what I love most about events like these
it’s not just the spreading of ideas but
it’s that people come together and I
think we often forget that humanity is
made up of humans it’s made up of
individuals and one of the things that
made the human race so successful is not
that the word they’re strongest or that
were the smartest it’s that there were
social animals we have the ability to
form communities cultures
what’s a community what’s a culture it’s
a group of people with a common set of
values and beliefs
what’s a company it’s a group of people
with a common set of values and bleeds
what’s a nation it’s a group of people
with a common set of values and beliefs
when we’re surrounded by people who
believe what we believe something
remarkable happens Trust emerges
make no mistake of it Trust is a feeling
trust is a distinctly human experience
it’s not a checklist simply doing
everything that’s expected of you
doesn’t mean people will trust you it
just means that you’re responsible
Trust is a feeling it is a very powerful
feeling and it only comes from being
surrounded by people who believe what
you believe I’ll share with you an
example that freaks me out every time I
talk about it what’s our most valued
possession on the planet so our children
right our children our most valuable
possession on the planet so let’s game
out a scenario let’s say you want to go
on a date so you need a babysitter you
have two choices option number one
there’s a sixteen year old from just
down the street with barely if any
babysitting experience option number two
there’s a 32 year old who just moved
into the neighborhood you don’t know
from where but she’s got ten years of
babysitting experience who do you choose
you choose the 16 year old think about
that you would rather trust your most
valued possession on the planet with
somebody with no experience but they’re
from within your community over somebody
with vast amounts of experience and you
don’t know where they come from or where
they belong or if you can trust them or
why should they trust you then why do we
do it differently at work why are we
more obsessed with someone’s resume and
what they’ve done and how much money
they’ve earned for our competition
can they help us and yet we never think
to ask or understand do you belong here
how can we trust you how can you trust
us one of the greatest challenges any
organization has believe it or not is
its own success all organizations start
out the same way there’s some sort of
metric usually money in this case and
time and when an organization is founded
what they do and why they do it are in
extra inextricably linked and that’s
because there’s usually a founder or
some small group of founders with some
vision of the world that doesn’t exist
Zipp exist yet and they’re filled with
passion and they attract people who
believe what they believe and those
people join up and they want to work
with them but then they get more
successful and they’re no longer relying
on their gut decision on each other now
they have to start hiring people who
hire someone who hire somebody who hires
someone who has to make a decision based
on what and that original cause gets
forgotten although they do really really
well here the original reason why they
started the company gets forgotten and
all of a sudden weird things start to
happen I call this the split and when an
organization goes through the split
there are a few symptoms the old-timers
will say it’s not like it used to be
it’s not like it used to be and yet they
can’t put it into words what do you mean
it’s not like it used me just doesn’t
feel the same they say other symptoms of
the split or when stress goes up and
passion goes down you work really hard
at the beginning how did how come it
didn’t feel stressful then and very
often you become more obsessed with what
your competition is doing over what you
are doing in organizations as they
become really successful this starts to
go away and what you start to see is
that even though they’re making more
money and even though they’re selling
more fulfillment does not go up in fact
what does go up is distrust we stopped
trusting management we stopped trusting
each other
even now my fear my thought is that
maybe America has gone through a split
if you go back to the greatest
generation our grandparents we call them
the greatest generation think about that
for a second why do they get the label
the greatest generation I’m Gen X that’s
unfair
I got a very
the unknown variable at that they get
the greatest generation I get X okay why
were they the greatest generation
because they were a part of something
they were all united in pursuit of
something bigger than themselves there
are stories of young men who shot
themselves when they didn’t get called
to action the population bought war
bonds we were all together we trusted
each other we trusted our leaders and
off we went to be a part of something
bigger than ourselves but then the war
ended and then they came back and I felt
like they’ve missed out on life being at
war and they grew up in the depression
and so they set all of that intense
loyalty in that’s intense Trust and they
went to work and we know what to find
the 1950s this is when you gave your
life to your company you work for years
