“It’s my belief that trust is the foundation for everything we do,” says Harvard Business School professor Frances Frei, “and that if we can learn to trust on another more, we can have unprecedented human progress.” What to do, then, when trust is broken? In companies, there are many reasons that a rupture can happen. […]
The Brightline Initiative helps executives implement ambitious ideas from business strategies, so it’s only fitting that the nonprofit group was onsite taking notes and holding brainstorms at TEDGlobal 2017 in Arusha, Tanzania. With the theme “Builders. Truth-Tellers. Catalysts.,” TEDGlobal was a celebration of doers and thinkers, including more than 70 speakers who’ve started companies, nonprofits, education […]
Every year at TEDWomen, we gather to talk about issues that matter, to learn and bond and get energized. This year, we will be reconvening on November 1–3 in New Orleans — and we would love for you, and your amazing perspective and ideas, to join us and become part of this diverse, welcoming group that’s growing […]
When great minds meet, everybody benefits. So, when meetings are good, they’re great. But if they’re bad (as most office meetings are, be honest with yourself), they’re anything but beneficial. You may say to yourself, or quietly argue to this article during your sad desk lunch: “But I am doing work. I’m sitting and talking […]
Picture this: Three kids are given a LEGO set with the pieces to build a fire department. All of them want to build as many new toys as possible. The first kid goes straight for the easy wins. He puts a tiny red hat on a tiny minifig: presto, a firefighter! In this way, he […]
The future is built by those who see opportunities for change and act on them. At TED@BCG — the latest TED Institute event, held on May 18, 2016, at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris — speakers explored what it means to transform boldly. In three sessions of talks, curated and hosted by TED’s Editorial […]
How exactly do you ship fragile dinosaur bones? Or move a 12.5-ton locomotive through the air? And what are all the little things that have to happen to get relief supplies delivered when and where they’re needed? Employees at UPS think about these kinds of challenges all the time. It’s why the theme, “Think. Solve, Do.,” […]
It’s a few months after graduation, which means the luckiest new college grads are knee-deep into internships and entry-level jobs. How to stand out? Business writer Margaret Heffernan suggests: Start by taking a coffee break with your coworkers. Companies grow best, she suggests, when workers are connected by social bonds. Heffernan’s TED Book, Beyond Measure: […]
Growth is usually a good thing. For a person, it means more wisdom; for a business, it means more profit; for a country, it means increased prosperity. But growth has a darker side too: aging, a sense of impersonality, waste and pollution. At TED@BCG — the latest TED Institute event, held on June 30, 2015, […]
Nature and investing. On the surface, these things do not sound like they have a lot to do with each other. But to TEDster Katherine Collins, the two are intrinsically linked. After 18 years at Fidelity Investments, and while enrolled at Harvard Divinity School to try to figure out what to do next, Collins found […]
From anti-jargon campaigns to how Gen X and Gen Y can collaborate, TED@StateStreet highlighted ideas to inspire leaders at every level. This TED Institute event, held in London on November 18, showcased speakers from both inside and outside the financial services company. Throughout, the focus was on innovative thinking in work culture. Below, quotes worth […]
Cocktail party trivia: Brainstorming was invented in the 1930s as a practical idea-generation technique for regular use by “creatives” within the ad agency BBDO. That all changed in 1942, when Alex Osborn — the “O” in BBDO — released a book called How to Think Up and excited the imaginations of his fellow Mad Men. […]
Tuesday morning in the former East Berlin, the midcentury Kosmos cinema hummed with new ideas on business, technology and self, at an event called TED@BCG. The event was produced by TED Institute, a project that embeds within organizations and companies to help employees develop their ideas. Six hundred TEDsters, BCG’ers and guests filled the main hall […]
One morning, as Anna Koukkides-Procopiou was rushing out of her house on the way to the office, her daughter said, “Mommy, I want you here. Why don’t you want me?” This set off a long period of contemplation, and eight months later, she left the business world and reinvented herself as an activist — and […]
For many, the words “professional development” conjure up memories of sitting in a human resources office, watching a series of awkward training videos and then taking a mandatory quiz. The TED Distribution Team realized: it doesn’t need to be this way. Earlier this year, they started to think about how companies could use TED Talks […]
In 2009, Simon Sinek gave the talk “How great leaders inspire action” to an audience of 50 people in a small room at TEDxPugetSound. It quickly became the second most-watched talk on TED.com. Sinek, of course, felt honored by the growing popularity of his talk—and by the opportunity to inspire people to think more deeply about […]