The day I was about to become a TED speaker

Winning has a value for ego, but participation has a value for life. Debasish Mridha

---

A few months ago, the company I work for informed us about the chance of hosting a TEDx event, so we were asked to suggest potential speakers (or summit our own candidature if applicable) who could take part in a TEDx event.

I started watching TED talks many years ago, firstly as a tool to learn English and later on as a source of inspiration and knowledge, so I had no doubt that I wanted to get involved on it. Based on my research on knowledge management and its impact on innovation, I put myself forward.

After a few weeks the name of some of the speakers were released. One of the first ones was Counternay McMillan, flight Director at NASA, the second one was Kristian Myrseth, AB from Harvard and Professor in Marketing at Trinity College Dublin, the list continued: Felicia Williams (Microsoft) or Helena Morrissey (Newton Investment Management). This made me think that I did not have such a strong background as I could have thought to be selected...

Just a month before the event, I finally got some feedback on my talk: “knowledge management and its impact on innovation”, the feedback was very positive although could not reach the relevancy of the rest of the speakers. So I was informed that I would be a reserve speaker, and also given the chance to “do” my talk internally to a broad audience of colleagues. I don´t think I have never been so happy even being reserve...it´s very important to look around and realise how much effort the other speakers have put on to have the chance to share their ideas, knowledge, experiences with the rest of the people.

As a reserve speaker I attended my first TEDx event where I had the chance to interact with other speakers, share ideas and feel very inspired by their impact on our society, the below speakers were from my point of view the most inspiring ones:

Nick Francis, "Building your way out: Innovation under crisis":

Nick is an engineer with a track record delivering innovate solutions to challenging problems. He was rewarded, among other things, for his design and construction for emergency flood defences which saved the town of Romsey. He also took part in the design and construction of emergency Ebola hospitals in Sierra Leone.

Francis’s talk was about how to respond effectively to a crisis. He applies four-point crisis plan in situations under an immense pressure and stress. The first thing Francis does is to consider how his biases might be getting in the way of good decision making; secondly, he evaluates the situation and sets up objectives. The next step is a decision about how best to respond to the situation. The final stage for Francis is coming up with a solution and implementing it.

He shared two main stories and how he differently reacted following these 4 steps: on the bridge in Sierra Leone the challenge was less the design of the replacement strut, or sourcing the contractor to build it, than persuading the highways agency to approve and pay for it. On the River Test, it was all about learning from the failure of the first solution and quickly coming up with a better plan.

Felicia Williams (Microsoft) “What I learned when I was mistaken for a food critic”.

She drives cutting edge tech and design, heading up the creative vision on the recently released and critically acclaimed Microsoft HoloLens.On her talk she uses a case of mistaken identity to illustrate how rising to the challenge and talon insights from the most unexpected life lessons can unlock major potential.

Counternay McMillan “NASA: Beyond Boundaries”

She has worked as flight Director at NASA since 1996 leading several teams and taking part in over 400 shifts of ISS flight operations on her talk, she pointed out the importance of setting a common goal. In a world where complex tasks have increased is a key part to separate individual responsibilities towards a common goal and making people feel relevant within any organization. After all, what makes a good team great is the ability to focus on the common goal.