you don't know, LinkedIn has some new audio functionality (that is basically an obvious competitor to Clubhouse) I've gone to a couple of events here - it and seems like they've worked out some of the kinks - it's one of the first chance I've had to be able to use the new format.

If you ever participated in our Clubhouse room, especially our Wednesday lunch crew (folks like Jaime Schorr, Justin Sullivan, James E. Crenshaw, MBA, CFCM,NIGP-CPP, CPPO Christin Webb, MBA, NIGP-CPP, Jenny Hedderman, Esq.) please join, listen in on some of the conversation, and let's see if we like this format.

I look forward to talking about this important topic - Generating the Next Generation of Procurement All-Stars.