How the power of attention changes everything | Jeff Klein | TEDxGrandRapids

Paying attention is the key to transforming our connections to ourselves, each other and the planet.

Working with the principles of conscious capitalism, Jeff Klein, CEO of Working For Good, leads marketing and business development campaigns. He also serves as executive director of the Baumann Foundation and director of marketing & business development for Conscious Capitalism, Inc.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx.

Good afternoon. Welcome back.

What an awesome day.

What an awesome community.

Seven years ago,
life was a bit intense for me.

I had just become a full-time single dad -

no small thing -

and I was also deeply immersed

in the beginning of what we now call
the conscious capitalism movement.

My eight-year-old daughter Meryl Faye
and I were living with friends,

and I was doing my best to juggle it all.

One day, I was getting ready
to run out, run some errands,

and I barked, "Meryl Faye, let's go,"

and I started moving,

and I realized that she wasn't.

"Meryl Faye, come on, let's go right now."

And she just stood there, like a statue.

"What are you doing?
Come on, we've got to go now."

"Dad, if you want me to move,
you have to connect with me first."

(Laughter)

Swear to God.

Yeah, you can imagine how I felt, right?

So I got down on one knee
so I could be eye-to-eye with her:

"Oh my gosh, you are so right.

I am so sorry.

You know, I'm a bit stressed out
and overwhelmed.

I've got so much to do.

I really need your support ... "

"Okay, let's go." And away we went.

(Laughter)

So as much as Meryl Faye was saying,

"Connect with me, Dad,"

she was also saying,

"Wake up, Dad. Pay attention."

And when I shifted, you know, my attention
from all that was going up here

and moved it to her,

we connected.

And from that connection, we could move.

It was an instant lesson
in the power of connection,

the power of attention
to foster connection.

This simple and not always easy, mind you,

this simple act of paying attention
is the key to connection:

connection with ourselves,

connection to others

and connections to the possibility
of transforming our relationship

with the world.

Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl said,

"Between stimulus and response,
there is a space.

In this space lies our freedom and power
to choose our response,

and in our response
lies our growth and freedom."

Attention is an incredibly powerful force.

It allows us to recognize what's going on
and what we do with it.

And attention can liberate us
from great burdens.

An example:

nicotine is as addictive
as cocaine and heroin,

and as a consequence,

lung cancer kills more people every year

than the next three most common
forms of cancer combined.

Astounding.

I recently attended a presentation
by Dr. Judson Brewer,

who has developed
a mindfulness-based program at Yale

to help people quit smoking.

Dr. Brewer's program begins
by asking smokers

to pay exquisite attention
to the entire experience of smoking -

notice all of the sensations -

and when they do this,
when they pay really close attention,

they get past the initial rush and calm

and they notice the chemical taste
of the cigarette,

the burning sensation in their lungs

and the foul aftertaste.

As ongoing practice,

Dr. Brewer's program
employs a four-step process

with the acronym of RAIN, R - A - I - N.

R - recognize the craving:

"I'm craving, craving a cigarette."

Second, A - accept it, let it be okay:

"It's just craving."

Third, I - investigate,

investigate the sensations in your body
related to that craving,

and N, note, moment to moment,
how those sensations change and move.

And this simple process
of paying attention

has proven to be twice as effective

as the American Lung Association's
equivalent program.

Between stimulus and response,

the power of attention can overcome
the greatest of addictions.

Something has our attention
in every moment, right?

Take this moment for instance.

What has your attention?

Hopefully, it's this presentation
and what I'm saying,

but it could be your lunch
or the person sitting next to you.

Just note what has your attention.

I start every meeting that I facilitate
with a check-in round

in which everyone in the meeting,
in turn, addresses the question,

What has your attention in this moment?

What are you bringing with you?

And this simple process
of paying attention

clears the static in the room

and allows everyone to really arrive
and be present and connect.

So I'll use this as a segue
into the question

of how paying attention
fosters connection between people, right?

I was lucky that Meryl Faye
gave me that wake-up call,

which I might add,
at 15, she continues to do -

whether I deserve it
or need it or not, right?

But we're not always so lucky.

Many of us make demands on other people
and expect them to respond immediately,

without any consideration
for what they might be doing.

Anyone ever do that?

"I don't do that anymore" - couple hands.

And we do this all the time.

We make demands;
we expect them to respond.

And in the workplace,
at home and everywhere,

it leads to disengagement

and missed opportunities
for connection and collaboration.

So how does paying attention
foster connection between people?

Well, let's do a little exercise.

Imagine, for a moment,

that you're in a conversation
with someone who really loves you.

Just do that. Imagine. Feel them.

Could be your parent
or your best friend or your spouse -

somebody who really loves you.

And you're sharing something with them

that you're passionate about
or really concerned about,

and they are paying
total attention to you.

You can feel the love and care
coming off of them.

How does that feel?

It feels good, doesn't it?

And why does it feel good?

Because they're paying attention to you.

You feel connected.

Now, let's change the slate
and imagine another scenario.

You're at a cocktail party

in a casual conversation
with someone you just met,

and they are looking around the room

to see if there's anyone
they notice - right? -

checking their cellphone,

not really paying attention to you.

How does that feel?

Not very connected is it?

When we give our full attention
and when we receive someone's attention,

we feel connected,

and the opposite is equally true.

