A guide to collaborative leadership
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0:02 - 0:06It was a fantastic new pink suit
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0:06 - 0:09with big buttons and shoulder pads.
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0:09 - 0:11It was 1997,
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0:11 - 0:14and I was the new boss of Griffin's Foods,
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0:14 - 0:17an iconic cookie and snacks
company in New Zealand. -
0:18 - 0:21It was my first time
as the leader of a company, -
0:21 - 0:23and I was on the stage
to give a big speech -
0:23 - 0:25about our ambitious new goals.
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0:27 - 0:29I knew exactly what my call to action was,
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0:29 - 0:33which was "One in every four times
a Kiwi eats a snack, -
0:33 - 0:34it will be one of ours."
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0:35 - 0:38I emphasized that we knew
how to measure our results -
0:38 - 0:41and that our future was in our control.
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0:42 - 0:44Embarrassingly enough,
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0:44 - 0:46I finished up with "If not this, what?
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0:46 - 0:48If not us, who?
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0:48 - 0:50And if not now, when?"
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0:51 - 0:53I got this huge round of applause
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0:53 - 0:56and I was really,
really pleased with myself. -
0:57 - 1:00I wanted so much to be a good leader.
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1:00 - 1:04I wanted to be followed by a devoted team,
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1:04 - 1:05I wanted to be right.
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1:06 - 1:09In short, I wanted to be a hero.
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1:09 - 1:13A hero selling chips
and biscuits in a pink suit. -
1:13 - 1:15(Laughter)
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1:16 - 1:19What happened after that speech?
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1:19 - 1:21Nothing.
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1:22 - 1:24All of that applause
did not lead to action. -
1:24 - 1:26Nothing changed.
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1:26 - 1:29Not because they didn't like
me or the message. -
1:29 - 1:33The problem was that no one knew
what they were expected to do. -
1:33 - 1:34And most importantly,
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1:34 - 1:36they didn't know that I needed them.
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1:37 - 1:40Now, you may think
that this is a classic hero speech, -
1:40 - 1:43where I'm going to tell you that
I overcame that obstacle and triumphed. -
1:44 - 1:46Actually, I'm going to tell you
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1:46 - 1:49that in a world as complex
and interconnected -
1:49 - 1:50as the one we live in,
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1:50 - 1:54the idea that one person
has the answer is ludicrous. -
1:55 - 1:58It's not only ineffective, it's dangerous,
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1:58 - 2:02because it leads us to believe
that it's been solved by that hero, -
2:02 - 2:04and we have no role.
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2:05 - 2:07We don't need heroes.
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2:07 - 2:09We need radical interdependence,
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2:09 - 2:12which is just another way
of saying we need each other. -
2:13 - 2:16Even though other people
can be really difficult, sometimes. -
2:18 - 2:22I spent decades trying to work out
how to be a good leader. -
2:22 - 2:25I've lived in seven countries
and five continents. -
2:25 - 2:27And in recent years,
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2:27 - 2:30I've spent a lot of time
with the B Corp community, -
2:30 - 2:32originally as a corporate participant
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2:32 - 2:34and more recently as an ambassador.
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2:35 - 2:37Now, B Corps are a group of companies
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2:37 - 2:40who believe in business
as a force for good. -
2:41 - 2:44There's a tough certification
with about 250 questions -
2:44 - 2:48about your social
and environmental performance. -
2:48 - 2:50You must legally declare your intention
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2:50 - 2:53to serve the community
as well as your shareholders -
2:53 - 2:57and you must sign
the declaration of interdependence. -
2:58 - 3:01Now one of the things
that inspires me the most -
3:01 - 3:03about the companies in this movement
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3:03 - 3:06is that they see themselves
as part of a whole system. -
3:07 - 3:13It's sort of as if they imagine themselves
on a big, flowing river of activity, -
3:13 - 3:17where, if they are, for example,
soft drinks manufacturers, -
3:17 - 3:20they understand that upstream from them,
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3:20 - 3:23there's water and sugar,
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3:23 - 3:26and farmers that grow that sugar,
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3:26 - 3:29and plastic and metal and glass,
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3:29 - 3:32all of which flows into this thing
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3:32 - 3:35that we call a company
which has financial results. -
3:35 - 3:39And the flowing continues
with consequences. -
3:39 - 3:41Some of them intended,
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3:41 - 3:44like refreshment and hydration,
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3:44 - 3:45and some unintended,
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3:45 - 3:48like garbage and obesity.
