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♪ I'm singing in the rain ♪

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♪ Just singing in the rain ♪

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♪ What a glorious feeling ♪

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♪ I'm happy again ♪

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There was a time when we all used to sing.

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We sat around camp fires,
at church, and at school.

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We sang our stories and our dreams.

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We sang alone and we sang together.

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Nowadays, not many of us sing.

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We think, we can't because at some stage

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someone has told us to be quiet,

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or some of us judge ourselves
against the celebrities we idolize.

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So I have a question
and put your hands up:

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"Who in this audience
has been told by their parents,

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teachers, kids, partner,
or anyone else that they can't sing?"

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Hands up, please. Hands right up.

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OK, so that's about 85% of you,

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about 85% of people
who've been told that they can't sing.

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When I was 14, I desperately wanted
to have singing lessons.

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My best girl friend
started having lessons.

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So I went around to her house one night
and I said, "Will you teach me the song?"

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So, we sang this song together
a few times and at the end of it she said:

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"Well, I will play the piano
and you sing it on your own now."

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And so she played and I sang,
and then she said:

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"Tania, I don't think you
should ever bother having singing lessons.

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You're not good enough."

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And being a 14-year-old I believed her,

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just like probably many of you
believed it when you were told that.

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And so the next year,
I did backstage in a school musical.

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And finally, in year 11, I auditioned
for the Chorus of Oklahoma.

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And to my amazement, I got the lead role,

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and my friend didn't get in the chorus.

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And ever since then,

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singing has been my life's passion,
joy, and inspiration.

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Our voices have been silenced,
and it's not doing us any good.

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There is a taboo about speaking
or singing in public,

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we think that people
will judge us or make fun of us.

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Yet, we were all given a voice to tune in

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and to express ourselves.

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So let's not sit in silence any longer.

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I want you to sit up,
sit up in your seats.

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We're going to start off
with this third of the room,

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so just work out which third you are,

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and we are all going to sing this note.

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Now, just remember, remove
yourselves from limiting believes,

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and no one is listening
to your specific voice.

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OK, so here we go.

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We're going to go ♪ ahh! ♪
everyone, breathe.

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Tania de Jong AM: ♪ Ahh! ♪
(Audience) Ahh!

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And in the middle: ♪ ahh! ♪
Breathe.

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TJ: ♪ Ahh! ♪ Excellent!
(Audience) ♪ Ahh! ♪

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and then the top ♪ ahh! ♪
(Audience) ♪ Ahh! ♪

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OK, we're going to do it together,

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you start and then you keep going,
you keep breathing the same note.

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When I do this, that means "crescendo,"
that means "decrescendo."

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Breathing in and here we go,
♪ ahh ♪, keep going!

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(Audience) ♪ Ahh! ♪

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TJ: ♪ ahh ♪,

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(Audience) ♪ ahh ♪
TJ: ♪ ahh ♪,

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TJ: ♪ ahh ♪.

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How do you feel?

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(Audience) Whoo!
TJ: Whoo! OK!

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So, is your brain buzzing now?

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Because one of the great things
about singing

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is that it really connects you
to the right side of your brain.

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The right hemisphere
of our brain is responsible

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for our intuition, imagination,
and all our creative functions.

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It connects us to a world
of possibilities and all that is.

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The brain is like a battery;
the right side charges it

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and the left side uses
the energy and empties it.

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So our goal is always to keep
our mental battery charged up.

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However, we live in a world
where we constantly

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surrounded with so much information
to process and analyze.

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We talk more to boxes and screens

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than we do to one another.

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And so, it becomes fundamentally important

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to nurture the attributes of human beings

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that set us apart from machines:

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love, compassion, kindness,

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tearing, determination.

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I have a theory of boxes.

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We get born in a little bassinet box,

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and then we go home
and we live in a house,

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- and if we draw it, it looks like a box -

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and we go to school and we often
get taught to think in a box.

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We go to the supermarket,
we come out with lots of little boxes.

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And then we go to work,

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and we have a box
in our pocket, our mobile phone,

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we have a screen in front of us
which is our computer box.