Paying attention deepens our experience
of connection with others.

We humans are a clever species.

We have essentially created our own world
within the natural world.

Yet everything we do ripples out
and affects the broader world.

As John Muir said,

"When we tug at a single thing in nature,
we find it connected to everything else."

As part of our quest to elevate,

continually elevate and enhance
the quality of our lives,

we humans create
10,000 new molecules a year.

That's 10,000 molecules that show up
in thousands of products.

Yet we rarely test these new molecules

for their toxicity.

We release them into the world

without knowing if or how
they cause harm to us

or other forms of life.

And they often do.

Remember Erin Brockovich, anyone?

Julia Roberts - right? -
played her in the movie.

Well, she uncovered and publicized
a highly toxic chemical compound

called hexavalent chromium,

but it continued to be used
even after she publicized it.

Around 20 years ago,
an entrepreneur named Bob Galanis

set out to replace hex chrome

in the priming of aircraft
before they were painted -

so they would put on a primer
that had hex chrome,

and then they would paint the aircraft.

Big application.

I mean, aircrafts are big,
and there are lots of them, right?

So Bob was making great progress
when he unexpectedly died.

His daughter Laura,

who at the time was
an elementary school teacher,

mother of two small children,

with no business experience,
no chemistry experience,

decided to take up her father's torch
and pursue this mission.

Laura took on the daunting task

of gaining acceptance
for their new product

from the aerospace industry.

After about a decade of ongoing battles

against deep-seated beliefs,
long-standing relationships,

archaic technical specifications,

Laura and her company,
Pantheon Enterprises, prevailed,

and their product PreKote is now used
by almost every US commercial airliner,

and it's used on US military aircraft.

And as a consequence,

millions of pounds
of the highly toxic hex chrome

are no longer released
into our air, our soil and water,

and workers aren't exposed
to its highly carcinogenic effects,

and they don't take the residue home
on their boots and clothes

and contaminate their families.

No small thing, right?

Two keys to Laura's success.

One - she recognized
that if the users took into account

increased water costs,

environmental permit fees,
hazardous material handling fees

and other indirect but very real costs,

that not only was PreKote more effective
than the hex-chromed-based product,

which it is proven to be,

and nontoxic,

but it also costs less to use.

The second one,
and perhaps more important,

is that Laura recognized
that the true costs of hex chrome

included the effects on the health
and well-being of people and planet.

The point of this story?

We can recognize that everything
is connected to everything else.

We can recognize
the full effects of our actions,

and we can discover effective ways
for doing things differently.

And doing things differently
through business

is not just about the products we create.

It's also about the way
we work together, right?

What is business?

At lunch, we had an awesome conversation.

I love Grand Rapids. You guys are great!

(Applause)

Yeah. Really. Let's hear it.

Really alive and thoughtful.

So what is business?

Business is people, right?

People coming together
to do something together,

to create value for themselves,
for others and for each other.

It's not a coincidence

that Southwest Airlines
and JetBlue Airways

are consistently the most successful

and have the highest
customer satisfaction.

And it's not a coincidence that Costco

outperforms Sam's Clubs
and other competitors.

And it's not a coincidence

that The Container Store
and Whole Foods Market

enjoy incredible employee loyalty
and customer engagement and loyalty.

Through conscious capitalism,

these companies,

and countless other of all sizes
in every industry throughout the globe

are transforming the way
we think about business.

They begin by treating people
with trust and care and respect.

And many of them even proclaim
their intent to treat people with love.

If you go to Carrollton, Texas,
where The Container Store is based,

the roof of their building is painted,

"We love our employees."

And you go downstairs,
inside, in the offices,

and there's this long wall
filled with photographs -

5, 10, 15, 20, 25 years
that people have been with the company.

They love their employees,
and their employees love them.

These businesses focus on creating value
for all of their stakeholders -

their customers, their employees,
their vendors, their investors,

the communities they do business in -

while respecting and even restoring
natural ecosystems.

By recognizing and embodying
the inner connectedness

that John Muir spoke of

and by expanding the focus
of their attention

from shareholders and profit
to include people and planet,

they're creating incredibly successful
and resilient businesses

while elevating humanity

and generating effective responses
to the challenges we face.

Imagine - imagine if each one of us
tuned into what's going on inside

and recognized how it ripples out
and affects others, right?

Our actions affect others.

And if by extension,
every business, every organization,

and, if you can believe it,
even every government agency

was to recognize the broad
effects of their actions

and to focus their attention

on nourishing the health
of their whole ecosystem.

And imagine if we were
to really pay attention to each other

and cultivate a culture
of deep connection.

Paying attention is the simple
yet profoundly powerful key to connection,

as it was when I got
the wake-up call from Meryl Faye,

as it is when we listen deeply
with each other,

and as it is when we recognize
the effects of our collective actions

and transform the way

we create and use the products
that fulfill our needs and desires.

Everything is connected
to everything else, yet we forget.

Between stimulus and response,
there is a space.

Let's pay attention to that space.

In it lies infinite
opportunities to connect

to ourselves, to others

and to the possibility of transforming
our relationship to the world.

Our lives and the lives of our children,

their children, their children's children

may depend on it.

When we connect,
we always make a difference.

And paying attention
is the key to connection.

Thank you very much.

(Applause)