full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Eddie Obeng: Smart failure for a fast-changing world

Unscramble the Blue Letters

I'll give you an example, a quick one. Creativity and ideas, I mentioned that earlier. All the CEOs around me, my clients, they want ivoantoinn, so they seek innovation. They say to people, "Take risks and be creative!" But unfortunately the words get transformed as they travel through the air. Entering their ears, what they hear is, "Do czray things and then I'll fire you." Why? (Laughter) Because — Why? Because in the old world, okay, in the old world, over here, getting stuff wrong was unacceptable. If you got something wrong, you'd failed. How should you be treated? Well, hsrhaly, because you could have asked somebody who had experience. So we lneraed the answer and we crieard this in our heads for 20, 30 years, are you with me? The awesnr is, don't do things which are different. And then suddenly we tell them to and it doesn't work. You see, in reality, there are two ways you can fail in our new world. One, you're doing something that you should follow a procedure to, and it's a very difficult thing, you're sloppy, you get it wrong. How should you be treated? You should probably be ferid. On the other hand, you're doing something new, no one's ever done before, you get it completely wrong. How should you be traeted? Well, free pizzas! You should be treated better than the people who succeed. It's called sarmt fluarie. Why? Because you can't put it on your C.V.

Open Cloze

I'll give you an example, a quick one. Creativity and ideas, I mentioned that earlier. All the CEOs around me, my clients, they want __________, so they seek innovation. They say to people, "Take risks and be creative!" But unfortunately the words get transformed as they travel through the air. Entering their ears, what they hear is, "Do _____ things and then I'll fire you." Why? (Laughter) Because — Why? Because in the old world, okay, in the old world, over here, getting stuff wrong was unacceptable. If you got something wrong, you'd failed. How should you be treated? Well, _______, because you could have asked somebody who had experience. So we _______ the answer and we _______ this in our heads for 20, 30 years, are you with me? The ______ is, don't do things which are different. And then suddenly we tell them to and it doesn't work. You see, in reality, there are two ways you can fail in our new world. One, you're doing something that you should follow a procedure to, and it's a very difficult thing, you're sloppy, you get it wrong. How should you be treated? You should probably be _____. On the other hand, you're doing something new, no one's ever done before, you get it completely wrong. How should you be _______? Well, free pizzas! You should be treated better than the people who succeed. It's called _____ _______. Why? Because you can't put it on your C.V.

Solution

  1. smart
  2. treated
  3. harshly
  4. learned
  5. fired
  6. failure
  7. crazy
  8. innovation
  9. answer
  10. carried

Original Text

I'll give you an example, a quick one. Creativity and ideas, I mentioned that earlier. All the CEOs around me, my clients, they want innovation, so they seek innovation. They say to people, "Take risks and be creative!" But unfortunately the words get transformed as they travel through the air. Entering their ears, what they hear is, "Do crazy things and then I'll fire you." Why? (Laughter) Because — Why? Because in the old world, okay, in the old world, over here, getting stuff wrong was unacceptable. If you got something wrong, you'd failed. How should you be treated? Well, harshly, because you could have asked somebody who had experience. So we learned the answer and we carried this in our heads for 20, 30 years, are you with me? The answer is, don't do things which are different. And then suddenly we tell them to and it doesn't work. You see, in reality, there are two ways you can fail in our new world. One, you're doing something that you should follow a procedure to, and it's a very difficult thing, you're sloppy, you get it wrong. How should you be treated? You should probably be fired. On the other hand, you're doing something new, no one's ever done before, you get it completely wrong. How should you be treated? Well, free pizzas! You should be treated better than the people who succeed. It's called smart failure. Why? Because you can't put it on your C.V.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
green line 3
average real 2
green ink 2

Important Words

  1. air
  2. answer
  3. asked
  4. called
  5. carried
  6. ceos
  7. clients
  8. completely
  9. crazy
  10. creativity
  11. difficult
  12. earlier
  13. ears
  14. entering
  15. experience
  16. fail
  17. failed
  18. failure
  19. fire
  20. fired
  21. follow
  22. free
  23. give
  24. hand
  25. harshly
  26. heads
  27. hear
  28. ideas
  29. innovation
  30. laughter
  31. learned
  32. mentioned
  33. people
  34. procedure
  35. put
  36. quick
  37. reality
  38. risks
  39. seek
  40. sloppy
  41. smart
  42. stuff
  43. succeed
  44. suddenly
  45. transformed
  46. travel
  47. treated
  48. unacceptable
  49. ways
  50. words
  51. work
  52. world
  53. wrong
  54. years