The Power of TED

Mark Sylvester draws on everything (photo by DavidKafer.com)

This is a story about moving from Chaos to Order. We need that right? It’s also about the Adventures of Mark and TED. Who is TED? The question is rather what? TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design and at this point it’s an American media institution, a publicly sourced think tank, that holds conferences all around the world and posts talks online for free under the slogan “ideas worth spreading.” Ok, well then, who is Mark? Mark Sylvester is a local Santa Barbara genius, a man who helped develop the computer 3D animation software called Maya that revolutionized the way the world is entertained, that includes Pixar, DreamWorks, LucasFilm and all the special effects in between. He’s also the host and executive producer of TEDxSantaBarbara, and the podcast series Hacking the Red Circle, the creator of PodClass with California Lutheran University’s School of Management, a storyteller, a fanatical lover of cats, a chef, and an improv comedian. Phew. He’s a very busy person even for a once in a lifetime shutdown in a pandemic quarantine.

A New TEDx Forum: Making Waves

Most importantly Mark knows how to unlock the Power of TED – great minds who don’t think alike and create new and useful innovation. Starting this Wednesday at 4 pm Pacific Time, he’s launching “Making Waves: Conversations with Innovators and Disruptors,” a series of short virtual talks, highlighting discussions of hope and optimism while showcasing actionable solutions with local and national experts and activists that include Sigrid Wright CEO of the Community Environmental Council, Katie Hershfelt of Cultivate Events, and best-selling author, scholar and theologian Noah benShea, and many others.

Some of the topics will include; our Food Supply, BioTech, Psychology, Resiliency, Impact on Gatherings, Retail, The Environment, Energy, the Ocean, Social Justice, Civil Discourse, Education, Creativity, and Animal Activism, to name a few minor subjects of pressing, urgent interest.

We need ideas, right? This guy’s got them. Even better he knows where to find more.

“From Chaos to Order in Four Circles” – The green outer circle represents the Chaos of any situation. Pay attention to the bubbles, as they represent the ideas and information you may be dealing with. The pink ring of Complexity offers the first level of beginning to cluster the chaos into boxes. The yellow ring, Complicated, shows the way the bubbles are interrelated. By breaking each one Order, the orange circle, is achieved.

The Need for Bright Minds TED can often seem nerdy, in its own quarantine universe, but it is home to some of the most brilliant minds in the world, hosted all over the world. And and Pathways of Recovery they’re constantly searching for ways to innovate and expand in unique multidisciplinary ways. TED is also a process, a concept, and a principle of intel

Sara Miller McCune, businesswoman and one of Santa Barbara’s leading lectual endeavor even when it’s about other nonintellectual endeavors. It’s a philanthropists, remarked early in the COVID crisis, that “the issues of looking society of thinkers, a place to discover new ideas, and a place to belong if you’re for ways to react to the pandemic, both during its unknown length and during a thinker, important now in this chaos more than ever. its undoubtedly very long period of recovery, are huge. The sooner bright Founded in 1984 (why does that year ring a bell?), TED is the main organizaminds start discussing and developing pathways to recovery, the better off we tion based in New York City. TEDx is a branch of the larger TED family. The X will all be.” stands for independently organized event, anybody can apply to do a TEDx in

Whether we like it or not we’re all in fact participating in a worldwide their town if there isn’t already one there. A major change happened to the TED thought experiment with real world consequences, looking for the solutions to world when it transferred ownership in 2003 from Richard Saul Wurman to this extraordinary moment. TED is the definition of bright minds discussing Chris Anderson. Some might say that this was the point in which TED became and developing pathways. a bit more eccentric, while others criticized the transition.

The much-parodied classic TED talk with its Mensa Society allure and by now The local Santa Barbara chapter of TED was launched by Mark Sylvester, predictable emotional arc and occasionally smug visionary-speak, has, in truth, its playful pan-like interlocutor. He launched TEDx Santa Barbara in 2010 and 32 MONTECITO JOURNAL “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. 4 – 11 June 2020

transformed the level of public discourse for the better. It has made the idea of ideas cool, even sexy, and improved the level of data presentation, created a new demand for world changing ideas and reintroduced personal passion into what used to be sober dry proceedings, upping the ante on authenticity. Perhaps its most important contribution is re-introducing the idea of a journey and storytelling as crucial to public speaking.

Whether we like it or not we’re all in fact participating in a worldwide thought experiment with real world consequences, looking for the solutions to this extraordinary moment. TED is the definition of bright minds discussing and developing pathways.

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 Moving from Chaos to Order 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 Physically Distant – Socially Near 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 orgaprocess 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 predictabililearned 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. The Mind of Mark

“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 perdrawing 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 4 – 11 June 2020 • The Voice of the Village • MONTECITO JOURNAL 33