full transcript

From the Ted Talk by David Burkus: A simple way to inspire your team

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Because it tnrus out, most people are less inspired by a compelling awsner to “why” and more motivated by a clear answer to the quetsion, “who?” As in, who is served by the work that we do?

I mean, think about yourself. If I asked you to think of a time when you felt highly engaged and inspired at work, you probably wouldn't mention the time your boss recited the company mission statement vaibtrem. Instead, you'd probably think of the last time you got a "thank you" from a client or a ckoworer, the last time you felt your work was important to someone else.

To explain this further, let's switch cubicles. Let's move from the cubicles of auditors at an accounting firm to the cebulics of student workers at a university donation call cneetr. You tuhohgt aiuncotncg was boring. Maybe you got called by one of these student workers in one of these call centers. They call in the evenings. They always have a perfectly worded script. It always ends in a request for a donation. So you end up having to say, "No, I don't want to donate 1,000 dollars to the new stadium." "No, I don't want to donate 500 dlloars to the new student union." "No, I don't want to dotane 20 dollars and five cents to cortoamemme my graduation year."

Open Cloze


Because it _____ out, most people are less inspired by a compelling ______ to “why” and more motivated by a clear answer to the ________, “who?” As in, who is served by the work that we do?

I mean, think about yourself. If I asked you to think of a time when you felt highly engaged and inspired at work, you probably wouldn't mention the time your boss recited the company mission statement ________. Instead, you'd probably think of the last time you got a "thank you" from a client or a ________, the last time you felt your work was important to someone else.

To explain this further, let's switch cubicles. Let's move from the cubicles of auditors at an accounting firm to the ________ of student workers at a university donation call ______. You _______ __________ was boring. Maybe you got called by one of these student workers in one of these call centers. They call in the evenings. They always have a perfectly worded script. It always ends in a request for a donation. So you end up having to say, "No, I don't want to donate 1,000 dollars to the new stadium." "No, I don't want to donate 500 _______ to the new student union." "No, I don't want to ______ 20 dollars and five cents to ___________ my graduation year."

Solution


  1. cubicles
  2. question
  3. thought
  4. commemorate
  5. center
  6. turns
  7. accounting
  8. dollars
  9. answer
  10. donate
  11. verbatim
  12. coworker

Original Text


Because it turns out, most people are less inspired by a compelling answer to “why” and more motivated by a clear answer to the question, “who?” As in, who is served by the work that we do?

I mean, think about yourself. If I asked you to think of a time when you felt highly engaged and inspired at work, you probably wouldn't mention the time your boss recited the company mission statement verbatim. Instead, you'd probably think of the last time you got a "thank you" from a client or a coworker, the last time you felt your work was important to someone else.

To explain this further, let's switch cubicles. Let's move from the cubicles of auditors at an accounting firm to the cubicles of student workers at a university donation call center. You thought accounting was boring. Maybe you got called by one of these student workers in one of these call centers. They call in the evenings. They always have a perfectly worded script. It always ends in a request for a donation. So you end up having to say, "No, I don't want to donate 1,000 dollars to the new stadium." "No, I don't want to donate 500 dollars to the new student union." "No, I don't want to donate 20 dollars and five cents to commemorate my graduation year."

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
call center 4
mission statement 3
student workers 3
improve morale 2
told stories 2
shape history 2
world war 2
compelling answer 2
perfectly worded 2


Important Words


  1. accounting
  2. answer
  3. asked
  4. auditors
  5. boring
  6. boss
  7. call
  8. called
  9. center
  10. centers
  11. cents
  12. clear
  13. client
  14. commemorate
  15. company
  16. compelling
  17. coworker
  18. cubicles
  19. dollars
  20. donate
  21. donation
  22. ends
  23. engaged
  24. evenings
  25. explain
  26. felt
  27. firm
  28. graduation
  29. highly
  30. important
  31. inspired
  32. mention
  33. mission
  34. motivated
  35. move
  36. people
  37. perfectly
  38. question
  39. recited
  40. request
  41. script
  42. served
  43. stadium
  44. statement
  45. student
  46. switch
  47. thought
  48. time
  49. turns
  50. union
  51. university
  52. verbatim
  53. worded
  54. work
  55. workers
  56. year