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And we have to tick the box an awful lot.

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And guess what,
when we go out of this world,

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we go out in a... Right.

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So, I believe that life really happens,

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and that our creative potential
is unlocked between the boxes,

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where our mind can roam,

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in that space where we connect
in loving relationships with others,

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when we go into nature,

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and where we do
activities, like meditation.

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But do you know the best activity
for getting outside the box?

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Well, of course, it's singing.

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Because the neuroscience
of singing shows that when we sing

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our neurotransmitters connect
in new and different ways,

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firing up the right temporal lobe
of our brain,

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releasing endorphins that make us smarter,

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healthier, happier, and more creative.

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And you know
what's really great about this?

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When we do this with other people,
the effect is amplified.

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A recent study measured
the levels of oxytocin,

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the hormone responsible
for pleasure, love, and bonding,

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in a group of people
before and after singing sessions,

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and the levels increased significantly
after the singing sessions.

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Further international research

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shows the benefits of singing,
learning a language, and other skills,

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for healing strokes,
speech abnormalities, and depression.

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And when we sing together
like we just did, in harmony,

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not only that we get
goosebumps, and tingles,

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"crescendo" together,
and breathe together,

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but also, as a recent study
actually showed,

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our hearts start beating together.

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I mean, this is a super duper drug.

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It's free, accessible to all,
we all have a voice.

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Other theories speculate that our brains
developed along with music and singing

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as a survival mechanism.

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So, before there were
governments and nations,

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groups and tribes sang and danced
together to build loyalty,

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transmit vital information,
and ward off enemies.

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Literally, those who sang well, survived.

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Well, as well as singing, a lot of people
also don't think they're creative.

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I work with a lot of companies
and top teams

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on building and unleashing
creativity and innovation.

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And it's amazing how many leaders
say, "But I am not creative."

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Yet recently, some futurists said
that creativity has become

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the most endangered species
of the 21st century.

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We have a broadband culture
but not the creative thought to fill it.

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And a recent global study
of 1,500 CEOs by IBM

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showed that in an increasingly complex
and uncertain global environment

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the most important leadership attribute
is creativity.

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Steve Jobs said

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that creativity is just about
connecting things.

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And I'd like to suggest
that those things might be

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all the experiences in your life
up to this moment.

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So, the broader and richer
your experience is,

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the more tools you'll have
in your creative toolbox

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for when you want or need to get creative.

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And I reckon,
the best thing to get creative

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is what I like to call
positive human collisions.

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That is connecting with people
on a regular basis

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who are really different from you.

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You know, we spend most of our lives
talking with, dressing like,

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feeling safe, and endorsing those
who are really like us.

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They make us feel good about ourselves.

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But I think our greatest gains
as human beings

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are when we connect to people
who are really different,

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who challenge us and the way we think,

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who take us outside of our comfort zone.

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When we connect with those
we feel creative abrasion,

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and it's in that moment
where we actually disagree with someone,

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where creativity and innovation can spark.

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So I thought it would be really awesome

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to start a social enterprise,
a movement if you like,

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where we could bring together
the power of positive human collisions

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with the neuroscience of singing.

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And so, five years ago I set up
a charity called "Creativity Australia,"

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and we have a program
called "With One Voice,"

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and every week, we deliberately bring
together the most diverse people possible.

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We bring together CEOs, doctors,
lawyers, grandmothers with students,

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people with depressions and disabilities,

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migrants and jobseekers,

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age from 9 to 90, of all faiths
and all backgrounds.

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Most of the people come along
saying, "But I can't sing."

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We help them find not only
their voice, their singing voice,

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but their voice in life,
their meaning, and their purpose.

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At choir each week, we sing,
but we also share supper.

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We share our hopes,
and dreams, and challenges.

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We have a really innovative part
of our program, called "The Wishlist."

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Anyone in the choir can ask
for a wish from anyone else,

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and so people ask for things like:
"I would love help with my résumé,"

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"I'd like to find a job,"
"I'd like someone to walk home with,"

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"I'd like to find a boyfriend
or a girlfriend,"

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"I'd like free guitar lessons."

