[Applause]
once again I found myself sitting
looking at the top of my son’s head
whilst he engaged in yet more online
content like many other mothers I asked
myself is this technology a good thing
what is it doing to our world and what
does it hold for our future we live in a
world that is more connected than it has
ever been
technology has cast a net over the whole
planet meaning that no longer we just
connected to those locally we’re
connected to people on the other side of
the globe not only is that net cost
wider but the detail goes deeper we now
get the most intimate insights into our
fellow humans lives whether that’s a
young girl in a war zone sharing raw
emotion live or our neighbor showing
what they had for lunch today we now get
the most intimate insight into our
fellow humans lives we are all
intrinsically connected yet we feel more
lonely and disconnected than ever before
we live in a world where we all have
access to the same tools and the same
information if you want to learn
something you can find an online teacher
offering free knowledge on pretty much
any subject say you want to start a
business you can glean insights from all
of those that have gone before you and
set up a website which is effectively a
global sales platform within days if not
hours technology’s created a level
playing field we should all be more
equal yet inequality is on the rise all
around us we’re seeing strange things
happen to make ourselves feel better
about it we call it disruptions but
maybe this is the new business as usual
take Airbnb they have disrupted a whole
industry now the number one reason that
people give for using Airbnb is that
it’s cheaper but it’s not studies into
comparative
Singh has shown that many nights in an
air B&B would have been just as
economical in a similarly located hotel
then there’s over they’ve changed
transportation in many cities more than
that they’ve changed the way that many
of us travel even in times of austerity
more of us are hailing a ride because of
uber then you’ve got people like Elon
Musk who persuades thousands of us to
part with vast deposits for cars that he
admittedly doesn’t have the capacity to
build and we’re seeing strange
phenomenon in our politics as well in a
world that has spent decades fighting
for freedom and unity nearly seventeen
point five million Britons voted to
leave in the brexit referendum and over
62 million Americans voted for a man
whose main campaign soundbite was let’s
build a wall when you take a step back
from the media hype this makes little
sense wanting to understand what kind of
world my children were going to grow up
in I went on a journey to discover what
is really going on in the world why are
we seeing so many big changes why do so
many of us feel uneasy and uncertain
about the future
why are we so lonely when we’re so
connected and why does the world appear
to be getting more unfair what I found
was that most people like me could point
the finger at technology but we didn’t
really understand what that actually
meant however there was a new breed of
disruptive leader and they seemed to be
operating under a different set of rules
using a different system and when I dug
a little bit deeper it wasn’t that they
were tech geniuses it was actually much
more human than that once I started to
decode what was really going on
everything became so much clearer there
has been a huge shift something that I
like to call the logic shift what it’s
about is how we distribute our power and
our perspective we used to live in a
where we were predominantly managed by
organizational power so generally the
large organizations controlled most
things that we did where is now as we’ve
already mentioned we’ve got this level
playing field with technology
individuals have just as much power as
the large organizations in terms of
perspective we used to live in a world
where we only had only had individual
power we were connected to people local
to us yes there were international news
reports but it just all felt so far away
so intangible now we live in a global
world these devices work hold in our
hands give us that real insight into
real life of other people it’s delivered
by other people and so it feels real and
that shifted our perspective very much
from local to global so we’ve moved from
a world and local organizational power
to global individual the best way to
describe this is to use an example that
we’ll all understand and using wore in
the old ello world if you wanted to
start a war what you needed to do was
physically bring people together in one
location under the banner and
organization of an army you fought
side-by-side over the physical land that
you stood on in the new GI world any one
person can take a global perspective
that person can glean the knowledge to
build and detonate a suicide bomb and
that one person can have a massive
impact in the whole world what we’re all
feeling is this shift from ello to G I
take uber the reason that they’ve been
so successful is because they’ve given
their drivers the individual power to
earn their own income to be their own
bosses they’ve connected them to a
global database of customers and in
doing so they’ve empowered them to have
their own income and have their own
freedom the technology has just done the
enabling see in the world that we live
bears more opportune
see than there’s ever been there’s more
