opportunities every single day because
we’re not listening to each other’s
ideas my name is David I’m a dreamer I
like to think big and I like to draw big
every single day and I believe that
anything is possible
and why wouldn’t I this is my beautiful
family
there’s my wife Jenny she’s somewhere
here this afternoon
and our beautiful little boy Toby who’s
definitely not here this afternoon he’ll
be waiting far too much noise toby is 18
months old he’s at that age raised
running around causing absolute havoc
and he’s also beginning to speak
gibberish but this gibberish is his way
of beginning to express himself of his
work beginning to express his ideas but
we can all be forgiven for sometimes
ignoring the gibberish of a toddler I’ve
been very fortunate over the last few
years to travel the world and work with
tens of thousands of students from the
ages of free up to 18 in every single
learning environment including young
offenders units but ever since I became
a father he gave me a very different
outlook on the world
and recently I’ve wondered to myself if
actually a child could change the world
so today I posed the question can a four
year old changed the world now I know
Toby isn’t quite at that age he I’m sure
the next two and a half years are going
to go like that so why am I asking this
question so afternoon and why have I
chosen the age of four well
four-year-olds are going through quite a
lot their imaginations of developing
their numeracy and literacy skills are
improving every single day the average
four-year-old can speak up to 1,500
words a day compared to an adult which
is around 50,000 words they’re more
active than any of us and they’re also
learning to share one of the most vital
skills that we take it through life a
four-year-old doesn’t have a filter you
ask the question does my bum look big in
this you will get an honest answer
four-year-olds are sponges and because
they are sponges I think they are a
perfect age to engage with to listen to
and begin to hear their ideas scientists
also believe that this is a crucial age
as they move away from the comfort of
the home to the chaos of the school so
why is this an important question it’ll
put it simply we’re living in a world
facing political and man-made disasters
we’ve taken a giant leap forwards in at
many many areas but then even bigger
leaps back in others and put it simply I
don’t think we’re doing a very good job
of improving the planet and maybe just
maybe there might be a different source
for generating ideas that could change
the world and these might come from our
dying tables from our playgrounds or
indeed from our four-year-olds so what
did I do to help me prepare for today’s
talk what I didn’t a number of things I
went on Twitter and I asked the rest of
the world what did they think about this
question I was very lucky to get a few
likes a few retweets and maybe 2,000
people took part in this poll forty five
percent of people said yes the
four-year-old could change the world
forty percent of people said no and
fifteen percent of people said that they
weren’t fast now I have no idea who took
part in this I don’t know if it was
four-year-olds I don’t know if it was
parents non parents whatever their age
whatever their backgrounds and
consequently because it was a fairly
even split of 45 to 40 percent it didn’t
really help me answer my question so I
decided to go and spend some time with
some four-year-olds and I went back to
my old primary school which was st.
George’s roots him in Kent and I had an
afternoon with the wonderful oak class
which you can see on the screen I loved
my time at this school and this was
mainly danced a mile ho – head teacher
mr. Jones and had a little bit of time
with them and I spent my afternoon by
asking the first question I asked them
was do you think that you could change
the world and this is what they had to
say
you can change the world
yes do you need to change the world
superpowers say apart from an amazing
amount of fun what did we actually learn
well 50% of the students felt that they
could change the world
and 50% that they couldn’t out of those
which said that they could change the
world 80% of those were boys and 20%
were girls little earlier you can see
here said that he needed superhero
powers and Tania said that she needed
physical strength which I thought was
quite a remarkable set of comments that
even at the age of four that they needed
strength and superhero powers and not
their own brains their own belief and
courage to change the world now after we
had a little run around in the
playground I decided to see if they
could actually help the wall down and I
gave them free areas to focus on and I
picked free of the United Nations 2030
goals which you can see the first being
end poverty in all forms everywhere
ensure healthy lives who promote
well-being for all at all ages and
ensure availability and sustainability
management of water and
sanitation for all now of course we made
this a little bit more four-year-old
friendly we simplified it we asked them
how would you help the poor how could we
all be healthier and how could we all
stop wasting water and this is what they
had to say we can make a big bucket and
make it into drinking water there you go
I’ll be the first to admit some quite
bizarre ideas we had from our our
four-year-olds it was quite remarkable
how they change from where we were in
the classroom to walking down to the
cameraman but nonetheless who are we to
judge if these are good or if these are
bad ideas that’s absolutely no reason
why we couldn’t have green shops
everywhere that we had to go in and buy
our healthy food or our buckets on every
single roof which collects rainwater and
turns it into drinking water so the my
question can a four-year-old change the
world
my answer is pretty straightforward it’s
yes yes yes they can but have we can
ever considered have we ever considered
