AMAECHI PERFORMANCE SYSTEMS

In House Event Feedback

“John presented real life situations. He was an excellent speaker and educator. He could have had more time.”

“John Amaechi was not your typical diversity speaker. I anticipated another "vanilla flavored" program, more compliance oriented. When John first began his presentation I found him arrogant and angry but as he progressed I could see how he used those emotions to shake us out of our normal way of thinking. I wish the introduction had been shorter to allow more time for the keynote speaker or that Amaechi had stayed longer to expand beyond the obviously, middle-ground he reached. His delivery put me off balance to the point that I, who questions everything, had difficulty composing a question that would challenge or compliment his style. His approach was unconventional and provocative and well worth an encore.”

“It was a good event! John was nice and he kept it real! In today's world it's very hard to find real people.”

“I think the timing was too short and the program could have been extended. Having an event on diversity requires a hell of a lot more time than an hour. Perhaps it should be a requirement for ALL persons of the company to take mandatory "training." As a minority, it was interesting to hear a woman ask the question about how to teach her 17 year old about diversity--if she is asking this question now, what was she NOT doing for the previous 16 years. One can not educate, when they themselves need to be educated. That spoke volumes to me.”

“I enjoyed the event, I think John is a great speaker, informative and entertaining. Very educational.”

“I found the discussion about understanding the nature of identify and the contrast between identify and stereotype very profound. It's easy to define a person by a snapshot but not very realistic and probably not helpful in developing long-term benefit or strategy.”

“I truly enjoyed the event and learned a lot. John had many points good that I'm still thinking about today and he made some great analogies that I could relate to very well. The only thing that disappointed me was that the event was cut short. A suggestion might be to have the event be an hour and fifteen minutes so that the intro speaker has time and then the main speaker's time would not be cut short. And since this was such a great event, people would not mind staying an extra fifteen minutes.”

“It should have been longer! Seemed like he had a lot more to share and people were interested but time ran out.”

In House Event Feedback

Goldman Sachs, New York (2008)

“Easily the best of the diversity presentations I have attended ever since Diversity Week was launched. John was engaging, interesting, and very relevant. And he was more than simply a 'diversity candidate' talking of his experiences, rather he addressed the topic in a thoughtful and thought-provoking way.”
Anne Marie Salamy
Global Leadership & Diversity team, Goldman Sachs

Further comments collated from anonymous forms from participants at this event:

"Excellent speaker and a nice combination of anecdotes and thoughts."

"Wrapped up good messages with great humour."

"I found this to be the best event I attended by far. I hope what he said resonates with those who attended, especially managers of people."

"Incredibly engaging speaker and covered a full range of implications of discrimination in the workplace and how it inhibits people's productivity - the best individual speaker I heard during diversity week."

Bristol Myers Squibb, New Jersey (2008)

A selection of feedback collated from anonymous forms after the presentation at Bristol Myers Squibb (2008) by Linda Leonard, Associate Director - Diversity & Work/Life Corporate Staff & Susan Broughton, Director, US Pharmaceuticals Internal and BMS Editorial Communications:

“I thought John was an engaging, dynamic speaker. I could have listened to him speak much longer than the 40 minutes allotted to him. He has such insight to share that I think we could have learned even more. Very rich dialog.”

“Presentation of this topic from John Amaechi's perspective was very refreshing - a difficult topic and it wasn't "corporate canned" which encouraged a different way of looking at diversity. One key takeaway was that diversity is not just look, perception, it can also be complete thought.”

“I think it was wonderful and it should be mandatory that all departments participate in diversity events.”

“Thought it was fun and engaging -- John made some good points in simple ways.”

“John was a great speaker, would love to have more events similar to this. I overheard some co- workers who were sitting near me that agreed with the issues that he has faced. This is clearly still a large problem and I think we need to do as much as possible to make this a workplace that does not allow for discrimination and embraces diversity.”

“Thank you for offering this program, John was an excellent, thought provoking speaker. His directness was wonderful. The point that provided a great deal of impact for me was regarding how a Company views diversity is the direction it will go in, i.e., No lawsuits, complaints vs. an understanding and inclusion of individuals of different races, gender and sexual orientation. I do wish more time was allocated to the event as John had to truncate his presentation.”

“The speaker was excellent. Really challenged the audience to think about their internal frameworks and how they impact how we interact with others to support or inhibit a culture of inclusion. He was a great choice for a speaker because he was able to share both his personal experiences and his more formal knowledge on the subject. Plus, he had a great sense of humor, which made a potentially uncomfortable topic comfortable. Very well done.”