is now executive producer. Mark has a passion for connecting people and ideas. He talks in a constant flow of concepts and structures, mottos, mantras, and catch phrases. His favorite during this interview was, “If I was to wear a tee shirt right now with three words on, it would say ‘every moment matters.’” The phrase comes up again and again as any good mantra should.
Adaptation to COVID The TED community sprang into action immediately adapting to the virus crisis – if you can say that about a bunch of intellectuals. But Big TED as Mark sometimes calls the New York office made a number of moves as the pandemic took hold. Chris Anderson, the British-American businessman who is the head of TED, created TEDConnects, which is a curated conference every morning during the week at 9 am for free. Remarkably anybody in the world can join. The first TEDConnects was hosted by Susan David on March 23, a Harvard medical psychologist who spoke on the psychology of being your best self during this time of crisis and the importance of emotional agility. Over 10,000 people signed in for the first TEDConnects, and more continued to join as figures like Bill Gates, formerly of Microsoft, The Ubiquitous TED Red Circle (photo by DavidKafer.com) and Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the best seller Eat, Pray, Love, followed suit. does the world need to know and why do they need to know it now?” TED Circles was another innovation. The idea for TED Circles originated That turns out to be a very useful question especially in these troubled times. pre-virus but has since become a major source of community gathering and innovation online. Anybody can sign up to become a host of a circle, and there is typically a talk of the week that the group watches and then discusses. The organizer can invite 11 friends and they actually show up in a circle on the Apply the freedom vs form dynamic of improv comedy to any creative form screen. Ted even created a workbook to help organizers guide conversations in or thought endeavor and it’s easy to see how the civilized world has shifted into their own circles, all over the world. All of this has led to an even more massive a literally life and death struggle between Chaos and Form. adaption of TED’s methodology across the world becoming part of many peoIt speaks volumes that it is easy to describe the state of the world right now ple’s daily lives in quarantine. as chaos. Forms old and new are swirling around in our lives. Some are antiquated, some are useful and are worth reviving, some need to be retired or will just naturally die off. In the process of discussion Mark instantly and restlessly pulls out his sketch“We might be physically distancing but socially we’re actually closer,” Mark book and begins drawing. It’s odd at first. The spontaneous drawing reminds remarked and this rings true for the 4,000 or so TEDx organizers who meet one of the archetype of a professor at a chalkboard, but also a child drawing daily on Zoom to discuss what needs to be done in the world. When Mark with colored pencils or even the symptoms of OCD, after all, every good thinkdecided to start a working group to consider writing a playbook for virtual er has to have a little obsessive behavior to stay on focus. Soon color markers event production, he had so many responses that he “blew up the internet.” appear and the entire sketch of what he is trying to say as he speaks comes to These innovators are leaning in to Zoom and other video meeting apps in order life, taking shape in words, forms, figures, and arrows. He is practiced in this to find out what they can do. They have ‘open mike’ hangouts where the orga- process and the drawing drives more fully formed concepts to come to the fore. nizers from around the world can have thirty seconds to share a hack that was “Every coach has a coach,” Mark says. “My coach is Scott Mann, he’s a retired helping, or give voice to any other interesting ideas that are arising. Lieutenant Colonel Green Beret. He’s taking me to school on all the lessons he As dependent as all this virtual organization is on planning and predictabili- learned in the military, how we go from chaos to order.” ty, Mark’s mercurial inclinations began to innovate the staid, ubiquitous forum Sure enough, as the conversation unfolds, a chart, a kind of infographic of Zoom. Rather than having a serious, sterile meeting, he began to play with appears, depicting the process of channeling chaos to order which is in fact the the idea of virtual dance parties and games. graphic that accompanies this article produced in real time. This is consistent with his love of storytelling and improv comedy. Improvisational comedy is in many ways its own logical system with its own rules and dynamics. “Improv has replaced jazz as America’s most popular art,” according to Sam This process is a glimpse into the mind of Mark Sylvester. He is constantly Wasson in his book Improv Nation. Improv is a rapid-fire art of unscripted per- drawing and diagramming the world of thought around him. He mentally formance that despite being utilized to create “comedy” could truly be applied floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee, improvising and drawing his way to to any creative endeavor. As Wasson remarks, it’s all about “the driving tension light and understanding. For every ounce of Mark that is intellectual, there is between freedom and form.” another ounce that is equally an artist. By drawing out a vicious problem such Mark sees improv as an important “mental exercise and mental calisthenics.” as the chaos the virus has caused, he puts words and thoughts into each ring in It’s a space where the organizers can freely share with unselfconscious and even order to visualize a path to a solution. unconscious freedom. It’s a higher structural understanding of improv, that elicThe true power of TED lies with people like Mark, always willing to restlessly its a schoolteacher’s desire to add an “e” at the end. What attracted Mark to TED gnaw on a problem, and gather and curate other restless minds and bring them from the very beginning, “was that sense of seeing something from a different together in the famous Red Circle that lies empty at the beginning of every talk point of view, understanding it differently and always asking the question, what until someone walks on stage and fills it. •MJ
Moving from Chaos to Order
Physically Distant – Socially Near
The Mind of Mark
4 – 11 June 2020
• THE VOICE OF THE VILLAGE •
MONTECITO JOURNAL
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