Top 5 TED Talks About the Future of Work and the Global Workforce

Credentials: Valérie Hoeks studied Sinology at the Leiden University and has been active in China for over a decade as a traveller, a student, and an entrepreneur. In 2010, Hoeks co-founded China Inroads, an organization that provides a strong foothold for innovative companies to expand their business to the Chinese market.

Summary: Hoeks discusses the differences between Chinese and Western cultures and how these difference impact business customs. She highlights exactly why it’s important that every business let things happen naturally, embrace experience, and how to look at a situation from different angles in order to positively benefit business rather than race toward a solution that may turn out to be mediocre at best.

Hoeks further examines one of the main cultural differences between Europe and China, which is the importance given to building relationships. 

Takeaway: “You need to build relationships in order to be successful.”

3. Itay Talgum | “Lead Like the Great Conductors”

Credentials: Itay Talgam was the first Israeli conductor to perform with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Leipzig Opera house. His book, The Ignorant Maestro, was published in 2015. Talgam created the Maestro Leadership Program, and leads workshops that aim to help everyday people develop a musician’s sense of collaboration and a conductor’s sense of leadership: that inner sense of being connected—of listening and reacting—to your fellow players. 

Summary: Talgam demonstrates how six of the greatest 20th-century conductors face the ultimate leadership challenge (e.g. creating perfect harmony without saying a word), and how today’s leaders can get the most out of any collaborative effort.

Authority is not enough to make a subordinate your partner. Leaders cannot use employees as instruments if effective collaboration is the end game, because you want team members to develop skills and contribute instead of being controlled. Enabling team members to provide input and listen to each other opens a space for them to work together and become stronger partners. True leaders not only create the process but the space in which the process can truly evolve.

Takeaway: “[A conductor’s] happiness does not come from only his own story and his joy of the music. The joy is about enabling other people’s stories to be heard at the same time.”

4. Chimamanda Adichie | “The Danger of a Single Story”

Credentials: Nigerian author, Chimamanda Adichie, was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant. She was described in the Times Literary Supplement as “the most prominent” of a “procession of critically acclaimed young anglophone authors [that] is succeeding in attracting a new generation of readers to African literature.”

Summary: Adichie eloquently explains how fewer harmful assumptions about your co-workers will happen when you realize that every person is a complex individual shaped by their socio-economic situation, education, family status, health, early life experiences, genetic composition and so on. 

In this way, Adichie cautions us against hearing only a single story about another person or country in an effort to keep critical misunderstandings at bay. In the workplace, could a single story you hold about a coworker undermine an otherwise successful working relationship? Consider how you may have underestimated (or overestimated) a colleague’s ability to handle a project based solely on their education level, ethnicity, gender, or religion.

Takeaway: “The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue but that they are incomplete. They make one story the only story. The problem with a single story is that it robs people of dignity. It emphasises how we are different rather than similar.”

5. Margaret Hefferman | “Forget the Pecking Order at Work”

Credentials: Margaret Heffernan began her career in television production, building a track record at the BBC before going on to run the film and television producer trade association IPPA. In this TED Talk, Heffernan explores the all-too-human thought patterns—like conflict avoidance and selective blindness—that lead organizations and managers astray.

Summary: Organizations are often run according to “the superchicken model,” where the value is placed on star employees who outperform others. And yet, this isn’t what drives the most high-achieving teams. As an internationally established business leader, Heffernan brilliantly observes that social cohesion—built on coffee breaks and other such micro moments of connection—leads to greater results over time. She poses a radical rethinking of what drives us to do our best work, and what it means to be a leader. 

Takeaway: “Companies don’t have ideas. Only people do.”

CONCLUSION

Widespread, accessible technologies as well as a globally open talent pool are reshaping the future workforce, and driving many organizations worldwide to reconsider how they design jobs, organize work, and plan for future growth.

Are you leveraging collaborative technologies (e.g. free video conferencing software, group communication tools) and outsourcing (e.g. virtual executive assistant, virtual assistant services) to strengthen your company culture and build revenue?