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Because everyone is
in such a receptive headspace

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because of those fabulous endorphins,
and feeling much more creative,

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we've literally connected people
to most of their wishes.

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We've created hundred of jobs,

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work experience,
and mentoring opportunities.

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We've connected people to health services,

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and we've even had a marriage.

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And we've connected people
to incredible hope, joy, and inspiration.

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One choir, "Melbourne Sings [Choir]"
has now expanded

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to 15 choirs all around Victoria,
and Sydney, starting in Brisbane.

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And we have inquiries from
all over Australia and other countries

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for our unique "With One Voice" model.

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Before I'll show you a short video,

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I'd like to tell you two short stories.

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This is Natalie on the screen.
Natalie is from Cameroon.

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She came to Australia a few years ago,
and she joined the choir.

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Her sister was massacred,

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and she now brings up
her two children, and her sister's child.

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She had been looking for
a job as an accountant for four years,

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when she joined the choir.

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On the second time she came
to choir, she was crying,

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we said, "What's wrong?"
and she said, "I've got a job interview."

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I said, "That's wonderful."

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She said: "No. I don't think
I can get the job."

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She had experienced so much discrimination
that she didn't believe in herself at all.

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So we gave her mock interviews,
but most of all, we gave her love.

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And a little bit of her
started to come back.

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And two weeks later,
she came back to choir

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and she was beaming,
and she got the job in the call center;

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not as an accountant,

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but she was just wrapped to have a job
to contribute to her new homeland.

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A few weeks later,
the choir started being asked to perform

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at various major events and conferences,

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and we'd teach each of the people to share
their story and what the choir meant,

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and the choir would sing, and inevitably,
the audience would stand and cheer,

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and literally grown men were crying.

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It was really powerful.

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A few weeks later,
she emails me and she says:

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"Tania, I can't come to choir anymore.

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My hours have gone
from 9 to 5 to 9 to 7.30,"

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and I write back:
"And who is going to feed your kids?

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Can we speak to your supervisor?
Can you speak to him?"

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She said: "No. He never speaks
to any of the migrants."

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Well, fate intervened.

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I was asked to present a key note speech
at a major business conference,

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and the theme of the conference
was diversity.

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And I said to the organizer:

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"I've got this amazing diversity choir
called 'Melbourne Sings [Choir].'

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Do you think that they could perform
at the start of the dinner?"

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And she said OK, had a look online,
and she made a donation to the choir.

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They performed three songs, three stories,

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and at the end of each song,

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the audience spontaneously stood
and cheered, and they were all crying.

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At the end of the third song,
this woman comes running up to the stage

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00:13:28,707 --> 00:13:30,647
and she says, "Can I have the mic?"

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OK. She's got tears on her face.

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00:13:32,472 --> 00:13:35,873
And she get's up and she says:
"My name is Catherine,

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and I am the Managing Director
of ANZ Private Bank -

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00:13:41,573 --> 00:13:46,292
Did I mention that Natalie's job interview
was for ANZ Bank?

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No? That's a pretty important fact.

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00:13:50,173 --> 00:13:53,993
Anyway, so what happened was
Catherine got up and she said:

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00:13:53,994 --> 00:13:57,219
"You know, this model
of social inclusion is so awesome.

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00:13:57,220 --> 00:14:00,206
Are we really listening
to the diverse voices

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00:14:00,207 --> 00:14:03,259
in our communities and organizations?"

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00:14:03,260 --> 00:14:06,535
I got the mic back and I said,
"Well, thank you so much, Catherine.

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00:14:06,536 --> 00:14:09,703
It is all about building
bridges of understanding,

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00:14:09,704 --> 00:14:12,255
not walls and boxes between us.

248
00:14:12,256 --> 00:14:14,983
But listen, I've got
a little favor to ask you."

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00:14:14,984 --> 00:14:19,179
No pressure or anything, like there were
hundreds of people in the room.

