Last month, we started a most interesting blog series based on a collection of videos posted by Inc.com that features 21 videos worth more than an MBA. It is a very intriguing idea, that spending time efficiently watching very smart videos could help you in your career. The videos are nothing short of amazing! It is incredible what you can learn from these insights in 17 – 20 minute Ted Talk videos; some videos are even shorter with a specific yet informative and insightful brief message. We recapped the first 3 videos on the list that all talked about motivation. The next 3 videos were all about management. Then we looked at 3 videos about marketing. In part 4 of our series, the 3 videos in our series are all about economics. Two weeks ago, our 3 short new videos were all about creativity. Last week, the 3 videos in the series focused on the psychology of business. This is our final week of our MBA video series and the topic for our final three videos is success.
- How to Speak so that People Want to Listen.
Julian Treasure is featured in a second video in this series. We featured his Ted Talk video last week called 5 Ways to Listen Better. That series was about psychology and his video this week is kind of the opposite, How to Speak so that People Want to Listen is actually under the theme of success. Treasure’s video includes vocal exercises and tips on how to speak with empathy. He explains that the human voice is the only instrument that we all play yet so many people speak and no one listens. We have all fallen into habits that can cause others to not listen when we speak. The 7 deadly sins of speaking are:
- Gossiping
- Judging
- Negativity
- Complaining
- Excuses
- Exaggeration, which leads to lying
- Dogmatism (confusion of facts with opinions)
When you speak using these bad habits it makes it difficult for others to listen to you. Instead, he gives an acronym to help us remember that are the foundations and cornerstones of our speech that will help you be heard. The acronym is H.A.I.L.
Honesty: be clear and straight
Authenticity: be yourself
Integrity: be your word
Love: wish them well
Being heard is about what you say, but also about how you say it. Here are some tools to help increase the power of your speaking:
Register – how your voice sounds
Timbre – the way your voice feels
Prosody – the meta language (sing song)
Pace – how fast or slowly you speak
Pitch – can bring a different meaning
Volume – both loud speaking and soft speaking can be effective
In the video, he demonstrates the 6 vocal warm up exercises he does before he speaks and says you should do these before any important talk, whether it is to one person or an entire audience.
- A Kinder, Gentler Philosophy of Success.
Our second video today is from Alain de Botton who talks about A Kinder, Gentler, Philosophy of Success. His idea is that we move beyond the competitive and snobby nature in the workplace and find true pleasure in our work. A snob is anybody who takes a small part of you and uses that to come to a conclusion of who you are. It is harder than ever before to feel calm because of the expectations that are placed on us regarding our careers. Since we are all equals and there is no longer a caste system, we are all capable of envy. We are taught to own our success, but also our failures. The answer is to make sure that our ideas of success are truly our own.
- The Surprising Science of Happiness.
For our third video today and the very last video of our series, we give it up to Dan Gilbert who talks about The Surprising Science of Happiness. He challenges the idea that we should be miserable when we don’t get what we want. Instead, he explains how to feel happy even when things don’t go as planned. One of the advances of our race as human beings is that our brain allows us to simulate things in our minds. He gives examples of people who have learned to synthesize happiness. The common thread is that they seem to somehow take the positive out of perceivingly very negative situations. We believe that synthetic happiness is not of the same quality as natural happiness. What do these terms means? Natural happiness is when we get what we want and synthetic happiness is what we make when we don’t get what we want. He suggests that synthetic happiness could be just as good as natural happiness. When we are in a situation that is irreversible, we learn to like it, even love it. The lesson he concludes with is that we have within us the capacity to manufacture the very commodity we are constantly chasing when we choose experience. This is indeed a great way to conclude our series on videos that are worth more than an MBA. Do you feel smarter and savvier? I sure do!