actually taking a major political issue
to a group of four-year-olds and asking
them what they think we wouldn’t dare we
won’t dream they are too small they can
hardly string a sentence together they
speak gibberish but the true value of a
four-year-old is that they allow us to
see the world differently they have a
different perspective they have no
filters so we need to go and ask
questions to four-year-olds and to
children out there but what’s absolutely
vital when we start asking question
the children is that we give them time
to respond as I was researching this
topic I had a fascinating conversation
with the head teacher and she told me in
the classroom that teachers get between
0.7 and 1.4 seconds time to respond to a
question they are asking up to 400
questions a day 70,000 questions a year
the child which is putting their hand up
first is getting the opportunity to
speak the child was suspending a little
bit longer thinking about their answer
is not getting that opportunity to share
what they’re thinking and that error is
being compounded every single day and I
believe it’s having a direct impact on
the amount of questions that child asks
we can all relate the four-year-old
which says why why why all the time a
four-year-old asked up to a hundred
questions a day but by the time they
leave secondary school this moves to
near zero and I believe this is having
an impact on their levels of curiosity
and the amount of ideas that they
generate and it’s unlikely to take an
upward curve as we move into adulthood
because another skill which takes a
decline is our listening skills and
there’s lots of reasons for that
but I’ve chosen a few examples here this
afternoon the first being that we are
moaning too much the average a doe
moans sixteen times a day
that equates the two working weeks a
year the average arrow is spending a
hundred and sixteen minutes nearly two
hours of every single day on social
media and even more whirring we are
spending a hundred and seventy one
minutes nearly three hours of every day
on our phones that equates to
forty-three days a year we are spending
43 days a year
holding our phones so this decline in
the amount of questions that we ask is
decline in our listening skills is
having an impact on our businesses we
can all relate to being in the office
well we are over a school ever a
graduate an apprentice or simply moving
companies but you very often see in
working environments that people’s
energy that enthusiasm from day one when
they join an organization is very
quickly drained and within a few months
a few days sometimes within a few months
people jump on something which I call
the corporate treadmill where they are
just plodding along and doing their jobs
and they are not happy about it there
are 80 percent of people out there you
go to work every single day dissatisfied
with what they do in the UK that is 24
million people not happy grumpy and
dissatisfied with their day jobs and I
believe this decline in questioning mr.
Klein in listening this move to the
statistic the vast majority of people in
their adulthood doing some of that
they’re not passionate about means that
businesses are missing out on millions
of business ideas every single day
because we’re not listening to each
other these ideas could be ideas about
how to increase revenue about how to cut
costs improve productivity improve
client or employee satisfaction so my
question is evolving from California
I’ll change the world to put it simply
should we be inviting
four-year-olds into government she will
be inviting 24 year-olds into the
boardroom I think we should if we’re
brave enough and Frank once said how
wonderful it is that no one needs to
weigh a single moment before starting to
improve the world this quote I
absolutely love and I certainly believe
the 7 billion people out there on this
planet can improve the world but we can
all do it better if we improve our
listening skills so what could we do to
improve our listening skills the first
let’s remove all distractions when
you’re at the dining table at home there
is no reason to have that television on
or your phone on the table when you go
into a meeting at work please do not put
your phone on the table as soon as you
receive a like or a push notification
your eyes look at that phone and you are
distracted you are not listening to what
everybody is saying secondly ask
questions whether you’re talking to a
child or you’re talking to an adult this
is the biggest sign that you are
listening to someone and thirdly let’s
just get carried away by our
imaginations
if you speak to a four-year-old and they
tell you an amazingly wacky bizarre idea
and you’re thinking of all the reasons
why it can’t happen for a few minutes
just get carried away with that chart
because you’ll be amazed where your
Toby’s life over the next few years
would take whatever direction he decides
but one thing’s for sure certain Jenni
and I would always believe in him we
would always encourage him but we will
also always listen to him because it is
in this environment of listening that
true innovation flourishes we are
missing out on millions of missed
opportunities every single day because
we do not listen to each other’s ideas
my name is David Arkin
I like to feel big I like to dream big
and I believe that anything is possible
can a four-year-old change the world yes
they can can a 24 and 84 year old change
the world of course they can we just all
got to start listening when we ask a
child a question we’ve got to give them
the time to respond we have to put down
our phones and move away from the
statistic of being on our phones for 43
days a year and at all costs we must
avoid getting on that corporate
treadmill I passionately believe that
every single person not only four year
olds can change the world but we have to
start listening to each other because
it’s only in this environment that true innovation flourishes thank you