In a “Keep Learning” World, TED is Custom Made for those Life-long Learners

Last Saturday, I had the privilege of attending TEDxSMU (thanks to a generous, unexpected gift from a First Friday Book Synopsis regular.  Thanks, Dan).  It was our “local” version of the TED conference, held each spring, and now viewed by millions (literally! millions!) of people online.  Click here – (a good place to start – with the “most viewed”).  But, trust me, there are so many great presentations.

This year, for the first time, they are awarding the TED Prize not to a person, but to an idea — the City 2.0.  From their announcement:

About the TED Prize
The TED Prize is designed to leverage the TED community’s exceptional array of talent and resources. It is awarded annually to an exceptional individual who receives $100,000 and, much more important, “One Wish to Change the World.” After several months of preparation, s/he unveils his/her wish at an award ceremony held during the TED Conference. These wishes have led to collaborative initiatives with far-reaching impact.
We work closely with the TED community, off- and online, to obtain pledges of support for the TED Prize winners. These pledges can take the form of business services, hardware and software, publicity, infrastructure, advice, connections, feet on the ground and more. This is in addition to the funding and support from the Sapling Foundation and TED staff.

About TED
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.
The TED Conference, held annually in the spring, is the heart of TED. More than a thousand people now attend, the event sells out a year in advance, and the content has expanded to include science, business, the arts and the global issues facing our world. Over four days, 50 speakers each take an 18-minute slot, and there are many shorter pieces of content, including music, performance and comedy. There are no breakout groups. Everyone shares the same experience. It shouldn’t work, but it does. It works because all of knowledge is connected. Every so often it makes sense to emerge from the trenches we dig for a living, and ascend to a 30,000-foot view, where we see, to our astonishment, an intricately interconnected whole.

Notice this phrase:

It shouldn’t work, but it does. It works because all of knowledge is connected.

The Carole and Jim Young Fellows

Yes, all knowledge is connected, and there are people who are champions of connecting people to that knowledge.  Here in Dallas, we can point to Carole and Jim Young.  Regulars at, and cheerleaders for, our First Friday Book Synopsis, they sat on the floor at lunch with their “Carole and Jim Young Fellows” at the TEDxSMU conference.  I sat with them, and was immersed in stimulating conversation with two very sharp young minds.  (Read about this, and the remarkable group, here).  What an impressive, solid group of young adults.  (And there are rumors that Jim and Carole hosted a few of these folks, and shared their well-stocked freezer full of ice cream.  I’ve also heard rumors that the ice cream is Graeter’s.  Now this is how people get spoiled!)

But TED is all about the learning, and the networking, and you will find few lifelong learners, or few connectors, to rival Carole and Jim Young.  Their commitment to this life long quest, to keep learning, is clearly what drives them to be involved in such efforts as TED.  (By the way, their daughter, Kelly Stoetzel, served as host, and serves as the TED Content Director).

Carole and Jim in their natural state: enjoying life together, nametags on, at some conference...

As for the conference itself, well, it was a wonder.  Wonderful presentations, great music, terrific networking.

Yes, TED is a place for you, and me, to learn so much.  I am still amazed when I run into people who have not yet discovered the videos from the TED site.  So, if you are one of those, head on over.  There are many I could recommend as your “first’ video, but at this moment it is this one, by Chris Anderson, the curator of TED:
Chris Anderson: How web video powers global innovation

There is so much to learn, and the resources are waiting for us all.

First, the Plan – then the Execution

“If you don’t want to go to Plan B, have a good Plan A.” 
Alex, on Nikita

“I love it when a plan comes together.”
Colonel Jon “Hannibal” Smith, The A-Team

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From Tim Berry, What Makes a Good Plan?

Here’s Chapter Eight of Toy Box Leadership:  Leadership Lessons from the Toys You Loved as a Child by Ron Hunter Jr. & Michael E. Waddell:

Little Green Army Men — Strategy:  Success is in the Setup

Success is in the setup…

Have you planned your day?  Do you know what you are going to do today.  With each hour of the day?  With each quarter hour of each hour?

What about your week?  Do you know what you are going to do with your week?  Each day of the week?  Each hour of each day?  Each…

Do you what what you are going to do with your month?

Are you beginning to get the picture?  You will get more done the better you plan.  Oh, the plan might have to be adjusted.  But, to quote again this great wisdom from Dwight Eisenhower:

Plans are nothing; planning is everything.

There is a reason that the old wisdom endures.  “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail…” is a piece of that old wisdom.  And it is still, and will always, be, true.

Setup – plan. Then work your plan.

Call this strategy, then execution. 

So, how good a planner are you?

Steve Jobs, and the latest from Steven Covey – for the January, 2012 First Friday Book Synopsis

We will launch the 2012 First Friday Book Synopsis with the Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs, my selection for January.  I am well into the biography, and it is, as all good biographies are, a terrific look into the life and times of Steve Jobs.  Where did he come from?  It is impossible to understand just what he accomplished, and especially how he accomplished it, without understanding where he came from.  I am, to put it simply, gripped by this story.

Karl will present his synopsis of the new Steven Covey book, The 3rd Alternative: Solving Life’s Most Difficult Problems.  Covey is best known for his The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

If you are in the DFW area, please join us for our January 6 First Friday book Synopsis.  You will be able to register from the home page of this web site soon.

 

 

 

 

 

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Here is a flier with all the details:

Click for full image