Category: Video
Jennifer Senior: For parents, happiness is a very high bar (TED Talk)
This talk shares Jennifer Senior’s thoughts on emotional ups and downs of being a parent. This touches on our YCISL framework where part of our objective is to deliver messages via proxy that are often filtered in direct parent-child communication.
Jennifer Senior introduces herself as the mother of a 6 year old. She advances thoughts specifically about feelings of anxiety that overcome parents. It is unfortunate that she positions this situation as a crisis – signs of a fixed mindset as opposed to a growth mindset. With a growth mindset, she might perceive the situation from a more positive standpoint. Consequently, she might understand that this is a learning experience and with a love for life-long learning, she will find intrinsic motivation (remember Daniel Pink’s mastery, autonomy and purpose?) which might make this responsibility less inconvenient.
There is no single correct interpretation of this situation. I am confident approximately half of ALL parents (regardless of class, culture and means) feel that they are in varying degrees of a crisis or close to it – the cohort that this speaker has identified. But that is to say that there is another half that is finding sensibility, fulfillment and unparalleled joy, and want more! Having and raising children is the ultimate life experience, and one should not expect a categorically unified experience for all parents. There is no comparison to the “stress” level of non-parents – an apple and oranges comparison.
To borrow a thought from another TED Talk title “Should you live for your résumé … or your eulogy?” by David Brooks: parenting should not be judged by day-to-day results but the outcome with which the parent will be remembered. It is the long-term effect of communication and active listening that makes parenting so vital and distinctive. We emphasize this through our YCISL program. Parenting is a leadership role where KI + EI = LI is as relevant as anywhere else.
Angela Lee Duckworth: The key to success? Grit (TEDTalk)
Like most of the TEDTalk videos that I feel worth saving remarks on in this wiki, the one presented by Angela Lee Duckworth (currently Associate Professor at UPenn) titled “The key to success? Grit” is very thought provoking and warranted being viewed several times – mainly because the causation-correlation relationship was quite fuzzy, albeit interesting. How synonymous are “grit” and “growth mindset”? To put it in terms I have used in other circumstances, “grit” describes the way someone achieves (ie, process) while “growth mindset” describes the condition or state in a particular node. Thus “grit” is a great observation highlighted by Prof Duckworth but it certainly is not the only way. With this in mind, I wonder whether “grit” is the best way – that is, should educators make focused and extraordinary effort to promote “grit”? Or are there better processes to highlight to students given the limited opportunity to have such concepts be embraced and embodied. Duckworth also mentions IQ (several times), social intelligence, good looks, and physical health – some which can be encouraged and others not.
Duckworth describes grit as “passion and perseverance for very long-term goals…having stamina…living life like it’s a marathon.” She also mentions her grit questionnaires (I just tried her online questionnaire) which leads me to think that “grit” is intended to be a catchy catchphrase and what she really is studying is determination and focus (yeah, sounds plain). If so, we need to recognize the headwinds of limited long-term outlook (see http://geert-hofstede.com/united-states.html for the current US score) and shortening-attention spans which are already short. Perhaps there are lessons in sports that can be transferred to classroom learning because we often hear about “grit” in the former.
Is grit the most likely solution to education’s aim to be perfect? Most likely not. It is perhaps a band-aid that provides hope while we search and experiment for more structural progress. The question remains whether the content-teaching-assessment framework will evolve (so far, it has been broadly digressing under the weight of greater competitiveness) and standards become more “human.”
Another “problem” (in quotes as I think this is not a deal breaker but actually a challenge to address) is how to make “grit” an actionable item for parents. Focus and determination are largely played out and influenced outside of school. We also recognize that parent negativity plays a significant role in diluting this positive grit trait.
Would I mention “grit” in a YCISL workshop? I think it would be too challenging to get it understood on a personal level – especially with an Asian group of students. It may be interesting to have the students try the grit questionnaire and see if a group discussion on personal enlightenment can ensue.
Richard St. John: 8 secrets of success (TED Talk)
[I discovered this TED Talk from its mention in “How to Deliver a TED Talk” by Jeremey Donovan] In his 2005 TED Talk “8 Secrets of Success,” Richard St. John summarizes what he has discovered when looking into what leads to success and presents his framework of “the eight traits successful people have in common.”
Specifically, the traits include: Passion, Work, Focus, Push, Ideas, Improve, Serve, Persist.
These were filtered from St John’s interviews with many “successful” people and serve as a good platform for discussing “success.” I believe there are similar studies done with youth as well. However, these all required that success be pre-defined in order to scope the pool of people to interview.
I am also reminded of Shawn Achor’s point that Happiness should be placed before success so that happiness is ensured as a result of being successful. Actually, St John touches on a similar point in his second TED Talk “Success is a Continuous Journey” from 2009.
Therefore, something more captivating might be learning about the eight traits that happy AND successful people have in common.
As an extension (and if this were something brought into the YCISL program), we should also look at extrinsic factors and perhaps even consider a pre-disposition to reach levels of happiness and success together. In YCISL, we already consider how family, community and environment affects the support one feels while striving for happiness and success.
Video is at http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_st_john_s_8_secrets_of_success.html.