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3:49 - 3:51Spending time with leaders in this space
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3:51 - 3:56has led me to see
that true collaboration is possible, -
3:56 - 3:58but it's subtle and it's complex.
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3:58 - 4:02And the leaders in this space
are doing a few things very differently -
4:02 - 4:04from traditional heroic leaders.
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4:05 - 4:07They set goals differently,
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4:07 - 4:10they announce those goals differently
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4:10 - 4:13and they have a very different
relationship with other people. -
4:14 - 4:16Let's begin with the first difference.
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4:17 - 4:21A hero sets a goal
that can be individually delivered -
4:21 - 4:23and neatly measured.
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4:24 - 4:26You can recognize a heroic goal --
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4:26 - 4:29they use terms like
"revenue" and "market share" -
4:29 - 4:31and are often competitive.
-
4:31 - 4:33I mean, remember pink-suit day?
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4:34 - 4:36Interdependent leaders, on the other hand,
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4:36 - 4:39start with a goal that's really important,
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4:39 - 4:44but is actually impossible to achieve
by one company or one person alone. -
4:45 - 4:48I want to give you an example
from the clothing industry, -
4:48 - 4:52which produces 92 million tons
of waste a year. -
4:53 - 4:57Patagonia and Eileen Fisher
are clothing manufacturers, -
4:57 - 4:59both of them B Corps,
-
4:59 - 5:02both of them deeply committed
to reducing waste. -
5:03 - 5:06They don't see
that their responsibility ends -
5:06 - 5:09when a customer buys their clothes.
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5:09 - 5:13Patagonia encourages you
not to buy new clothes from them, -
5:13 - 5:16and will repair your old clothes for free.
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5:16 - 5:20Eileen Fisher will pay you
when you bring back your clothes, -
5:20 - 5:23and either sell them on
or turn them into other clothes. -
5:24 - 5:28While these two companies
are competitive in some ways, -
5:28 - 5:30they work together
and with others in the industry -
5:30 - 5:32to solve shared problems.
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5:33 - 5:37They take responsibility for things
that happen upstream as well. -
5:37 - 5:39Around the world,
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5:39 - 5:43there are around 300 million people
who work from home in this industry, -
5:43 - 5:45most of them women,
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5:45 - 5:48many of them in very
difficult circumstances -
5:48 - 5:49with poor lighting,
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5:49 - 5:53sewing on buttons
and doing detailed stitching. -
5:53 - 5:57Until 2014, there was no protection
for these workers. -
5:58 - 6:02A group of companies got together
with a not-for-profit called Nest -
6:02 - 6:04to create a set of standards
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6:04 - 6:07that's now been adopted
by the whole industry. -
6:08 - 6:12Once you've seen problems like this,
you can't unsee them, -
6:12 - 6:14so you have to ask others
to help you to solve them. -
6:15 - 6:17These folks take
interdependence as a given, -
6:17 - 6:19and said to me,
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6:19 - 6:21"We don't compete on human rights."
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6:22 - 6:25The second big difference
for collaborators -
6:25 - 6:29is their willingness to declare
their goals before they have a plan. -
6:30 - 6:34Now the hero only reveals
their carefully crafted goal -
6:35 - 6:37when the path to achieve it is clear.
-
6:37 - 6:42In fact, the role of the hero announcement
is to set the stage for the big win. -
6:42 - 6:45Hero announcements are full of triumph.
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6:46 - 6:49Interdependent leaders, on the other hand,
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6:49 - 6:51want other people to help them,
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6:51 - 6:56so their announcements are often
an invitation for co-creation, -
6:56 - 6:59and sometimes, they're a call for help.
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7:00 - 7:03At the North American division
of the French food company Danone, -
7:03 - 7:06I announced that we wanted
to become a B Corp. -
7:07 - 7:08And unlike pink-suit day,
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7:09 - 7:11I had no plan to get there.
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7:12 - 7:15I remember the day really clearly.
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7:15 - 7:17Everybody in the room gasped,
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7:17 - 7:20because they knew we didn't have a plan.