until you gave up and got your gold
watch right absolute loyalty and what we
started to see was a growth in wealth in
the country growth in GDP and an
increase in affluence but that same
sense of fulfillment wasn’t there
because now they were working hard but
they weren’t feeling a part of something
anymore and the distrust started to show
up and in response was the hippie
movement and the hippie movement could
happen because there was more social
welfare the country could afford it for
people to fall off the grid and a lot of
those kids who were joining the hippie
movement they had rich parents and so
they could afford to go away and run up
and you know pretend to do something but
that sense of fulfillment that seeking
seeking you know to rebellion against
their parents affluence it didn’t have
that same sense of fulfillment they
weren’t getting it in a hippie community
and then you had the 1970s the Me
Generation and everybody thought that
you know you had to find some spiritual
guru before you could find some sense of
fulfillment and cults or all of a sudden
were on the rise and that evolved into
the 1980s still very very me focused
Gordon Gekko greed is good except this
time it went from spirituality into
business
all of a sudden business was good it
wasn’t dirty to be a part of a business
anymore and for the first time in
history in the 1980s theories were
proposed to use people to balance the
books this is the first time we started
to see massive layoffs of human beings
in order to make the numbers work then
you have the 1990s a period still
self-involved kombu
and that didn’t so work so well and now
we’re in the latest period in this new
decade of uncertainty and searching we
know that this hippie movement thing
didn’t work in the obsession with that
money thing didn’t work but as our
country continued to the GP started to
go up and add fluid started to go up
this started to go away and that sense
of purpose and that sense of cause went
away now technology hasn’t helped even
Andy Grove the founder of Intel said the
only thing the microprocessor really
ever does is make things go faster
and that’s exactly what technology has
done it’s made that go faster right
technology is wonderful for making
connections technology is wonderful for
the exchange of information technology
is amazing for driving transactions you
can perform transactions faster and
faster than we’ve ever performed them
but technology is terrible for creating
human relationships there was a time
when a desktop meant something
horizontal today means something
vertical and there was an a folder is a
picture of a thing we used to use now
that’s a fun example but technology has
co-opted some very human things as well
a friend is not somebody who checked
their status your network doesn’t happen
on LinkedIn a dialog doesn’t happen on
Twitter and a conversation doesn’t
happen on a blog
these are human experiences and they
could require human beings to be in the
room even bloggers
I love how bloggers talk about the
Internet as the end-all be-all the world
and that every year they come together
20,000 of them descend on Las Vegas to
have a conference why couldn’t they do
it online it’s because you got to have
the human Union in the 1960s a man by
the name of Stanley Milgram did an
experiment he wanted to understand how
the Holocaust could happen and so he
wanted understand how an entire
population could stand by and watch
genocide happen or some could even
contribute and the excuse they gave was
I’m just following orders and so he did
this what we know now is a terribly
unethical experiment but amazing results
he had a volunteer come in and that
volunteer was told that they would play
the role of a teacher and there was
another volunteer who is really a
scientist pretending to be a volunteer
who would play the role of the student
that teacher was sat at a table that had
a button and a dial
and the teacher was told that the
student would be asked a series of
questions and if the question was wrong
or if they refused to answer they would
have pushed the button and administer an
electric shock now in reality there was
only one electric shock given the whole
experiment it was a very small one given
to the teacher they could know what it
felt like and the dial they were told
after each question they were to turn
the dial up one notch and it said sort
of mild medium you know somewhat painful
extremely painful very painful and it
went red and then it said xxx
and as they would start the experiment
they would start giving the electric
shock the other scientist would pretend
that they were in pain they’d pretend
that they were getting an electric shock
and the person would feel bad and they’d
look to the scientist and say I’m
hurting the guy and the authority figure
would look down and say I’m afraid the
experiment must go on the experiment
really must go on and some of them would
mutter to themselves the experiment must
go on the experiment was gone as I
continued to press the button what the
results revealed is that when the
teacher could see and hear the student
they couldn’t go very far before they
completely quit the experiment when they
could hear them but not see them they
could go further but still not very far
