0:00:01.173,0:00:04.802
I wanted to talk to you today[br]about creative confidence.

0:00:05.443,0:00:08.587
I'm going to start way back[br]in the third grade

0:00:08.611,0:00:11.532
at Oakdale School in Barberton, Ohio.

0:00:11.997,0:00:15.977
I remember one day my best friend[br]Brian was working on a project.

0:00:16.490,0:00:20.853
He was making a horse out of the clay[br]our teacher kept under the sink.

0:00:22.116,0:00:25.675
And at one point, one of the girls[br]that was sitting at his table,

0:00:25.699,0:00:29.313
seeing what he was doing,[br]leaned over and said to him,

0:00:29.337,0:00:32.391
"That's terrible. That doesn't look[br]anything like a horse."

0:00:33.765,0:00:35.543
And Brian's shoulders sank.

0:00:35.567,0:00:38.880
And he wadded up the clay horse[br]and he threw it back in the bin.

0:00:39.785,0:00:44.089
I never saw Brian do a project[br]like that ever again.

0:00:44.695,0:00:47.256
And I wonder how often[br]that happens, you know?

0:00:48.096,0:00:51.581
It seems like when I tell[br]that story of Brian to my class,

0:00:53.026,0:00:55.049
a lot of them want to come up after class

0:00:55.073,0:00:57.090
and tell me about[br]their similar experience,

0:00:57.114,0:00:58.724
how a teacher shut them down,

0:00:58.748,0:01:01.409
or how a student[br]was particularly cruel to them.

0:01:01.433,0:01:04.975
And then some kind of opt out[br]of thinking of themselves as creative

0:01:04.999,0:01:06.154
at that point.

0:01:07.155,0:01:10.777
And I see that opting out[br]that happens in childhood,

0:01:10.801,0:01:14.096
and it moves in and becomes[br]more ingrained, even,

0:01:14.120,0:01:16.120
by the time you get to adult life.

0:01:18.141,0:01:22.278
So we see a lot of this.

0:01:22.302,0:01:23.702
When we have a workshop

0:01:23.726,0:01:26.472
or when we have clients[br]in to work with us side by side,

0:01:26.496,0:01:28.773
eventually we get[br]to the point in the process

0:01:28.797,0:01:31.118
that's kind of fuzzy or unconventional.

0:01:31.743,0:01:35.281
And eventually, these big-shot executives[br]whip out their BlackBerrys

0:01:35.947,0:01:38.850
and they say they have to make[br]really important phone calls,

0:01:38.874,0:01:40.445
and they head for the exits.

0:01:41.018,0:01:42.854
And they're just so uncomfortable.

0:01:43.290,0:01:45.909
When we track them down[br]and ask them what's going on,

0:01:45.933,0:01:48.856
they say something like,[br]"I'm just not the creative type."

0:01:49.568,0:01:51.187
But we know that's not true.

0:01:51.703,0:01:54.371
If they stick with the process,[br]if they stick with it,

0:01:54.395,0:01:56.616
they end up doing amazing things.

0:01:56.640,0:01:59.590
And they surprise themselves[br]at just how innovative

0:01:59.614,0:02:01.785
they and their teams really are.

0:02:03.108,0:02:07.694
So I've been looking[br]at this fear of judgment that we have,

0:02:07.718,0:02:11.200
that you don't do things, you're afraid[br]you're going to be judged;

0:02:11.224,0:02:15.021
if you don't say the right creative thing,[br]you're going to be judged.

0:02:15.754,0:02:17.716
And I had a major breakthrough,

0:02:17.740,0:02:21.907
when I met the psychologist[br]Albert Bandura.

0:02:21.931,0:02:25.208
I don't know if you know Albert Bandura,[br]but if you go to Wikipedia,

0:02:25.232,0:02:29.374
it says that he's the fourth most[br]important psychologist in history --

0:02:29.398,0:02:33.107
you know, like Freud, Skinner,[br]somebody and Bandura.

0:02:33.131,0:02:34.543
(Laughter)

0:02:34.567,0:02:37.551
Bandura is 86 and he still[br]works at Stanford.

0:02:37.575,0:02:39.331
And he's just a lovely guy.

0:02:41.082,0:02:42.362
So I went to see him,

0:02:42.386,0:02:45.888
because he's just worked[br]on phobias for a long time,

0:02:45.912,0:02:47.345
which I'm very interested in.

0:02:47.369,0:02:51.607
He had developed this way,

0:02:51.631,0:02:54.357
this, kind of, methodology,

0:02:54.381,0:02:57.332
that ended up curing people[br]in a very short amount of time,

0:02:57.356,0:02:58.715
like, in four hours.

0:02:58.739,0:03:02.175
He had a huge cure rate[br]of people who had phobias.

