TED Talk Tuesday #159: The New Playground of Chaos.

Watching TED Talks is a popular pastime at CN&CO. We visit TED.com regularly to clear our heads, have a laugh or get inspired. TED Talks open our minds, spark new ways of thinking and can lead to some very interesting conversations. Each week we pick a favourite and publish it on a Tuesday, because we like how “TED Talk Tuesday” sounds. It’s also a way that the CN&CO team play their part on spreading ideas and helping to make the world a better place. This week’s talk is posted by Francois. Here’s why he chose it:

Given the current Covid-19 climate, it can be said that we as a species have been met with a direct form of absolute chaos. The world as we know it has changed completely and the way we interact therein even more so. Thankfully, as humans we have an innate ability to strive in making sense of chaos, adapt our perspective and implement change in creative ways.

In her TEDx talk, South African Claire Burge, CEO of This is Productivity, addresses the concept of chaos and how embracing it can lead to ultimate productivity in creativity.

“If we want to unleash human potential, we need to accelerate it by creatively harnessing chaos,” she says.

Burge furthers this notion by using a the playgrounds of children as a prime example of chaos functioning optimally to stimulate creativity. When kids are at play on a playground they use the structures (the swing, the see-saw, the jungle gym) that are in place to promote creative development in their interaction. The jungle gym can go from a castle to a spaceship to a fire station within a span of five minutes. And in her opinion “…work should be no different”.

Over the past few weeks we as the CN&CO family have absolutely embraced the changes in this completely different playground we find ourselves in due to Covid-19. Everyone has taken the ensuing chaos and allowed it to feed their creativity to create new ways of doing business. We looked at the different tools, or “jungle gyms” if you will, that we have to our disposal and how we can use them for business to continue.

As live eventing is one of our primary business ventures, and seeing as live events are now virtually impossible, we looked at how we can use the tools of technology and make events virtually possible. One of our primary client bases for events is found within the insurance industry and with the help of our boss-extraordinaire, Carel Nolte, we founded and implemented InsureTalk1, our first virtual conference.

InsureTalk is a platform created to promote the exchange of information between key players in the insurance industry and others working in the same industry as well. Insuretalk1 was met with great success and we got positive feedback on how we were able to create an event (that would’ve normally taken the live format) and implement it virtually and ensure the exchange of valuable information.

It was a proud moment for me to be part of the InsureTalk initiative and above all to be part of a team that collectively supported this abstract idea of a virtual conference. All parties harnessed the chaos we are currently in, saw the potential and helped to find creative ways to curate, promote and ultimately implement an event that seemed impossible amidst the current chaos. And so the latter instils absolute positivity in me for the future. It also humbles me to know that I am part of a team that is willing to embrace the chaos with us and, despite the tough times, we actively allow the chaos to feed our creativity and we support the new ways we want play on the playground of life.

If you want to see first-hand how the CN&CO fam has made success of the current chaos, be sure to check out the second edition of InsureTalk happening on 14 May 2020 from 10am.

Also be sure to have a look at Claire Burge’s TED Talk and her thoughts on chaos and creativity.