Some of the most compelling TED Talks out there focus on business strategy.
Thought leaders from around the world discuss how to be a more effective leader, how to motivate yourself and your employees, and how to launch a successful business.
Each one challenges conventional notions about the way we work.
We rounded up 11 talks that will make you a smarter, more curious, and more effective businessperson.
SEE ALSO: 11 TED Talks that show how strange and mysterious the human mind really is
Dan Pink: Rewards and punishments aren't always effective in the workplace
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Pink is a motivation expert whose talk focuses on the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. It's the difference between doing something because it matters to you and doing something because you're getting rewarded for it.
According to Pink, there's a ton of scientific evidence suggesting that intrinsic motivators — not rewards and punishments — are the "secret" to stellar performance. But you wouldn't know it from spending time in a typical organization.
"If you look at the science, there is a mismatch between what science knows and what business does," he says. "What's alarming here is that our business operating system — think of the set of assumptions and protocols beneath our businesses, how we motivate people, how we apply our human resources — it's built entirely around these extrinsic motivators, around carrots and sticks."
Pink suggests that organizations give workers significantly more autonomy. He cites Wikipedia, where people contribute information without compensation, as an extreme example of the kind of environment organizations should create. No economist could have predicted Wikipedia's success, Pink says, but it shows the power of that inner drive to create and succeed.
Jason Fried: It's not your fault you're so unproductive at work
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If you’ve ever left the office after a full day at work and realized you got precisely nothing done, you can probably identify with Fried’s argument.
According to Fried, the author of "Rework" and the CEO of Basecamp, a company where everyone is allowed to remotely, modern offices just aren't conducive to optimal performance. That’s because we’re constantly getting distracted — by our boss checking in on us, by pointless meetings, by coworkers with urgent requests, etc.
"You don't have a work day anymore," Fried says in his talk. "You have work moments. It’s like the front door of the office is like a Cuisinart, and you walk in and your day is shredded to bits, because you have 15 minutes here, 30 minutes there."
To remedy this problem, Fried advises organizations to implement half-days (or more) of complete silence, during which employees can work uninterrupted. Moreover, he recommends doing away with most meetings entirely so that people have time to actually think.
Simon Sinek: The key to organizational success is a selfless leader
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In his talk, Sinek, a leadership expert, asks why the modern workplace doesn't look more like the military. The answer, he says, boils down to a difference in management strategy — in the military, leaders put their subordinates first.
"When a leader makes the choice to put the safety and lives of the people inside the organization first," he says, "to sacrifice their comforts and sacrifice the tangible results, so that the people remain and feel safe and feel like they belong, remarkable things happen.”
Sinek argues that the key elements of any successful organization are trust and cooperation. That way, employees spend less time competing with each other and more time collaborating to protect themselves from the potential danger outside. It's the leader's responsibility to create a culture like this, starting by putting the organization's interests above their own.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider