Diplo Learning Corner

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Category: TED (Page 3 of 9)

12/06/2019 /

In this really interesting TED talk, Knut Haanaes talks about the importance for both companies and individuals of striking the right balance between exploration and exploitation.

Exploration means being open to new things, adopting an innovative approach and always trying to renew oneself.

Exploitation means using the knowledge and know-how that we already possess to ameliorate ourselves, our products, our services.

Though exploitation may seem like a safer option, it only reduces risk in the short term. Though exploration may seem like the best option in the fast-paced world we are living in, veering too far off from certainty can lead to failure and loss.

Finding the right balance between these two attitudes is difficult because there are many traps that keep us where we are; two traps in particular can determine failure:

  • The perpetual search trap
  • The success trap

To learn more about these two traps and how to avoid them, listen to Knut Haanaes’ TED talk:

 

Success, failure and how to manage them

08/05/2019 /

In this TED talk, Elizabeth Gilbert reflects on why success can be as disorienting as failure and offers a simple way to carry on, regardless of outcomes.

That is because there are strange and unlikely psychological connection between the way we experience great failure and the way we experience great success. Indeed failure catapults us abruptly way out into the blinding darkness of disappointment, while success catapults us just as abruptly into the equally blinding glare of fame and recognition and praise.

And while one of these fates is objectively seen by the world as bad, and the other one is objectively seen by the world as good, our subconscious is completely incapable of discerning the difference between bad and good. The only thing that it is capable of feeling is the absolute value of this emotional equation.

In both cases the remedy for self-restoration is the same: find our way back home again, as swiftly and smoothly as we can.

 But what is “home”? That might be creativity, it might be family, it might be invention, adventure, faith, service. Home is that thing to which we can dedicate our energies with such singular devotion that the ultimate results become inconsequential.

Image: Pixabay  (CC0 Creative Commons)

The best hire

13/02/2019 /
In this TED Talk, Regina Hartley, human resources expert, explains that many successful business people had experienced early hardships, anywhere from poverty, abandonment, death of a parent while young, to learning disabilities, alcoholism and violence.

While the conventional thinking has been that trauma leads to distress, during studies of dysfunction, data revealed an unexpected insight: that even the worst circumstances can result in growth and transformation. Such a remarkable and counterintuitive phenomenon was called Post Traumatic Growth.

What is remarkable, among those  who experience post traumatic growth, is that they embraced their trauma and hardships as key elements of who they have become, and know that without those experiences, they might not have developed the muscle and grit required to become successful.

At the and, experts suggest us to always choose the underestimated contender, whose secret weapons are passion and purpose.

Here is the complete TED Talk.

Image: Flickr –Paul Miller (CC BY 2.0) 

The TEDx you should not miss (or watch again and again….)

09/01/2019 /

If you were to watch only 1 TEDx which one you should not miss? This one! (55 million viewers cannot be wrong….).

Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson, speaking for TED talks, makes an interesting case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.

Creativity is, according to him, the process of having original ideas that have value and it is possible only if we are not afraid of being wrong!
Children are not afraid and for this all children are creative. But schools teach them not to make mistakes and so they begin to stigmatize mistakes…

Emotional First Aid

07/11/2018 /

We’ll go to the doctor when we feel flu-ish or a nagging pain. So why don’t we see a health professional when we feel emotional pain: guilt, loss, loneliness? Too many of us deal with common psychological-health issues on our own, says Guy Winch in this TED Talk. But we don’t have to. He makes a compelling case to practice emotional hygiene — taking care of our emotions, our minds, – with the same diligence we take care of our bodies.

By taking action when we’re lonely, by changing our responses to failure, by protecting our self-esteem, by battling negative thinking, we won’t just heal our psychological wounds, we will build emotional resilience, we will thrive.

A hundred years ago, people began practicing personal hygiene, and life expectancy rates rose by over 50 percent in just a matter of decades. According to the author, our quality of life could rise just as dramatically if we all began practicing emotional hygiene.