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00:14:19,180 --> 00:14:22,701
"Do you think that you might help
Natalie here, from Cameroon,

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00:14:22,702 --> 00:14:24,939
with her hours at the ANZ Bank?"

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00:14:24,940 --> 00:14:26,237
(Laughter)

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00:14:26,238 --> 00:14:30,057
She handed Nathalie her business card
- the whole audience was cheering -

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00:14:30,058 --> 00:14:32,170
and the next Tuesday,
Nathalie turned back up

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00:14:32,171 --> 00:14:34,800
to the Sofitel [Hotel]
where we ran "Melbourne Sings."

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00:14:34,801 --> 00:14:38,164
We were wrapped to see her,
and we said, "Nathalie, what's happening?"

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00:14:38,165 --> 00:14:40,420
She said: "I don't know
what's going on, Tania,

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00:14:40,421 --> 00:14:43,365
but everyday my supervisor
comes to my desk and asks me

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00:14:43,366 --> 00:14:46,033
how am I and do I have any problems."

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00:14:46,034 --> 00:14:47,423
(Laughter)

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00:14:49,343 --> 00:14:53,405
Catherine then spent further time
with her helping her with her CV;

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00:14:53,405 --> 00:14:55,715
Natalie kept applying
for every accounting role,

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00:14:55,716 --> 00:14:57,908
and she started
to really believe in herself,

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00:14:57,909 --> 00:14:59,953
and she finally got an accounting role.

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00:14:59,954 --> 00:15:02,242
Anyway, this is Beth.

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00:15:02,243 --> 00:15:04,103
Beth has cerebral palsy.

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00:15:04,104 --> 00:15:07,828
She joined our choir also,
"Melbourne Sings," about five years ago.

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00:15:07,829 --> 00:15:09,682
Beth changed my life.

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00:15:09,683 --> 00:15:14,851
Every week Beth comes to choir,
it's the highlight of her week.

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00:15:14,852 --> 00:15:17,319
She said to her mum
and carer after a few weeks:

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00:15:17,320 --> 00:15:20,063
"This is going to be
my independent activity."

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00:15:20,064 --> 00:15:22,824
She comes in the maxi taxi, we feed her,

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00:15:22,825 --> 00:15:27,941
and she knows the words
of every song by heart.

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00:15:27,942 --> 00:15:32,319
And every week I go along to choir,
hoping that Beth is there

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00:15:32,320 --> 00:15:35,175
because I might be having
a really grumpy Tuesday,

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00:15:35,176 --> 00:15:39,031
but as soon as I see Beth is like,
"Oh, my God,"

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00:15:39,032 --> 00:15:40,481
pinch,

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00:15:40,482 --> 00:15:43,241
"Tania, your problems
are absolutely nothing.

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00:15:43,242 --> 00:15:47,211
Here is this person who,
by all rights, is caught in a box

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00:15:47,212 --> 00:15:49,500
and her horizon is so big."

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00:15:50,460 --> 00:15:54,687
And she has helped us all
to step outside our box

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00:15:54,688 --> 00:15:57,811
into a new space of gratitude and hope.

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00:15:57,812 --> 00:15:59,825
So please, have a look at this video.

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00:15:59,826 --> 00:16:01,201
(Music)

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00:16:05,220 --> 00:16:06,703
[With One Voice]

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00:16:06,704 --> 00:16:08,068
[Unlocking Potential]

287
00:16:08,069 --> 00:16:10,089
[Celebrating Diversity]

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00:16:10,090 --> 00:16:12,434
[Creating Jobs]

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00:16:12,435 --> 00:16:14,292
TJ: "It is amazing what can happen

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00:16:14,293 --> 00:16:17,431
when you come together on a weekly basis

291
00:16:17,432 --> 00:16:20,583
with people who are very diverse."

292
00:16:20,584 --> 00:16:21,928
[Choir sings]

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00:16:39,698 --> 00:16:43,079
Man 1: "I joined this choir
since I migrated from India."

294
00:16:43,080 --> 00:16:45,835
Woman 1: "I felt I found
a new family in Australia."