tools and information our fingertips
that mean we can have the same
opportunities there’s never been a
better time for the average person
people like you or me to rise up and
make our mark on the world but here’s
the thing most of us don’t feel
comfortable in this new world the change
has been so vast and happened so quickly
that any feeling of opportunity has been
drowned out by fear and that’s where the
sea of logic comes in because we have a
conflict between convenience and
connection we’ve being drawn up to the
new GI world
by convenience but the fear and wanting
to be back near our small connected
world brings us back down to the old
ello world few years ago we used to hel
camps in a normal way but now more and
more of us are hailing and even we love
the convenience that we can hail Anubha
within a minutes notice but we fear that
the cab may be driven by an immigrant
from outside our small connected
community we all want the convenience of
being able to order something online
within a few minutes and have it
delivered almost immediately but we hate
that our high streets are dissolving in
front of our eyes at the bidding
beginning of the political campaigns
very few pundits actually believed that
Trump would win or bricks it would come
out on top but understanding the logic
shift we can see how this might be the
case because people wanted to regain
that sense of connection they wanted to
feel like they were part of a smaller
safer connected community again but we
shouldn’t be ourselves up because none
of this is actually our fault the
problem lies in our biology as humans we
are inherently lazy both our bodies and
brains were designed to conserve energy
probably in case we needed it for the
next hunt or in case we needed it for
the onslaught of an unexpected fight for
survival we were destined to search for
that convenience we were also destined
to search for connection
we have abnormally large brains compared
to the next largest headed species and
relative to the size of our body our
brains are 50% larger a particularly
large element of our brains is our
neocortex and this is the part of the
brain that deals with social connections
back in the early 1990s anthropologist
Robin Dunbar discovered a striking
relationship between the size of a
species neocortex and the size of group
that they were destined to reside in for
us humans Dunbar number says that we
should be in groups of 150 and if we
look back through history this number
has always been the case from the
earliest settlements of man until just a
few centuries ago most humans lived
within groups of 150 in today’s world
the average number of wedding guests is
150 companies and squadrons of the
world’s armies generally comprised of up
to 150 soldiers and even in our new GI
world even with the vast capability that
we have to connect to thousands of
people the median number of friends on
Facebook amongst these billions of users
is just 200 you see even in this world
with all this opportunity for us to
connect on a global scale our brains
just can’t cope they want to pull us
back to that small safer connected
community that they knew and they want
felt safing so what does this mean for
the future what kind of world are our
kids going to grow up in and what do we
all need to be successful and help them
be successful well the great leaders of
the future will not necessarily be the
ones with the best products all the best
IDs or even the best tech they will be
the ones that help us live in this new
world of convenience and connection
convenience may yield short wins but
overruled by our neocortex we will
always need to strive for that
connection
the reason Airbnb is so successful is
not just because it’s a global
individual proposition for the room
providers
it’s because it’s about making
friendships people return from their
state and share stories of the lovely
owners they met and how wonderful it was
to stay in their homes
Airbnb empowers us to live in the GI
world but feel like we’re back in the
old ello world feel like we connected
again and that’s what people came back
for Elon Musk well he doesn’t sell cars
he actually sells a sense of connection
he empowers people to feel part of
global world that they’re living in
people buy Tesla’s because they want to
show that they care about the global
environment and they want to be part of
a progressive future and in doing that
they become connected to a group of
like-minded people have the same beliefs
it’s the leaders that emotionally or
physically connect us to this new global
individual world which will be the ones
to watch so technology has changed the
world burying our heads in the sand and
hoping it’s going to go away is
pointless as humans we were destined to
progress but fundamentally we will still
be humans will still be managers of the
same bodies and brains that we were born
into our brains that have taken millions
of years to evolve are not just going to
change overnight so we’re going to need
to learn to adapt if you want to be a
great leader of the future then what you
need to do is empower your other human
beings to find ways to embrace the new
power and perspective they have make it
convenient but above all make sure you
help them find ways to feel connected to
their other human beings it really is a
whole new world of connection thank you [Applause]
once again I found myself sitting