First Aid Kit

Image: Flickr – niche (CC BY-NC 2.0)

How to raise successful kids (or business colleagues) without over-parenting

31/10/2018 /

Though this TED talk suggestion may seem rather strange for a blog focusing on leadership and business skills development, it actually gives us an important message about how to accompany other along a path of growth by adopting an encouraging rather than punitive attitude. Julie Lythcott- Haims reminds parents (but leaders and managers too!) that there are many ways of reprimanding a person and some are much more fruitful than others in actually determining a change in the other person’s behavior.

Another important message is this: managers should always be on the lookout for situations they can learn from. In fact, some of the most important lessons often spring from situations which have nothing to do with the business environment!

 

 

Resilience and Diplomacy

13/09/2018 /

In his TEDx talk titled “Why diplomats will never disappear” (TEDxBari 2015) Stefano Baldi, career diplomat, explains why diplomats maintain an important role even after many changes that have affected International relations.

Despite some “Cassandras” that have in the past foreseen the end of Diplomacy, the activities performed by diplomats continue to be particularly relevant. Diplomats have always shown a great adaptability to new tools and to changing conditions.

Stefano Baldi at TEDxBari – Why diplomats will never disappear from Stefano Baldi on Vimeo.

 

5 steps to “Thinking in New Boxes”

25/07/2018 /

We have all been told that thinking outside-the-box is often the secret to finding resolutive solutions to our problems. In a world that seems to be evolving faster and faster, it is imperative that we find ways to adapt ourselves and our businesses to new circumstances and new challenges.

But due to the way our mind works, it is often harder than expected to actually think out of the box. First of all, what box are we talking about? And second of all, if we get out of that box, where are we supposed to go.

This is precisely the problem that Alain Iny, BCG Associate Director, and Luc De Brabandere, BCG Senior Advisor, address in their book “Thinking in New Boxes: A New Paradigm for Business Creativity”.

They propose a new form of strategic creativity, which they defined “thinking in new boxes”, that helps people tap into their creativity while being sure of addressing the right questions.

We must come up with many new boxes, and then choose the most appropriate one to solve our problem.

The authors outline a 5-step approach to thinking in new boxes:

  1. Doubt Everything – Challenge your current perspectives. The way you are thinking right now could be preventing you from developing new solutions.
  2. Probe the possible – Maintain self-awareness while re-examining the world around you. Explore all options and be conscious of what is happening within and outside your environment.
  3. Diverge – Generate many new and exciting things, even if they seem absurd and opposing. Jot down even those ideas which are unpopular and unattractive. But always keep in the back of your mind the framed question that you began with.
  4. Converge – Evaluate and select the ideas that will drive breakthrough results.
  5. Reevaluate – No idea is a good idea forever. Embrace the change. Always reevaluate, relentlessly.

 

If you wish to learn more you can:

  • Watch Alain Iny’s TED talk: 

 

  • Watch Luc De Brabandere’s TED talk:

 

MindMapping to learn better

11/07/2018 /

Mind Maps are a tool introduced by Tony Buzan which help organize our thoughts and ideas through key words in a hierarchical yet creative manner. Mind maps can be used for anything from studying, to tackling problems, to making decisions and even preparing for our next job meeting.

Here are the main steps to creating a mind map:

  1. Take a blank piece of paper and place it horizontally
  2. Write the core concept you wish to analyze
  3. Add branches which represent the main ideas which are linked to that concept
  4. Each branch can have further branches stemming from it
  5. Lines representing the branches should be thinner as you get further away from the central point
  6. Be creative: use colors, use curvy lines, use images which help evoke certain ideas
  7. DO NOT FOLLOW A LINEAR PATH: you can go back to branches and add or subtract as you wish

Most important of all, find your own mind mapping style. In order to make ourselves be understood by others, we must find our voice!

 

Here are two TED talks on Mindmaps:

 

 

 

If you want to learn more about mind mapping, you should check out these previous articles:

The Ultimate Book of Mind Maps (part 1)

The Ultimate Book of Mind Maps (part 2): the success formula

 

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