Business Storytellers: John Hunter and the World Peace Game

John Hunter’s TED Talk on the World Peace Game is essentially a blueprint for the next evolutionary step in grade school education. The concept of the game is simple, for it is how the world works. However, Mr. Hunter has designed the curriculum in such a way, that the children he teaches essentially teach themselves how to arrive at diplomatic and mutually beneficial decisions for everyone.

I noticed a few things during this talk. First, I realized that the point of view through which a majority of the decision-makers in the world see is unnecessarily complex. John Hunter is a grade school teacher in Virginia and he has essentially turned his classroom (OF 4^TH GRADERS) into a project incubator for how to fix the world! If we as adults can claim to have higher brain function than a 4^th grader, what’s the explanation for group of nine-year-olds being able to formulate a solution to global warming in a week?

It was as I asked that question that the answer was revealed. 4^th graders possess the closest thing to an unmolested mind attainable. They haven’t been exposed to the corruption of politics, racially motivated agendas or socio-economics. They just don’t care. All they care about is coming up with a solution that will make them and their friends happy.

This TED Talk also spurred me to reconsider the definition of maturity. As we grow up, we’re taught as children that as we get older, we are to mature mentally and emotionally just as we do physically. However, for as many examples of mature, upstanding, respectable members of society that have been heralded throughout history, there are twice as many people who have shown a sickening lack of maturity that has led to the disparagement, disenfranchisement, and/or death of billions of people around the world.

I believe that one of the biggest pieces of the puzzle as pertains to the state of affairs in the world, is to really investigate the impact that social norms have on how we live. If we threw as much money behind think tanks that probe at this kind of information, as we did at bogus medical trials and unnecessary construction, I think citizens would become more savvy as to the games being played during election campaigns. This would also take power away from media outlets that would seek to use fear mongering to further political agendas.

Olympics in Bean Town, anyone?

It has been decided that the candidate site to be submitted for the 2024 Olympic Games will be Boston, MA, according to reports published by the Boston Globe this Thursday (Arsenault, 2015). This decision raises a number of concerns among the international audience, chief among them being security. With the horrific scenes and aftermath associated with the Boston Marathon Bombing of April, 2013 still fresh in the minds of many American citizens, local authorities and federal law enforcement will have a fairly large bill to fill in terms of assuring the safe and orderly execution of the event.

            For an event coordinator, security is at the nexus of the planning process for any event. Though, few situations offer a more daunting task than policing an event with the exposure and moving parts present in the granddaddy of all international sporting events. Other prospect submissions for the 2024 Olympic games include Rome, Paris, Hamburg/Berlin, Budapest and Istanbul. All of the submitted locations have their high and low points in terms of how well they are already outfitted to handle the task of public safety, but the biggest breath-holding situation of the entire ordeal will no doubt be how well nations will work in unison with the host country, to ensure those who would look to disrupt proceedings are not successful.

            Additionally, a recent surge of opposition groups have spoken out against Boston possibly being the site for the 2024 Games, stating that the event will pose a significant threat to the state’s progress in fixing prominent issues such as the economy, housing market and education system. If the economic state of Brazil during and after the 2014 FIFA World Cup is indicative of a pattern, these opposition groups may have a point. To this end, Governor Charlie Baker and other collaborators from local, state, and the federal government would do well to take these very pertinent concerns to heart in the years ahead, as they continue to make preparations for 2024. After all, “a house divided against itself cannot stand.”

Alexis Ohanian: How to make a splash in social media

            During his TED talk at TEDIndia in 2009, Reddit.com co-founder Alexis Ohanian highlighted a number of empowering truths about the today’s internet. He also talked about how emerging professionals can enact social change through social media. The subject of Ohanian’s speech was an article that went up on Reddit’s front page, involving the environmental rights group Greenpeace demonstrating against the Japanese government’s latest whale-hunting endeavor. A proposed solution to the conflict was for Greenpeace to put a tracker on one of the whales, for which they would need a name. A polling process ensued, ending in a near-unanimous vote for the name “Mr. Splashy Pants”.  After some reluctance on the part of Greenpeace (which was met by the unbending will of the people), “Mr. Splashy Pants” was the name granted to the tracked whale. Greenpeace was also successful in their campaign to stop the Japanese government from hunting whales off their coasts.

            Among the plethora of subject matter present in Ohanian’s talk, 2 points stood out the most as beneficial to me:

·      Open-Ended Messages- Ohanian expressed the importance of being okay with not being in control of how people perceive your message. The situation between Greenpeace and the Japanese government was serious issue. Reddit chose to approach such an issue with a combination of levity and interaction with their community. This ultimately accomplished the primary objective and fostered a sense of empowerment throughout Reddit’s online community, as it was their contributions that made the triumph possible. Questions with no right or wrong answer will usually yield more valuable information than a pointed one.

·      Inclusion- Reddit.com’s format allows contributors to post stories for the approval or disapproval of their peers. The popular stories end up on Reddit’s “front page”. Allowing the audience to have input on different aspects of the user experience benefits content creators in 2 major ways. First, including the audience in decision-making transfers accountability for overall appeal of the subject matter to the community. Secondly, since creators have a direct link with their consumer base, the community can then become the think tank/beta group for new products and/or services.

Mugen no Sai Hatsumei

            Deeply engrained in Japanese philosophy are the principles of universal transference and infinite reinvention, or “mugen no sai Hatsumei”. Pioneered by the Land of the Rising Sun, these precepts quickly made their way into what was, at the time, the mainstream business sector. This development gave way to such historic events as the formation of the Tokugawa Shogunate, the ending of the Period of Warring States (Japan’s expansive and brutal civil war), and even the rebuilding of Japan’s economy following World War II.

           

            Upon further analysis, it isn’t difficult to make the connection between this near-ancient school of thought and modern business intelligence. The principles of universal transference and infinite reinvention are echoed through author Robert Greene’s The48 Laws of Power, specifically Law #25: Re-Create Yourself. This particular evolution has seen prevalence in business and the arts alike. Corporations like McDonald’s, Walt Disney Co., and MSNBC are in a perpetual state of re-imaging, as the public’s demands dictate. The rise of the “social media revolution” brought with it the demand that business professionals and corporations alike constantly innovate their business models by incorporating trends found intriguing by the public in their marketing, and soliciting contributions from the consumers themselves.

The concept of reinvention is becoming more and more commonplace in the music industry. Soundspike.com reported that recording artist and industry veteran Stevie Wonder will be on tour through the month of November, celebrating his 1976 release “Songs in the Key of Life”. “Weird Al” Yankovic, after a 31-year contract deal, has gone the independent route and is now marketing his music through Youtube. In both cases, the artist has seen a bounty of success in his respective genre and is transitioning his entrepreneurial focus through more enticing and unorthodox means.

            Keeping pace with your specific industry takes a few things. First, you must show humility in realizing that your current business model isn’t the work of art you think it is. It is but a work IN PROGRESS. One that must be cultivated and adapted to suit the demands of the consumer. Secondly, you must show vigilance in your knowledge of the industry. The CEOs of companies don’t rise to such a status without keeping themselves abreast of key developments or breakdowns in the market. RSS Sites like Feedly offer access to massive cache of industry trade publications, blogs, and other official correspondence from industry leaders around the world. Finally, you must direct your creativity with reason. Imagination is the fiber from with innovation is created. However, in order to become viable, efficient innovations, creativity must have more direction than restraint. Such is the difference between Lycos and Google, Hardeez and McDonald’s, Fox Sports and ESPN, you get the idea.