looking at the top of my son’s head
whilst he engaged in yet more online
content like many other mothers I asked
myself is this technology a good thing
what is it doing to our world and what
does it hold for our future we live in a
world that is more connected than it has
ever been
technology has cast a net over the whole
planet meaning that no longer we just
connected to those locally we’re
connected to people on the other side of
the globe not only is that net cost
wider but the detail goes deeper we now
get the most intimate insights into our
fellow humans lives whether that’s a
young girl in a war zone sharing raw
emotion live or our neighbor showing
what they had for lunch today we now get
the most intimate insight into our
fellow humans lives we are all
intrinsically connected yet we feel more
lonely and disconnected than ever before
we live in a world where we all have
access to the same tools and the same
information if you want to learn
something you can find an online teacher
offering free knowledge on pretty much
any subject say you want to start a
business you can glean insights from all
of those that have gone before you and
set up a website which is effectively a
global sales platform within days if not
hours technology’s created a level
playing field we should all be more
equal yet inequality is on the rise all
around us we’re seeing strange things
happen to make ourselves feel better
about it we call it disruptions but
maybe this is the new business as usual
take Airbnb they have disrupted a whole
industry now the number one reason that
people give for using Airbnb is that
it’s cheaper but it’s not studies into
comparative
Singh has shown that many nights in an
air B&B would have been just as
economical in a similarly located hotel
then there’s over they’ve changed
transportation in many cities more than
that they’ve changed the way that many
of us travel even in times of austerity
more of us are hailing a ride because of
uber then you’ve got people like Elon
Musk who persuades thousands of us to
part with vast deposits for cars that he
admittedly doesn’t have the capacity to
build and we’re seeing strange
phenomenon in our politics as well in a
world that has spent decades fighting
for freedom and unity nearly seventeen
point five million Britons voted to
leave in the brexit referendum and over
62 million Americans voted for a man
whose main campaign soundbite was let’s
build a wall when you take a step back
from the media hype this makes little
sense wanting to understand what kind of
world my children were going to grow up
in I went on a journey to discover what
is really going on in the world why are
we seeing so many big changes why do so
many of us feel uneasy and uncertain
about the future
why are we so lonely when we’re so
connected and why does the world appear
to be getting more unfair what I found
was that most people like me could point
the finger at technology but we didn’t
really understand what that actually
meant however there was a new breed of
disruptive leader and they seemed to be
operating under a different set of rules
using a different system and when I dug
a little bit deeper it wasn’t that they
were tech geniuses it was actually much
more human than that once I started to
decode what was really going on
everything became so much clearer there
has been a huge shift something that I
like to call the logic shift what it’s
about is how we distribute our power and
our perspective we used to live in a
where we were predominantly managed by
organizational power so generally the
large organizations controlled most
things that we did where is now as we’ve
already mentioned we’ve got this level
playing field with technology
individuals have just as much power as
the large organizations in terms of
perspective we used to live in a world
where we only had only had individual
power we were connected to people local
to us yes there were international news
reports but it just all felt so far away
so intangible now we live in a global
world these devices work hold in our
hands give us that real insight into
real life of other people it’s delivered
by other people and so it feels real and
that shifted our perspective very much
from local to global so we’ve moved from
a world and local organizational power
to global individual the best way to
describe this is to use an example that
we’ll all understand and using wore in
the old ello world if you wanted to
start a war what you needed to do was
physically bring people together in one
location under the banner and
organization of an army you fought
side-by-side over the physical land that
you stood on in the new GI world any one
person can take a global perspective
that person can glean the knowledge to
build and detonate a suicide bomb and
that one person can have a massive
impact in the whole world what we’re all
feeling is this shift from ello to G I
take uber the reason that they’ve been
so successful is because they’ve given
their drivers the individual power to
earn their own income to be their own
bosses they’ve connected them to a
global database of customers and in
doing so they’ve empowered them to have
their own income and have their own
freedom the technology has just done the
enabling see in the world that we live
bears more opportune
see than there’s ever been there’s more
tools and information our fingertips
