Posts tagged ted talks
Tom Wujec: Build a tower, build a team
The “marshmallow problem” is a fairly common exercise for corporate team building. So why is it that recent kindergarten school graduates outperform most people including CEOs, business school grads, and lawyers?
“Tom Wujec presents some surprisingly deep research into the “marshmallow problem” — a simple team-building exercise that involves dry spaghetti, one yard of tape and a marshmallow. Who can build the tallest tower with these ingredients? And why does a surprising group always beat the average?
Tom Wujec studies how we share and absorb information. He’s an innovative practitioner of business visualization — using design and technology to help groups solve problems and understand ideas. He is a Fellow at Autodesk.”
Design truly is a contact sport. It demands that we bring all of our senses to the task, and that we apply the very best of our thinking, our feeling and our doing to the challenge that we have at hand. - Tom Wujec
Derek Sivers: Weird, or just different?
Perceptions are tremendously important, and they are constructed from many assumptions. What are the ones you don’t even realize you’re making?
“There’s a flip side to everything,” the saying goes, and in 2 minutes, Derek Sivers shows this is true in a few ways you might not expect.
Through his new project, MuckWork, Derek Sivers wants to lessen the burdens (and boredom) of creative people.”
Let’s never forget that whatever brilliant ideas you have or hear, that the opposite may also be true.” - Derek Sivers
Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action
“Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question “Why?” His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers …
In 2009, Simon Sinek released the book “Start With Why” — a synopsis of the theory he has begun using to teach others how to become effective leaders and inspire change.”
[Martin Luther King, Jr.] gave the ‘I have a dream’ speech, not the ‘I have a plan’ speech. - Simon Sinek
Rory Sutherland: Sweat the small stuff
What do lentils have to do with eradicating world poverty? Rory Sutherland has his opinion on this, problem solving in general, and decision making in notoriously bureaucratic organizations including state governments and the United Nations.
“It may seem that big problems require big solutions, but ad man Rory Sutherland says many flashy, expensive fixes are just obscuring better, simpler answers. To illustrate, he uses behavioral economics and hilarious examples.
Rory Sutherland stands at the center of an advertising revolution in brand identities, designing cutting-edge, interactive campaigns that blur the line between ad and entertainment.”
Once you have a very, very large budget, you actually look for expensive things to spend it on. - Rory Sutherland
“The problem is not ignorance, it is preconceived ideas.”
- Hans Rosling, “Hans Rosling Shows You the Best Stats You’ve Ever Seen”
Yesterday, we posted a link to one of my all-time favourite TED Talks (you should check it out if you haven’t already), where Hans Rosling passionately presents insightful data on the reality of economic development. While we often think of the so-called “developing world” as a single group of poor, undeveloped, and chronically impoverished nations, the truth is that most of these countries are actually on an encouraging path towards health and economic self-sufficiency. By simply presenting data, Dr. Rosling paints a picture of global development that is surprisingly upbeat and hopeful for the future—a far cry from what most people see as a hopeless challenge plaguing our generation.
This video shows the power of data, and the importance of evaluating our own preconceived notions against what the data actually tells us. In many cases, data tells a story that is radically different from our initial ideas. We often think about issues based on our own experiences, ideology, and preconceived notions without actually looking at the evidence. This, I think, is a terrible mistake, for what we perceive can be wrong—as Dr. Rosling’s presentation so powerfully shows. In this respect, data should inform discussion and debate, allowing us to frame complex and oftentimes controversial issues in a transparent and verifiable manner.
A caution, though: doing so can lead to results that may go against what you believe to be right, true, or popular. In the case of international development, we need to think critically about our efforts to understand what works and what doesn’t. Do popular aid campaigns really help the poor? Does buying fair trade coffee actually lift farmers out of poverty? Are we devoting our resources efficiently in treating the most important diseases?
Please understand that I am not trying to take a stance on the aforementioned issues (but I do think there is some compelling evidence that merits a closer look). What I am urging, though, is that we should not be afraid to ask the hard questions and see what the evidence tells us, rather than relying on what “seems right” to us. Sometimes we will be pleasantly surprised, but other times our ideology and adages will be challenged. Indeed, the willingness to think critically and understand things for the way they are—rather than how we think they ought to be—now that is an idea worth spreading.
Hans Rosling shows the best stats you’ve ever seen
Hans Rosling informs, amuses, and engages in one of the most popular TED talks of all time.
“You’ve never seen data presented like this. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, statistics guru Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called “developing world.”
In Hans Rosling’s hands, data sings. Global trends in health and economics come to vivid life. And the big picture of global development—with some surprisingly good news—snaps into sharp focus.”
I have shown that Swedish top students know statistically significantly less about the world than the chimpanzees. - Hans Rosling
