TED: An Approach Worth Spreading

As TEDGlobal starts tomorrow in Oxford, it’s a good time to have a closer look at factors that have got them there.

TED talks have become a popular source for mind-stretching, inspirational and innovative talks, reaching all corners of their stated focus areas of technology, entertainment and design. Although TED’s rise coincides with a resurgence of sexy, high profile public discourse, it is a phenomenon in its own right. TED talks cover everything from biomimicry to business, from schools to statistics. It has made stars of speakers and converted loyal millions.

We’re not going to start a conference series. But we are surrounded by creative and ambitious people, many of whom have world-changing ideas of their own. Understanding how TED came to be successful can help us build our own ideas and concepts into much more. Here are some ways.

1) Share

Walls are falling everywhere. The most powerful emerging social organizations are porous - they source ideas from anywhere and share widely, transcending organizational borders. They build links, relationships and trust with important groups. Online, it’s easy to take the first step - putting something out there for free. Everybody does that. The next level is to invest resources to making it accessible and attractive. TED has done this, doing nearly everything they can to share the best ideas with the world and capture the next round of speakers.

2) Add exclusivity but broadcast widely

It is painfully difficult to get into a TED event. You generally have to pony up some significant fees. Often you must be chosen. This breeds exclusivity. And exclusivity breeds desire. Many brands use this. Adidas and Nike allow select sneakers into leading niche shops only, while allowing only broader lines to hit the big chains. Facebook gradually moved from Harvard, to other universities, and finally to the public. Google’s Gmail was invite-only at first, prompting people to seek out invites from their friends to get in. Exclusivity can be a powerful flip on point number 1 above, that everything’s available. Maintaining a little careful exclusivity can help draw people in. TED could easily be filling the Staples Center in LA. Instead, they’ve limited their conferences to an auditorium in Silicon Valley (or in this case, 700 people in Oxford), and then shared this with the world. That is intentional and powerful.

3) Find your true product

Honestly, what is it? TED’s product is not conferences. Not online talks. They are offering great ideas. And by recognizing this distinction, they have been able to build a model that showcases those ideas. Had somebody decided that they were selling conferences of talks, they might have gone the route of expanding those conferences to the Staples Center. But they knew that their true product was infectious ideas, and designed a strategy that would have the best chance of getting that out widely.

4) Capitalize on trends

Although TED may have been a regional or industry influence prior to about 2001, it was their jump to embrace online media, before it was easy. Before Youtube enabled everyone to upload awful videos, TED was showcasing their content online and enabling sharing. They saw that sharing ideas online allows for rapid (and sometimes viral) spread with virtually no transaction costs. So they jumped in. There is no need to whore yourself to trends. But recognizing and capitalizing on the most powerful ones can carry you forward.

5) Source widely, and then filter relentlessly

TED pulls only the most engaging thinkers from many disparate fields. Then it posts only the best content to the site. Finally, there are several mechanisms on the site for bringing the best content to the top. All of this ensures that while the first contact a viewer has with TED may be unpredictable (and that’s part of the appeal), a high quality first interaction is guaranteed.

6) Presentation and execution are key

TEDs tagline is ‘Ideas worth spreading’, but that’s not the whole story. The world is filled with brilliant, boring people. We’re surrounded by good, but unexecuted ideas. TED avoids this by working with engaging, infectious people. People who can communicate their ideas and relate to millions of non-experts. Test this at home: could you get your grandmother excited about your concept? Could you trigger follow-up questions in a pitch to your butcher? When people interact with your project or organization, what do they experience? The success is in the delivery, and the delivery takes consideration and practice. Humility and open mindedness to criticism. A desire to repeat and improve. And a relentless focus on the details of execution.

7) Surround yourself with good people

To a degree, we all reflect our surroundings. Who is in your professional ecosystem? What are they doing? How are they doing it? How do they see the world around them? TED as attracted people with infectious curiosity. This is a reinforcing loop: as these people strengthen the initiative, it attracts more people of the same nature. Every project or organization needs to figure out what ‘good people’ are to them. But powerful momentum can be built by feeding off and engaging these people. TED is a case study in fostering this momentum.

Not all of the above apply to every situation. There’s a bias here to online start-ups. But many elements of TED’s success are transferrable. Clever people follow TED. And clever people have clever new ideas, at a time when this is sorely needed. Taking a few pages from TED’s playbook can help those ideas become reality.

B

(…who is heading to Oxford tomorrow for other reasons, and may try to sneak into a session or two. Anyone have access? Give me a shout!)

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