Work: Notes from Session 3 of TEDNext 2024

Session 3 of TEDNext 2024 is all about work, featuring innovators who challenge us to think about work in new and compelling ways. They provide practical tools to navigate an ever-evolving career landscape as well as insights into avoiding burnout, working through crisis and re-evaluating the role that work plays in our lives.

The event: Talks from Session 3 of TEDNext 2024, hosted by TED’s Rachell Morris

When and where: Wednesday, October 23, 2024, at Pullman Yards in Atlanta, Georgia

Speakers: Kat Cole, Tarveen Forrester, Avani Prabhakar, Molly Graham, Dundee Gouin, Meredith Wilson Parfet, Simone Stolzoff

Watch TEDNext 2024 on TED Live, check out more photos from the event and learn more about attending a future TED conference

The talks in brief:

In a career that’s seen her go from waitress to CEO of global health company AG1, Kat Cole has discovered a key strategy for effective, forward-thinking leadership — a technique that helps her take decisive action, ignoring historical baggage and sunk costs. She calls it the “Hot Shot Rule.” It goes like this: imagine a corporate hotshot steps into your role tomorrow. What improvements would they make on day one? And which one of those can you take on right now?

Setting boundaries is easier said than done, but Tarveen Forrester, VP of people at Kickstarter, explains why doing so is essential to avoiding burnout. By communicating clearly and setting non-negotiables — whether it’s a self-care routine, 10 minutes of piano in the evening or a child’s baseball game — we can more sustainably pursue our goals.

Employees are more productive if we let them choose when and where to work, says Avani Prabhakar, chief people officer at Atlassian. She shares how, by shifting to a distributed work model (with 12,000 employees across 14 countries), her company has helped to unlock potential.

Careers today are made not by climbing stairs but by jumping off cliffs, says Molly Graham, head of The Glue Club, a community of startup leaders scaling companies. The changing nature of work rewards risk-takers, so if you’re not risking failure, Graham says, you’re doing something wrong.

There’s a famous saying: “The best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago; the second-best time is now.” Dundee Gouin of Northwestern Mutual shares five foundational tips for how to manage your wealth effectively and prepare for the unexpected.

Grief is inevitable. But as harrowing as loss can be, crisis presents unique opportunities for personal growth, helping leaders to hone their empathy and self-awareness, says Meredith Wilson Parfet of crisis management consultancy Ravenyard Group. For this growth to occur, however, we must first acknowledge that grief is grief — whether at home or in the workplace.

Work-life balance is not just about setting boundaries or knowing when to put down the phone — it’s about identifying as more than just a job. To truly achieve balance in our lives, writer and work-life expert Simone Stolzoff says we must seek out richer and more capacious ways of defining ourselves.

Watch TEDNext 2024 on TED Live, check out more photos from the event and learn more about attending a future TED conference