before they quit when they could see
them but not here then they could go
further but still not very far but when
they could neither see nor hear the
impact of their decisions 65% of those
teachers were able to go all the way and
kill the guy and you know what they were
concerned with I’m not going to be
responsible am I a reason it’s an
unethical experiment is because
sixty-five percent of people who thought
they were good people when they walked
in the door
went home with the knowledge that they
could kill another human being now think
about how we do business today there was
a time that if you wanted to know what
your employees thought about you you
walked on the factory floor and you
asked them there was a time when Custis
customer service meant you talked to a
human being
now customer services you’ll get a reply
to your email in 24 hours I saw a bank
advertising that you get to talk to a
human being
I earned miles up the wazoo and one of
the airline’s you know one of the things
they gave me for my status a phone
number to talk to a person since when is
a person a luxury our survival depends
on it now think about how we do business
we do business on screens companies
manage their businesses on screens and
the more they make the more disconnected
they come from the founding of the
company the less they talk to their own
people they less they see and hear the
impact of their own decisions it’s not a
surprise that we’re putting poison in
foods chemicals and foods and now
scientists are saying that if we
continue down this path this generation
will have a shorter lifespan than
previous generation that’s not
surprising to me when you cannot see nor
hear the impact of the decisions you
make 65 percent of us have the ability
to kill someone what we need is more
human interactions what we need is to
shake hands we need we need a handshake
leadership we need handshake
conversations we need handshake friends
we need handshake dialogues we need
handshake meetings imagine if you were
to meet somebody you do a deal with them
you get along great they say I agree to
all the terms and I’m totally going to
do business with you and you go great
shake on it and they go I don’t need to
shake your hand oh come on we agree
let’s shake on it I don’t need to shake
your hand I agree to all your terms you
won’t do business with them because they
won’t shake your hand that’s how
powerful human interaction is what we
need to do is set out and shake hands
more often put ourselves in situations
where we can create real human
connections and where trust becomes the
standard and not the exception thank you
very much
[Applause]
it’s not just the spreading of ideas but
it’s that people come together and I
think we often forget that humanity is
made up of humans it’s made up of
individuals and one of the things that
made the human race so successful is not
that the word they’re strongest or that
were the smartest it’s that there were
social animals we have the ability to
form communities cultures
what’s a community what’s a culture it’s
a group of people with a common set of
values and beliefs
what’s a company it’s a group of people
with a common set of values and bleeds
what’s a nation it’s a group of people
with a common set of values and beliefs
when we’re surrounded by people who
believe what we believe something
remarkable happens Trust emerges
make no mistake of it Trust is a feeling
trust is a distinctly human experience
it’s not a checklist simply doing
everything that’s expected of you
doesn’t mean people will trust you it
just means that you’re responsible
Trust is a feeling it is a very powerful
feeling and it only comes from being
surrounded by people who believe what
you believe I’ll share with you an
example that freaks me out every time I
talk about it what’s our most valued
possession on the planet so our children
right our children our most valuable
possession on the planet so let’s game
out a scenario let’s say you want to go
on a date so you need a babysitter you
have two choices option number one
there’s a sixteen year old from just
down the street with barely if any
babysitting experience option number two
there’s a 32 year old who just moved
into the neighborhood you don’t know
from where but she’s got ten years of
babysitting experience who do you choose
you choose the 16 year old think about
that you would rather trust your most
valued possession on the planet with
somebody with no experience but they’re
from within your community over somebody
with vast amounts of experience and you
don’t know where they come from or where
they belong or if you can trust them or
why should they trust you then why do we
do it differently at work why are we
more obsessed with someone’s resume and
what they’ve done and how much money
they’ve earned for our competition
can they help us and yet we never think
to ask or understand do you belong here
how can we trust you how can you trust
us one of the greatest challenges any
organization has believe it or not is
its own success all organizations start
out the same way there’s some sort of
metric usually money in this case and
time and when an organization is founded
what they do and why they do it are in
extra inextricably linked and that’s
because there’s usually a founder or