Additional information can be found at http://www.richardstjohn.com.
YCISL Informational Video + 6 Take-Home Messages
Today, I produced a short 2-minute video, mostly based on PowerPoint slides, that provides a high-level overview of the YCISL program’s rationale and themes.
http://www.stanford.edu/group/sdgc/ycisl/movieycislinfo2012.html
I also revived a previous PowerPoint slide set that was also intended as a short video describing the six take-home messages of the YCISL workshop. This has been posted as a slideshow…
Seth Godin: Standing Out (TED2003)
In this TED Talk, Seth Godin ponders “idea diffusion” – the way that ideas spread and become successful products. He described how the TV advertisement-driven idea complex (mass marketing, “average products for average people”) has faded and is being taken over by creating “remarkable” products (from remarkable ideas, of course) and to “market” to the segment of the market containing innovators and early adopters. In this talk, Godin provides numerous humorous examples that get his point across – most notably including the purple cow, the Water Salad from Japan, and the town-center 55-foot high lava lamp in Soap Lake, WA.
His points about “idea diffusion” and “being remarkable” are extendable to youth creativity (although his examples are drawn from marketing and tend to be adult-oriented where success is measured by profits). In a culture where idea flow is usually from adult-to-student or parent-to-child, it is useful to promote the strategic concepts of “idea diffusion” and “being remarkable” to enable reverse flow and to be heard. It is also likely that these concepts already exist in the youth context (ie, from youth-to-youth), albeit in low volume, and it could be applied youth-to-adult as well. Raising the volume in the youth-to-youth (shall we call this Y2Y?) context would be consistent with the YCISL lessons, and we could look for opportunities and appropriate ways to accomplish this.
The video: http://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_sliced_bread.html
Seth Godin web site: http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/
There’s another Seth Godin video, this time from TED2009, at http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead.html titled “The Tribes We Lead.” In the latter part of this talk, Godin says “You don’t need permission from people to lead them” and “They’re waiting, we’re waiting for you to show us where to go next.” He also says that “Being a leader gives you charisma.” These are powerful and persuasive notions, and are worth exploring in the YCIS context.
Sunni Brown: Doodlers, Unite! (TED Talk 2011)
Just watched the TED Talk video by Sunni Brown (one of the authors of the book “Gamestorming”) about the benefits of doodling. They key point is that it helps retention and promotes creative thinking. According to Brown, this is an instinct that gets suppressed with age (social pressure) – sound familiar? This somewhat relates to the face-sketching and Lego Design-Build exercises we already have, but I think we could come up with a true doodling exercise to fit into our YCISL program. Specifically, we should encourage students to doodle (sketch) while listening to something (possibly unrelated). One idea is to have them doodle while listening to a TED Talk video. I would like to have them possibly sketch a map of their Stanford tour, then while listening to something else have them doodle on their map – in the hopes of creative embellishment of the map.
TED Talk Video: http://www.ted.com/talks/sunni_brown.html
Sunni Brown web site: http://sunnibrown.com/
Rory Sutherland: Sweat the small stuff (TED Talk)
This is the second TED Talk by Rory Sutherland I have seen. One of the key points is that those who are focused on the “strategy” (ie, the large, expensive stuff) tend to forget the details – partly because it is beneath them to work on the details. The result then is (often) that grand solutions are created that do not work. I particularly like his simple graphic that places “Stuff that costs a lot of money” vs “Stuff that has a big effect.” His main point is that not enough attention is given to the quadrant that is high on “Stuff that has a big effect” and low on “Stuff that costs a lot of money”, and that this poses a lost opportunity. In general (and what is signified by the quadrant large in both these aspects), large organizations look for large projects that depend on large projects – but they don’t bother with the details ending up with wasted effort. Then there are the large budget things with little impact – consultancy. He argues that we need to dedicate more energy to low cost-big effect quadrant.
Just how does this mesh with the YCISL? Actually, low cost-big effect is the perfect focal point for youth [How many youth have large budgets?] Not having had a big budget project previously is an advantage that youth have large claim to, and youth in general have not yet learned to spend on a big budget. If we focus youth creativity, we can increase the chances of reaching a big effect without the big budget.
This video: http://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_sweat_the_small_stuff.html
Previous video: http://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_life_lessons_from_an_ad_man.html
TEDTalk: Tim Brown on creativity and play
Some great exercises to delve into creativity in a playful manner. I think the “draw your neighbor” and “30 circles” exercises are fun and easy.
The Finger Blaster is something I could perhaps design an exercise for.
Tim Brown is the CEO of innovation and design firm IDEO, taking an approach to design that digs deeper than the surface. Having taken over from founder David E. Kelley, Tim Brown carries forward the firm’s mission of fusing design, business and social studies to come up with deeply researched, deeply understood designs and ideas — they call it “design thinking.”
Imagine it! – Post-It Challenge
Here’s a video documenting an exercise presented by Tina Seelig (Executive Director, STVP, Stanford). This is an example of one of the creativity/entrepreneurship team challenges that Dr. Seelig poses to students in her class at Stanford. You can find a broader description of the challenges in Chapter 1 Buy One, Get Two Free of her book “What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20.”
