TED Ideas Worth SpreadingIn 2015, I posted 10 TED Talks Relevant to Employee Engagement. With this post, I compiled a playlist of TED Talks relevant to employee engagement filmed and posted in the first half of 2016.

 

“TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment, and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world.”1

 

I learn a lot from the diverse topics discussed on TED.com. I hope you’ll find these TED Talks interesting and applicable to your employee engagement efforts.

 

 

 

TED2016: My year of saying yes to everything

Speaker: Shonda Rhimes
Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/shonda_rhimes_my_year_of_saying_yes_to_everything#t-1374
Date Filmed: Feb. 2016
Time: 18:44
Comment: “Shonda Rhimes, the titan behind Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder, is responsible for some 70 hours of television per season, and she loves to work. “When I am hard at work, when I am deep in it, there is no other feeling,” she says. She has a name for this feeling: The hum. The hum is a drug, the hum is music, the hum is God’s whisper in her ear. But what happens when it stops? Is she anything besides the hum? In this moving talk, join Rhimes on a journey through her “year of yes” and find out how she got her hum back.”2

 

 

 

TED2016: Insightful human portraits made from data  

Speaker: R. Luke DuBois
Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/r_luke_dubois_insightful_human_portraits_made_from_data
Date Filmed: Feb. 2016
Time: 12:43
Comment: “Artist R. Luke DuBois makes unique portraits of presidents, cities, himself and even Britney Spears using data and personality. In this talk, he shares nine projects — from maps of the country built using information taken from millions of dating profiles to a gun that fires a blank every time a shooting is reported in New Orleans. His point: the way we use technology reflects on us and our culture, and we reduce others to data points at our own peril.”3

 

 

 

TED2016: The surprising habits of original thinkers

Speaker: Adam Grant
Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/adam_grant_the_surprising_habits_of_original_thinkers
Date Filmed: Feb. 2016
Time: 15:25
Comment: “How do creative people come up with great ideas? Organizational psychologist Adam Grant studies “originals”: thinkers who dream up new ideas and take action to put them into the world. In this talk, learn three unexpected habits of originals — including embracing failure. ‘The greatest originals are the ones who fail the most, because they’re the ones who try the most,” Grant says. “You need a lot of bad ideas in order to get a few good ones.’”4

 

 

 

TED2016: The dream we haven’t dared to dream

Speaker: Dan Pallotta
Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pallotta_the_dream_we_haven_t_dared_to_dream
Date Filmed: Feb. 2016
Time: 11:56
Comment: “What are your dreams? Better yet, what are your broken dreams? Dan Pallotta dreams of a time when we are as excited, curious and scientific about the development of our humanity as we are about the development of our technology. “What we fear most is that we will be denied the opportunity to fulfill our true potential,” Pallotta says. “Imagine living in a world where we simply recognize that deep, existential fear in one another — and love one another boldly because we know that to be human is to live with that fear.””5

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TED2016: The beauty of being a misfit

Speaker: Lidia Yuknavitch
Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/lidia_yuknavitch_the_beauty_of_being_a_misfit
Date Filmed: Feb. 2016
Time: 12:58
Comment: “To those who feel like they don’t belong: there is beauty in being a misfit. Author Lidia Yuknavitch shares her own wayward journey in an intimate recollection of patchwork stories about loss, shame and the slow process of self-acceptance. “Even at the moment of your failure, you are beautiful,” she says. “You don’t know it yet, but you have the ability to reinvent yourself endlessly. That’s your beauty.””6

 

 

 

TED2016: Who are you, really? The puzzle of personality 

Speaker: Brian Little
Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/brian_little_who_are_you_really_the_puzzle_of_personality
Date Filmed: Feb. 2016
Time: 15:15
Comment: “What makes you, you? Psychologists like to talk about our traits, or defined characteristics that make us who we are. But Brian Little is more interested in moments when we transcend those traits — sometimes because our culture demands it of us, and sometimes because we demand it of ourselves. Join Little as he dissects the surprising differences between introverts and extroverts and explains why your personality may be more malleable than you think.”7

 

 

 

TEDxPSU: Why you think you’re right — even if you’re wrong

Speaker: Julia Galef
Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/julia_galef_why_you_think_you_re_right_even_if_you_re_wrong
Date Filmed: Feb. 2016
Time: 11:37
Comment: “Perspective is everything, especially when it comes to examining your beliefs. Are you a soldier, prone to defending your viewpoint at all costs — or a scout, spurred by curiosity? Julia Galef examines the motivations behind these two mindsets and how they shape the way we interpret information, interweaved with a compelling history lesson from 19th-century France. When your steadfast opinions are tested, Galef asks: “What do you most yearn for? Do you yearn to defend your own beliefs or do you yearn to see the world as clearly as you possibly can?””8

TED@BCG Paris: How to build a business that lasts 100 years

Speaker: Martin Reeves
Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/martin_reeves_how_to_build_a_business_that_lasts_100_years
Date Filmed: May 2016
Time: 14:54
Comment: “If you want to build a business that lasts, there may be no better place to look for inspiration than your own immune system. Join strategist Martin Reeves as he shares startling statistics about shrinking corporate life spans and explains how executives can apply six principles from living organisms to build resilient businesses that flourish in the face of change.”


 

What are your thoughts on the selected TED Talks? What TED Talks relevant to employee engagement would you recommend?

 

 

1 “About |Our Organization.” TED. TED Conferences, LLC. Feb. 2016. Web. 4 Aug. 2015. <https://www.ted.com/about/our-organization>.
2 Rhimes, Shonda. ” My year of saying yes to everything ” TED. TED Conferences, LLC, Feb. 2016.  Web. 10 Aug. 2016.
3 DuBois, R. Luke. “Insightful human portraits made from data” TED. TED Conferences, LLC, Feb. 2016. Web. 10 Aug. 2016.
4 Grant, Adam. “The surprising habits of original thinkers.” TED. TED Conferences, LLC, Feb. 2016. Web. 10 Aug. 2016.
5  Pallotta, Dan. “The dream we haven’t dared to dream.” TED. TED Conferences, LLC. Feb. 2016. Web. 10 Aug. 2016.
6 Yuknavitch, Lidia. “The beauty of being a misfit.” TED. TED Conferences, LLC, Feb. 2016. Web. 10 Aug. 2016.
7 Little, Brian. “Who are you, really? The puzzle of personality.” TED. TED Conferences, LLC, Feb. 2016. Web. 10 Aug. 2016.
8 Galef, Julia. “Why you think you’re right — even if you’re wrong.” TED. TED Conferences, LLC, Feb. 2016. Web. 10 Aug. 2016.
9 Reeves, Martin. “How to build a business that lasts 100 years.” TED. TED Conferences, LLC, Feb. 2016. Web. 10 Aug. 2016.

 

 

 

 

Let’s Engage!

I’m Agent in Engagement Simpson…Gregory F Simpson.

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