Ideas Worth Spreading Part 2 TEDxCanberra

This is Part Two of my series on Ideas Worth Spreading –(#TEDxCanberra-2010 Oct 23rd)

Speaker, Miriam Lyons (ABC News24; The Drum; Delegate to 2020 Summit & Profiled as one of Australia’s Next 100 Emerging Leaders) proffered delectable titbits in her niche topic entitled “Why society and human nature are out of balance”. This is my take on her presentation.

Asking the rhetorical question: “Is light a particle or a wave?” Miriam suggested the answer varied and largely depended on what we’re looking for.

Nice segue into the main topic of the day – intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation, and how the lack of altruism in society today is really the source of the imbalance with nature.

I think that Miriam’s focus on “balance”, and the lack of balance in our lives often being the root cause of any crisis, is a valid and defendable principle.

In our personal lives, (and psychological research backs this up), if a person feels “out of control” of certain, or worst-case scenario, “all”, facets of their lives, then they are ostensibly in a personal crisis situation.

Take a divorce, where the foundational personal relationship, which was their rock, suddenly disappears. This leads to a personal crisis for most divorcees, and they need a period of time where imbalance is redressed and the recovery process mends old wounds. Slowly, but surely, if the person has stability in other parts of their lives, like employment, other friendship connections etc, the person can and does recover to a prior status of equilibrium. This is a principle of good mental health.

In Eastern philosophy, the question of balance, the notion of the yin and yang within our life cycles, feature prominently and for good reasons.

So, for Miriam, we can learn much from chimpanzees and nature in general. She demonstrated with two species, which were biologically close to humans, by way of analogy. One species was mostly compassionate, caring and kind to one another and the other was rather self-centred and self-serving. She mused over the one which was almost extinct.

The principle Miriam illustrated for us, through her Animal Kingdom stories (interesting title of one of our finest films released recently, which is not out of place in this topic), is that in terms of human behaviour, we will find what we seek. In other words we will find what we focus on.

So, if we focus on compassion, caring and kindness, we will find examples of this. If our focus, on the other hand, is self-serving, selfish greed, then there are plenty of examples for us to find.

But the significance of this observation has far reaching consequences. Psychology once again comes into play here, as does biology. Biology shows us that synaptic connections build on previous ideas and observations. So, if I have negative thoughts about the selfishness of the human race, I will be focused on this and as a result, I will find many, many instances of self-serving behaviour.

And we all know of “negative” people, whose synaptic connections seem to have fused on the negative, n’est-ce pas???? (They’re the ones you avoid at all costs, lest they drain your energy completely.)

Yet, if we were to focus on how kind and considerate and altruistic human beings are, we will be pleasantly surprised at just how often we will find examples of it!

My focus also determines my actions, according to psychology. You find what you are looking for, but this determines how you behave as well!

How powerful is this principle? So, in a world following doom and gloom and the excesses of the GFC, the human race is fast spinning out of control.

Miriam gently took us through the scenario of what motivates us? She gave examples of how in certain times, throughout history, we have had to be extrinsically motivated. Times when we must provide for our families, or when working conditions have not been what they should have been.

But, when we have enough to satisfy our needs, then we must look at intrinsic motivation and beyond ourselves.

Ask yourselves; do you do your job for the money alone? Or is job satisfaction and quality of life an important aspect of it? How many of us want to leave a legacy behind? Want to make a difference in the lives of others? We are social beings, after all, and other people do matter!

Her conclusion is that the world is still spinning, as though we human beings are entirely driven by extrinsic motivation – i.e. consumerism.

Yet, globalisation has meant that we need to make some decisions in our lives.

It is true that a mix of traits has served us in the past in our lives. But, if self-interest is no longer our major trait, then we should be lowering our fiscal expectations and pay should not be tied to performance. We no longer need the extrinsic motivation that has been a greed-based driving force model for the past decade.

After all, many public servants do their jobs because of a need to actually “serve”! And this is true of many entrepreneurial efforts today too. (Mindful of the wonderful TED talk by Melinda French Gates, this rings true.) The essential question is this one: do we decide to tolerate inequality?

Miriam obviously believes that these are indeed ideas worth spreading.

I agree.