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7:20 - 7:25But they also knew
that we had seen our role -
7:25 - 7:28in the river that is the food system,
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7:28 - 7:30and we wanted to make a change.
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7:31 - 7:34Making that declaration without a plan
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7:34 - 7:36meant that so many
young people in our company -
7:36 - 7:38stepped up to help us,
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7:38 - 7:42and B Corps around us all rallied around.
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7:43 - 7:44And the day we became a B Corp
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7:44 - 7:49wasn't just a self-congratulatory
moment of a hero company -- -
7:49 - 7:52it was more like a community celebration.
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7:54 - 7:57Now when you gave goals
that you can't achieve alone, -
7:57 - 8:00and you've told everyone about them,
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8:00 - 8:04inevitably, you'll end up
at the third big difference, -
8:04 - 8:06which is how you see other people,
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8:06 - 8:09inside your company and outside.
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8:11 - 8:15Heroes see everyone
as a competitor or a follower. -
8:17 - 8:19Heroes don't want input,
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8:19 - 8:22because they want to control everything
because they want the credit. -
8:23 - 8:26And you can see this
in a typical hero meeting. -
8:27 - 8:28Heroes like making speeches.
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8:30 - 8:33People lean back in their chairs,
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8:33 - 8:36maybe impressed but not engaged.
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8:37 - 8:39Interdependent leaders, on the other hand,
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8:39 - 8:41understand that they need other people.
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8:41 - 8:45They know that meetings
are not just mindless calendar fillers. -
8:45 - 8:48These are the most precious
things you have. -
8:48 - 8:50It's where people collaborate
and communicate -
8:50 - 8:52and share ideas.
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8:52 - 8:55People lean forward in meetings like this,
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8:55 - 8:58wondering where they might fit in.
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9:00 - 9:03When I was in Shanghai in China,
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9:03 - 9:06where I lived for six years,
running the Kraft Foods business, -
9:06 - 9:10selling, amongst
other things, Oreo cookies, -
9:10 - 9:12we had a problem with hero culture.
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9:13 - 9:16We kept on launching
new products that failed. -
9:16 - 9:18And we would find out afterwards
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9:18 - 9:20that everyone in the company
knew they were going to fail, -
9:20 - 9:22they just didn't feel free to tell us.
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9:22 - 9:26So we changed the way we ran
our innovation and planning meetings -
9:26 - 9:28in two important ways.
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9:28 - 9:31First of all, language
went back to Chinese. -
9:31 - 9:34Because even though
everyone spoke great English, -
9:34 - 9:37when I was in the room
and the meeting was in English, -
9:37 - 9:38they focused on me.
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9:38 - 9:40And I was the foreigner,
and I was the boss -
9:40 - 9:44and I apparently had
that intimidating hero look. -
9:44 - 9:46The second thing
-
9:46 - 9:50is we asked every single person
in the meeting their opinion. -
9:51 - 9:54And our understanding
of the subtleties of the differences -
9:54 - 9:58between American taste
and Chinese taste, in this case, -
9:58 - 9:59really improved,
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9:59 - 10:02and our new product success rate
radically turned around -
10:02 - 10:04and we launched a lot of winners,
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10:04 - 10:08including the now famous
green-tea-flavored Oreos. -
10:10 - 10:12Hero culture sneaks in everywhere.
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10:13 - 10:16At Danone, we had a lot
of great stuff happening -
10:16 - 10:18in one part of the world,
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10:18 - 10:21and we wanted it to spread
to another part of the world. -
10:21 - 10:24But when you put a person in business gear
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10:24 - 10:27up in front of a group of people
with PowerPoint, -
10:27 - 10:30they have the urge
to become sort of heroic. -
10:31 - 10:33And they make everything look super shiny
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10:33 - 10:34and they don't tell the truth.
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10:34 - 10:38And it's not compelling
and it's not even interesting. -
10:38 - 10:40So, we changed it
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10:40 - 10:43and we created these
full-day marketplaces, -
10:43 - 10:45kind of like a big bazaar.
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10:45 - 10:47And everybody was dressed up in costume,
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10:47 - 10:50some people a little, some people a lot.
