TED talks - What Makes Them So Good ?

If watching amazing presenters giving awesome presentations fascinates you, then no doubt you've already checked out some of the brilliant videos on TED.com

At this point I must admit to having a moderate to heavy obsession with watching TED videos and I'll often try starting conversations about my favourite talks with friends, family and colleagues - in fact anyone who’ll listen really. This is mainly because I am a sad fan of TED and I've done what sad fans do - deconstructed the talks in great detail - and guess what? I’ve decoded the formulas of my favourite presentations.

But before I share the formula with you I will briefly outline what it’s all about - just in case there’s anyone reading this who has not come across the TED website before.

TED is a non-profit, knowledge -sharing platform dedicated to creating a community of people committed to communicating world-changing ideas. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design and this title is reflected in the great variety of talks they host which include each of the three subjects. The talks are usually limited to around 18- 20 minutes in length and as a result are punchy and impactful. TED conferences are held around the world each year and videos of the talks are posted on the TED.com website.

So, here are some of my findings:

1. TED Talks tell a story. Preferably personal with a message people could apply to their own lives.

2. They end as powerfully as they begin so they leave a 'lasting' impression.

3. They tell us something fresh, new, and unique about a subject.

4. They approach their subject from an innovative perspective.

5. They don’t try to 'sell' us a story, they engage us in a story.

6. The content is rigorously structured with a focus on brevity, clarity and impact.

7. The message is usually contagious and could easily go viral.


8. They are always tailored to the audience in style, tone and form.

9. The presenter has thoroughly rehearsed the delivery – This results in a fluid, natural and confident voice tone, body language, stagecraft, ease in handling props and working with PowerPoint.

10. They often have a key phrase that we remember.

Obviously not every talk has all 10 of the qualities listed here but next time you watch the TED videos notice how many apply to the best of them.

If you are thinking of designing and delivering your own talk at a TED conference then you'll probably receive the TED COMMANDMENTS.

And here they are:

Thou Shalt Not Simply Trot Out thy Usual Shtick.

Thou Shalt Dream a Great Dream, or Show Forth a Wondrous New Thing, Or Share Something Thou Hast Never Shared Before.

Thou Shalt Reveal thy Curiosity and Thy Passion.

Thou Shalt Tell a Story.

Thou Shalt Freely Comment on the Utterances of Other Speakers for the Sake of Blessed Connection and Exquisite Controversy.

Thou Shalt Not Flaunt thine Ego.

Be Thou Vulnerable. Speak of thy Failure as well as thy Success.

Thou Shalt Not Sell from the Stage: Neither thy Company, thy Goods, thy Writings, nor thy Desperate need for Funding; Lest Thou be Cast Aside into Outer Darkness.

Thou Shalt Remember all the while: Laughter is Good.

Thou Shalt Not Read thy Speech.

Thou Shalt Not Steal the Time of Them that Follow Thee

Finally, here is a list of the top 5 most viewed talks on TED for you to enjoy, and study for yourself:

Sir Ken Robinson - Schools kill creativity: 8,660,010 views
Jill Bolte Taylor - Stroke of insight: 8,087,935
Pranav Mistry - The thrilling potential of SixthSense: 6,747,410
Tony Robbins - Why we what we do: 4,909,505
Hans Rosling - The best stats you’ve ever seen: 3,954,776

I’d love to hear about your favourite TED talks and any top presenting tips you’ve discovered from watching the presentations, so do leave me a comment.

Happy TEDing!

Tom

Conformity vs Creativity - Is There A Gap?

Imagine a world where creativity is dying out. A time when we leave creative thinking to machines. When humans are just entranced, lardy skin bags full of offal sat in front of a bank of TV monitors neuronally connected to a computer terminal. Inhaling information and products like a crustacean scouring the ocean floor for plankton and mollusks.

Latest research out of Stanford University by Gerald Crabtree suggests that humans are becoming dumb to dumber rather than evolving super brains because our relatively safe, sanitized, civilized world has taken away the stress of Darwinian competition. This means our brains were much sharper when we were hunting the woolly Mammoth and gathering the mixed fruits and berries.

And yet a survey of 5,000 people across the US, UK, Germany France and Japan revealed that four out of five believe that economic growth in the 21st century will depend on our ability to unlock our personal creativity. But only a quarter of the people surveyed believe they are reaching their own creative potential at work.

So why is this happening? Why aren't people fulfilling their creative potential?

Apparently people feel under too much pressure to conform. To be productive and increase performance while maintaining the parameters of standardisation. In other words the people surveyed felt they were expected to prioritise conformity over creativity while there is still an expectation by business leaders that they should think creatively and come up with innovative solutions to problems. A clear case of cognitive dissonance.

50% of the people surveyed also said that the biggest barrier to thinking creatively was time. They are just too busy ensuring they attend to tasks that maintain profitability. So, what's the solution?

First let's flip this thought on it's head.

If time was the only barrier between you and increased profitability for you business wouldn't you try to find some extra time?

It follows then that if developing a higher capacity for creative thinking is vital for surviving the shifting sands of today's unpredictable market place it might be worth asking yourself this question.

Is there a gap between what you feel, think, say and do to produce the results required of you and what you feel, think, say and do to come up with innovative solutions?

If there is then where might you find some extra time to start exercising your creative thinking muscle?

Once you've worked that out you might like to try these 5 creative muscle builders:

1. Challenge some Assumptions - Have a long hard think and identify assumptions that you make day to day that both hinder and help you achieve success at work.

2. The Lotus Blossom Technique - Follow this LINKfor a cool creative thinking technique.

3. Random Word Technique - Define a problem then pick a random word. Now force an association between the word and the problem. For example your problem might be how to liven up your journey to work. The random word could be 'Frog'. List how many ways Frogs can move around. Hopping, swimming, crawling, floating on a Lilipad etc. How might you apply these ideas to come up with a more interesting route to work?

4. Polar Response - Look at your problem and create a list of ways you could make the problem worse. Sometimes a solution will emerge that you might not have thought of by thinking only about taking positive actions.

5. The See, Hear, Feel and Touch exercise. This is purely about developing your imagination by using your senses. Take a few minutes in the day to imagine an object that is personal to you. Using visualisation get a sense of how it feels to touch, it's weight and temperature. How it looks, how it smells and even how it sounds as you hold an image of the object in your mind.

So even though there's no wooly Mammoth left to chase and you've got used to grabbing a bag of mixed fruit and berries from ASDA, by practicing the exercises above for just 21 days you could start increasing the creative thinking capacity of your brain and help to close the gap between conformity and creativity.

Okay then?...Pass the remote!