that mean we can have the same
opportunities there’s never been a
better time for the average person
people like you or me to rise up and
make our mark on the world but here’s
the thing most of us don’t feel
comfortable in this new world the change
has been so vast and happened so quickly
that any feeling of opportunity has been
drowned out by fear and that’s where the
sea of logic comes in because we have a
conflict between convenience and
connection we’ve being drawn up to the
new GI world
by convenience but the fear and wanting
to be back near our small connected
world brings us back down to the old
ello world few years ago we used to hel
camps in a normal way but now more and
more of us are hailing and even we love
the convenience that we can hail Anubha
within a minutes notice but we fear that
the cab may be driven by an immigrant
from outside our small connected
community we all want the convenience of
being able to order something online
within a few minutes and have it
delivered almost immediately but we hate
that our high streets are dissolving in
front of our eyes at the bidding
beginning of the political campaigns
very few pundits actually believed that
Trump would win or bricks it would come
out on top but understanding the logic
shift we can see how this might be the
case because people wanted to regain
that sense of connection they wanted to
feel like they were part of a smaller
safer connected community again but we
shouldn’t be ourselves up because none
of this is actually our fault the
problem lies in our biology as humans we
are inherently lazy both our bodies and
brains were designed to conserve energy
probably in case we needed it for the
next hunt or in case we needed it for
the onslaught of an unexpected fight for
survival we were destined to search for
that convenience we were also destined
to search for connection
we have abnormally large brains compared
to the next largest headed species and
relative to the size of our body our
brains are 50% larger a particularly
large element of our brains is our
neocortex and this is the part of the
brain that deals with social connections
back in the early 1990s anthropologist
Robin Dunbar discovered a striking
relationship between the size of a
species neocortex and the size of group
that they were destined to reside in for
us humans Dunbar number says that we
should be in groups of 150 and if we
look back through history this number
has always been the case from the
earliest settlements of man until just a
few centuries ago most humans lived
within groups of 150 in today’s world
the average number of wedding guests is
150 companies and squadrons of the
world’s armies generally comprised of up
to 150 soldiers and even in our new GI
world even with the vast capability that
we have to connect to thousands of
people the median number of friends on
Facebook amongst these billions of users
is just 200 you see even in this world
with all this opportunity for us to
connect on a global scale our brains
just can’t cope they want to pull us
back to that small safer connected
community that they knew and they want
felt safing so what does this mean for
the future what kind of world are our
kids going to grow up in and what do we
all need to be successful and help them
be successful well the great leaders of
the future will not necessarily be the
ones with the best products all the best
IDs or even the best tech they will be
the ones that help us live in this new
world of convenience and connection
convenience may yield short wins but
overruled by our neocortex we will
always need to strive for that
connection
the reason Airbnb is so successful is
not just because it’s a global
individual proposition for the room
providers
it’s because it’s about making
friendships people return from their
state and share stories of the lovely
owners they met and how wonderful it was
to stay in their homes
Airbnb empowers us to live in the GI
world but feel like we’re back in the
old ello world feel like we connected
again and that’s what people came back
for Elon Musk well he doesn’t sell cars
he actually sells a sense of connection
he empowers people to feel part of
global world that they’re living in
people buy Tesla’s because they want to
show that they care about the global
environment and they want to be part of
a progressive future and in doing that
they become connected to a group of
like-minded people have the same beliefs
it’s the leaders that emotionally or
physically connect us to this new global
individual world which will be the ones
to watch so technology has changed the
world burying our heads in the sand and
hoping it’s going to go away is
pointless as humans we were destined to
progress but fundamentally we will still
be humans will still be managers of the
same bodies and brains that we were born
into our brains that have taken millions
of years to evolve are not just going to
change overnight so we’re going to need
to learn to adapt if you want to be a
great leader of the future then what you
need to do is empower your other human
beings to find ways to embrace the new
power and perspective they have make it
convenient but above all make sure you
help them find ways to feel connected to
their other human beings it really is a
whole new world of connection thank you [Applause]
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