295
00:16:45,836 --> 00:16:47,410
Man 2: "This hands-on experience

296
00:16:47,411 --> 00:16:50,335
has [taken] my singing
to a different level."

297
00:16:50,336 --> 00:16:53,860
Man 3: "The choir has just been
the most wonderful thing for my career."

298
00:16:53,861 --> 00:16:56,769
Woman 2:
"[At the request of] a choir member

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00:16:56,770 --> 00:17:01,378
I applied, and fortunately I got the job."

300
00:17:01,379 --> 00:17:04,239
Woman 3: "You know, like we say,
the angel was behind me.

301
00:17:04,240 --> 00:17:06,009
They were my angels.

302
00:17:06,009 --> 00:17:10,358
I went through
and I got the job at ANZ Bank."

303
00:17:10,359 --> 00:17:13,539
TJ: "We're meeting together weekly
in these programs.

304
00:17:13,540 --> 00:17:16,402
Each of these people experience

305
00:17:16,402 --> 00:17:19,804
new self-esteem, hope, friendship -"

306
00:17:19,804 --> 00:17:22,938
Woman 4: "Actually, we met
in the choir last week

307
00:17:22,939 --> 00:17:26,453
and this is our second time
with each other.

308
00:17:26,454 --> 00:17:31,315
And I feel very surprised
and very thankful

309
00:17:31,316 --> 00:17:33,899
that I can [meet] such a good friend.

310
00:17:33,900 --> 00:17:38,517
This is the most important reason
for me to keep coming."

311
00:17:38,518 --> 00:17:42,940
Beth: "This is why I got friends
because I can't do anything for myself.

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00:17:44,230 --> 00:17:48,873
I can't feed myself...
that's why you got friends."

313
00:17:48,874 --> 00:17:50,286
(Choir sings)

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00:18:08,858 --> 00:18:13,403
Beth: "I can be here who I want
to be, apart from my disability.

315
00:18:13,404 --> 00:18:14,710
I could be...

316
00:18:14,711 --> 00:18:18,457
No one sees me as a kid.
They see me, as a person."

317
00:18:18,458 --> 00:18:22,816
Woman 5: "A highlight of out year in 2011
apart from, of course, this afternoon,

318
00:18:22,817 --> 00:18:27,353
was to perform at the opening ceremony
of the New Royal Children's Hospital

319
00:18:27,354 --> 00:18:30,308
which was opened
by Her Majesty The Queen."

320
00:18:30,309 --> 00:18:34,088
Man 4: "This 'Melbourne Sings' is a group,

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00:18:34,089 --> 00:18:39,284
not only a group, [but] a family,
a family of singers."

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00:18:39,285 --> 00:18:42,903
Woman 3: "[Do you want to smile?]
Do you want to be happy? Come with me."

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00:18:42,904 --> 00:18:44,241
(Choir sings)

324
00:18:52,782 --> 00:18:54,082
(Applause)

325
00:19:05,930 --> 00:19:08,099
TJ: Doesn't that
give you goosebumps?

326
00:19:08,100 --> 00:19:09,961
[Do] you all want to join?

327
00:19:09,962 --> 00:19:11,539
You know, it's said

328
00:19:11,540 --> 00:19:16,465
that we go through our lives
with much of our music unplayed.

329
00:19:16,466 --> 00:19:19,515
Imagine if we could just unlock
a little more

330
00:19:19,516 --> 00:19:22,890
the creative potential of our brain.

331
00:19:23,680 --> 00:19:25,732
As Mark Twain said:

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00:19:25,733 --> 00:19:28,328
"Sing like no one's listening,

333
00:19:28,329 --> 00:19:31,607
love like you've never been hurt,

334
00:19:31,608 --> 00:19:33,706
dance like nobody's watching,

335
00:19:33,707 --> 00:19:37,052
and live like it's heaven on earth."

336
00:19:37,812 --> 00:19:41,654
We are literally changing the world,
one voice at a time.

337
00:19:41,655 --> 00:19:42,781
Thank you.

338
00:19:42,782 --> 00:19:43,829
(Applause)