some small group of founders with some
vision of the world that doesn’t exist
Zipp exist yet and they’re filled with
passion and they attract people who
believe what they believe and those
people join up and they want to work
with them but then they get more
successful and they’re no longer relying
on their gut decision on each other now
they have to start hiring people who
hire someone who hire somebody who hires
someone who has to make a decision based
on what and that original cause gets
forgotten although they do really really
well here the original reason why they
started the company gets forgotten and
all of a sudden weird things start to
happen I call this the split and when an
organization goes through the split
there are a few symptoms the old-timers
will say it’s not like it used to be
it’s not like it used to be and yet they
can’t put it into words what do you mean
it’s not like it used me just doesn’t
feel the same they say other symptoms of
the split or when stress goes up and
passion goes down you work really hard
at the beginning how did how come it
didn’t feel stressful then and very
often you become more obsessed with what
your competition is doing over what you
are doing in organizations as they
become really successful this starts to
go away and what you start to see is
that even though they’re making more
money and even though they’re selling
more fulfillment does not go up in fact
what does go up is distrust we stopped
trusting management we stopped trusting
each other
even now my fear my thought is that
maybe America has gone through a split
if you go back to the greatest
generation our grandparents we call them
the greatest generation think about that
for a second why do they get the label
the greatest generation I’m Gen X that’s
unfair
I got a very
the unknown variable at that they get
the greatest generation I get X okay why
were they the greatest generation
because they were a part of something
they were all united in pursuit of
something bigger than themselves there
are stories of young men who shot
themselves when they didn’t get called
to action the population bought war
bonds we were all together we trusted
each other we trusted our leaders and
off we went to be a part of something
bigger than ourselves but then the war
ended and then they came back and I felt
like they’ve missed out on life being at
war and they grew up in the depression
and so they set all of that intense
loyalty in that’s intense Trust and they
went to work and we know what to find
the 1950s this is when you gave your
life to your company you work for years
until you gave up and got your gold
watch right absolute loyalty and what we
started to see was a growth in wealth in
the country growth in GDP and an
increase in affluence but that same
sense of fulfillment wasn’t there
because now they were working hard but
they weren’t feeling a part of something
anymore and the distrust started to show
up and in response was the hippie
movement and the hippie movement could
happen because there was more social
welfare the country could afford it for
people to fall off the grid and a lot of
those kids who were joining the hippie
movement they had rich parents and so
they could afford to go away and run up
and you know pretend to do something but
that sense of fulfillment that seeking
seeking you know to rebellion against
their parents affluence it didn’t have
that same sense of fulfillment they
weren’t getting it in a hippie community
and then you had the 1970s the Me
Generation and everybody thought that
you know you had to find some spiritual
guru before you could find some sense of
fulfillment and cults or all of a sudden
were on the rise and that evolved into
the 1980s still very very me focused
Gordon Gekko greed is good except this
time it went from spirituality into
business
all of a sudden business was good it
wasn’t dirty to be a part of a business
anymore and for the first time in
history in the 1980s theories were
proposed to use people to balance the
books this is the first time we started
to see massive layoffs of human beings
in order to make the numbers work then
you have the 1990s a period still
self-involved kombu
and that didn’t so work so well and now
we’re in the latest period in this new
decade of uncertainty and searching we
know that this hippie movement thing
didn’t work in the obsession with that
money thing didn’t work but as our
country continued to the GP started to
go up and add fluid started to go up
this started to go away and that sense
of purpose and that sense of cause went
away now technology hasn’t helped even
Andy Grove the founder of Intel said the
only thing the microprocessor really
ever does is make things go faster
and that’s exactly what technology has
done it’s made that go faster right
technology is wonderful for making
connections technology is wonderful for
the exchange of information technology
is amazing for driving transactions you
can perform transactions faster and
faster than we’ve ever performed them
but technology is terrible for creating
human relationships there was a time
when a desktop meant something
horizontal today means something
vertical and there was an a folder is a
picture of a thing we used to use now
that’s a fun example but technology has