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10:50 - 10:52And sellers had to man their stalls
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10:52 - 10:55and sell their ideas
as persuasively as possible, -
10:55 - 10:59and people who were convinced
bought them with fake check books. -
10:59 - 11:01Creating just a bit of silliness
with the environment -
11:01 - 11:03and a hat or a scarf
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11:03 - 11:08drops people's guard and causes
ideas to spread like wildfire. -
11:08 - 11:10There's no recipe here,
-
11:10 - 11:16but time together has to be
carefully curated and created -
11:16 - 11:21so that people know that their time
is valuable and important, -
11:21 - 11:23and they can bring
their best selves to the table. -
11:25 - 11:28Hero culture is present right here in TED.
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11:29 - 11:33This whole process makes it look like
I think I'm a hero. -
11:34 - 11:39So just in case there's any doubt
about the point that I'm trying to make, -
11:39 - 11:41I want to apply these ideas
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11:41 - 11:44in an area in which
I have zero credibility -
11:44 - 11:46and zero experience.
-
11:46 - 11:48I'm originally South African,
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11:48 - 11:51and I'm deeply passionate
about wildlife conservation, -
11:51 - 11:53most particularly rhinos.
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11:54 - 11:56Those majestic creatures with big horns.
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11:58 - 12:01Every day, three rhinos are killed,
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12:01 - 12:05because there are people
who think that those horns are valuable, -
12:05 - 12:07even though they're just made
of the same stuff -
12:07 - 12:09as hair and fingernails.
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12:10 - 12:11It breaks my heart.
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12:13 - 12:16Like all good recovering heroes,
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12:16 - 12:20I did everything I could
to reduce this goal -
12:20 - 12:22to something that I could do by myself.
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12:23 - 12:28But clearly, stopping rhino poaching
is a goal way too big for me. -
12:29 - 12:32So I'm immediately
in interdependence land. -
12:33 - 12:36I'm declaring my goal on this stage.
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12:36 - 12:39I found other people as passionate as I am
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12:39 - 12:41and I've asked if I could join them.
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12:41 - 12:43And after today, there may be more.
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12:43 - 12:47And we're now in the complex
but inspiring process -
12:47 - 12:49of learning how to work together.
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12:49 - 12:52My dream is that one day,
someone will stand on this stage -
12:52 - 12:57and tell you how radical interdependence
saved my beloved rhinos. -
12:58 - 13:01Why does hero culture persist,
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13:01 - 13:03and why don't we work together more?
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13:04 - 13:06Well, I don't know
why everyone else does it, -
13:06 - 13:08but I can tell you why I did it.
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13:08 - 13:12Interdependence is a lot harder
than being a hero. -
13:13 - 13:16It requires us to be open
and transparent and vulnerable, -
13:16 - 13:20and that's not what traditional leaders
have been trained to do. -
13:21 - 13:24I thought being a hero would keep me safe.
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13:25 - 13:27I thought that in the elevation
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13:27 - 13:30and separation that comes
from heroic leadership, -
13:30 - 13:33that I would be untouchable.
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13:34 - 13:36This is an illusion.
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13:37 - 13:41The joy and success that comes
from interdependence and vulnerability -
13:41 - 13:43is worth the effort and the risk.
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13:44 - 13:48And if we're going to solve the challenges
that the world is facing today, -
13:48 - 13:50we have no alternative,
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13:50 - 13:53so we had better start getting good at it.
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13:54 - 13:55Thank you.
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13:55 - 14:00(Applause)
- Title:
- A guide to collaborative leadership
- Speaker:
- Lorna Davis
- Description:
-
What's the difference between heroes and leaders? In this insightful talk, Lorna Davis explains how our idolization of heroes is holding us back from solving big problems -- and shows why we need "radical interdependence" to make real change happen.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 14:12
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Oliver Friedman edited English subtitles for A guide to collaborative leadership | |
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Erin Gregory edited English subtitles for A guide to collaborative leadership | |
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Erin Gregory approved English subtitles for A guide to collaborative leadership | |
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Erin Gregory edited English subtitles for A guide to collaborative leadership | |
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Erin Gregory edited English subtitles for A guide to collaborative leadership | |
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Krystian Aparta accepted English subtitles for A guide to collaborative leadership | |
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Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for A guide to collaborative leadership | |
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Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for A guide to collaborative leadership |