thinking creatively: ideas worth spreading

“To save the world you’ve got to throw a better party than those who are destroying it.”

It’s not often you hear a phrase like that, less often still that you hear it in the realms of consultancy. But those words from Rob Wilson, who helped found Toast Ale last year, are exactly the reason that Egremont have sponsored TEDx Exeter events since their inception six years ago.

Why we support TEDxExeter

I want our consultants to have different perspectives, to break out of convention and group-think and there is no better way to achieve this than getting exposure to ideas and experiences which are far from the norm of our daily lives. We know this approach, this ‘humanity’ works. We hear it from our clients and it was recognised by the Management Consultancy Association (MCA) with the fantastic award win for Best Change Management in the private sector, with the Walgreens work this year. I want us to continue to think creatively. Engaging with events like TEDx Exeter helps us to do this.

Story telling around the camp fire is as old as civilisation itself and although the seats have got more comfortable, the benefits of knowledge transfer, mental stimulation and provocation are as valid and valuable now as they ever have been. In these turbulent times, people look to their peers and leaders for answers. We can’t find or share them unless we interact beyond our comfort zone and TEDx Exeter provides the perfect place for that.

Hope

From hip – hop dancing and Taiko drumming to first person stories and psychology, we were educated, informed, entertained and challenged by a succession of speakers who all had - in the best traditions of TED – ‘ideas worth spreading.’ Joining me this time from Egremont Group to hear them were Nigel Wicking, Hannah Crossley, Alex Bolland and Henry Davies. Four outstanding consultants who know better than most how to absorb new ideas and develop them through experience, instinct and creativity into novel solutions for our clients.

The theme of this year’s TEDx Exeter was Hope. The wide ranging talks on this theme covered personal data, renewable energy, extremism, marine conservation, journalism, depression, sustainability and surprisingly, beer. What works particularly well in the TED model is the time set aside for the 900+ delegates to mingle and meet the speakers and sponsors that interest them. During the day, our team took over 50 people on a mini-TED of their own explaining our work on the DNA of change and future-back thinking. This included leaders and managers of local businesses, and public service including the local council, all hungry minds for whom we did our bit to pass on information and ideas in the best traditions of the TED philosophy.

All of this year’s talks were polished, well delivered, informative and stimulating. So instead of drawing attention to any one over the others I have asked my team to give their overall impressions of the day.

Our reflections

Nigel Wicking
“The thing about TEDx is that it frees up your mind. You see things from a different angle. There’s such diversity here, all balanced around the theme of ‘Hope’ and enjoying everyone’s different take on that.”

Alex Bolland
“Being open to experience differences around you, balancing the local view and the global view is one of the major things I get from TEDx. A lot of the work we do is underpinned by curiosity and these events help train our thinking so we don’t just go in with one point of view.”

Henry Davies
“What really stuck in my mind was the amount of creativity people had deployed to solve their problems and the role that community played in helping with that. This has been a great event for getting out there, meeting new people, gauging interest and learning something yourself.”

Hannah Crossley
“Every speaker has been so different yet every one has challenged me out of complacency. We get so caught up in our daily lives with our heads down that you need something like this to challenge your thinking.”

As Nigel has said, the theme for TEDx Exeter this year was ‘Hope’, so I shall end with another quote from the day, this time from the modern historian Kester Brewin who spoke about creating summers of love in times of darkness. He said something that I think fits with the Egremont psyche particularly well -

“Real hope is horizontal, reach out!”

Egremont Group has been a proud sponsor of TEDx Exeter since its inception in 2012.

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