co-opted some very human things as well
a friend is not somebody who checked
their status your network doesn’t happen
on LinkedIn a dialog doesn’t happen on
Twitter and a conversation doesn’t
happen on a blog
these are human experiences and they
could require human beings to be in the
room even bloggers
I love how bloggers talk about the
Internet as the end-all be-all the world
and that every year they come together
20,000 of them descend on Las Vegas to
have a conference why couldn’t they do
it online it’s because you got to have
the human Union in the 1960s a man by
the name of Stanley Milgram did an
experiment he wanted to understand how
the Holocaust could happen and so he
wanted understand how an entire
population could stand by and watch
genocide happen or some could even
contribute and the excuse they gave was
I’m just following orders and so he did
this what we know now is a terribly
unethical experiment but amazing results
he had a volunteer come in and that
volunteer was told that they would play
the role of a teacher and there was
another volunteer who is really a
scientist pretending to be a volunteer
who would play the role of the student
that teacher was sat at a table that had
a button and a dial
and the teacher was told that the
student would be asked a series of
questions and if the question was wrong
or if they refused to answer they would
have pushed the button and administer an
electric shock now in reality there was
only one electric shock given the whole
experiment it was a very small one given
to the teacher they could know what it
felt like and the dial they were told
after each question they were to turn
the dial up one notch and it said sort
of mild medium you know somewhat painful
extremely painful very painful and it
went red and then it said xxx
and as they would start the experiment
they would start giving the electric
shock the other scientist would pretend
that they were in pain they’d pretend
that they were getting an electric shock
and the person would feel bad and they’d
look to the scientist and say I’m
hurting the guy and the authority figure
would look down and say I’m afraid the
experiment must go on the experiment
really must go on and some of them would
mutter to themselves the experiment must
go on the experiment was gone as I
continued to press the button what the
results revealed is that when the
teacher could see and hear the student
they couldn’t go very far before they
completely quit the experiment when they
could hear them but not see them they
could go further but still not very far
before they quit when they could see
them but not here then they could go
further but still not very far but when
they could neither see nor hear the
impact of their decisions 65% of those
teachers were able to go all the way and
kill the guy and you know what they were
concerned with I’m not going to be
responsible am I a reason it’s an
unethical experiment is because
sixty-five percent of people who thought
they were good people when they walked
in the door
went home with the knowledge that they
could kill another human being now think
about how we do business today there was
a time that if you wanted to know what
your employees thought about you you
walked on the factory floor and you
asked them there was a time when Custis
customer service meant you talked to a
human being
now customer services you’ll get a reply
to your email in 24 hours I saw a bank
advertising that you get to talk to a
human being
I earned miles up the wazoo and one of
the airline’s you know one of the things
they gave me for my status a phone
number to talk to a person since when is
a person a luxury our survival depends
on it now think about how we do business
we do business on screens companies
manage their businesses on screens and
the more they make the more disconnected
they come from the founding of the
company the less they talk to their own
people they less they see and hear the
impact of their own decisions it’s not a
surprise that we’re putting poison in
foods chemicals and foods and now
scientists are saying that if we
continue down this path this generation
will have a shorter lifespan than
previous generation that’s not
surprising to me when you cannot see nor
hear the impact of the decisions you
make 65 percent of us have the ability
to kill someone what we need is more
human interactions what we need is to
shake hands we need we need a handshake
leadership we need handshake
conversations we need handshake friends
we need handshake dialogues we need
handshake meetings imagine if you were
to meet somebody you do a deal with them
you get along great they say I agree to
all the terms and I’m totally going to
do business with you and you go great
shake on it and they go I don’t need to
shake your hand oh come on we agree
let’s shake on it I don’t need to shake
your hand I agree to all your terms you
won’t do business with them because they
won’t shake your hand that’s how
powerful human interaction is what we
need to do is set out and shake hands
more often put ourselves in situations
where we can create real human
connections and where trust becomes the
standard and not the exception thank you
very much
[Applause]
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