0:03:02.199,0:03:05.163
And we talked about snakes[br]-- I don't know why --

0:03:05.187,0:03:09.369
we talked about snakes[br]and fear of snakes as a phobia.

0:03:10.271,0:03:13.227
And it was really enjoyable,[br]really interesting.

0:03:13.251,0:03:18.194
He told me that he'd invite[br]the test subject in,

0:03:18.218,0:03:21.105
and he'd say, "You know,[br]there's a snake in the next room

0:03:21.129,0:03:22.733
and we're going to go in there."

0:03:24.421,0:03:26.561
To which, he reported,[br]most of them replied,

0:03:26.585,0:03:31.365
"Hell no! I'm not going in there,[br]certainly if there's a snake in there."

0:03:31.389,0:03:35.689
But Bandura has a step-by-step[br]process that was super successful.

0:03:35.713,0:03:38.619
So he'd take people to this two-way mirror

0:03:38.643,0:03:40.938
looking into the room where the snake was.

0:03:41.368,0:03:43.408
And he'd get them comfortable with that.

0:03:43.432,0:03:44.988
Then through a series of steps,

0:03:45.012,0:03:48.697
he'd move them and they'd be standing[br]in the doorway with the door open,

0:03:48.721,0:03:50.235
and they'd be looking in there.

0:03:50.259,0:03:52.206
And he'd get them comfortable with that.

0:03:52.230,0:03:54.920
And then many more steps[br]later, baby steps,

0:03:54.944,0:03:59.016
they'd be in the room, they'd have[br]a leather glove like a welder's glove on,

0:03:59.040,0:04:01.694
and they'd eventually touch the snake.

0:04:02.575,0:04:07.179
And when they touched the snake,[br]everything was fine. They were cured.

0:04:07.203,0:04:09.323
In fact, everything was better than fine.

0:04:09.347,0:04:12.600
These people who had[br]lifelong fears of snakes

0:04:13.219,0:04:14.729
were saying things like,

0:04:15.396,0:04:17.374
"Look how beautiful that snake is."

0:04:17.398,0:04:20.513
And they were holding it in their laps.

0:04:21.673,0:04:25.226
Bandura calls this process[br]"guided mastery."

0:04:25.582,0:04:28.169
I love that term: guided mastery.

0:04:29.081,0:04:30.761
And something else happened.

0:04:31.222,0:04:34.724
These people who went through the process[br]and touched the snake

0:04:34.748,0:04:38.251
ended up having less anxiety[br]about other things in their lives.

0:04:39.519,0:04:42.091
They tried harder, they persevered longer,

0:04:42.115,0:04:44.871
and they were more resilient[br]in the face of failure.

0:04:45.828,0:04:48.548
They just gained a new confidence.

0:04:50.139,0:04:54.218
And Bandura calls[br]that confidence "self-efficacy,"

0:04:54.599,0:04:57.487
the sense that you can change the world

0:04:57.511,0:05:00.335
and that you can attain[br]what you set out to do.

0:05:01.457,0:05:04.221
Well, meeting Bandura[br]was really cathartic for me,

0:05:04.245,0:05:07.778
because I realized[br]that this famous scientist

0:05:07.802,0:05:10.962
had documented[br]and scientifically validated

0:05:10.986,0:05:14.377
something that we've seen happen[br]for the last 30 years:

0:05:14.401,0:05:18.190
that we could take people who had the fear[br]that they weren't creative,

0:05:18.214,0:05:20.940
and we could take them[br]through a series of steps,

0:05:20.964,0:05:24.360
kind of like a series of small successes,

0:05:24.384,0:05:27.734
and they turn fear into familiarity.

0:05:28.315,0:05:29.790
And they surprise themselves.

0:05:29.814,0:05:31.817
That transformation is amazing.

0:05:31.841,0:05:34.237
We see it at the d.school all the time.

0:05:34.261,0:05:36.967
People from all different[br]kinds of disciplines,

0:05:36.991,0:05:39.482
they think of themselves[br]as only analytical.

0:05:39.506,0:05:43.010
And they come in and they go[br]through the process, our process,

0:05:43.034,0:05:46.216
they build confidence and now[br]they think of themselves differently.

0:05:46.240,0:05:51.305
And they're totally emotionally excited[br]about the fact that they walk around

0:05:51.329,0:05:53.592
thinking of themselves[br]as a creative person.

0:05:55.566,0:05:57.622
So I thought one[br]of the things I'd do today

0:05:57.646,0:06:00.848
is take you through and show you[br]what this journey looks like.

0:06:01.478,0:06:05.972
To me, that journey looks like Doug Dietz.

0:06:08.226,0:06:10.140
Doug Dietz is a technical person.

0:06:10.164,0:06:13.962
He designs large[br]medical imaging equipment.

0:06:14.432,0:06:17.692
He's worked for GE, and he's had[br]a fantastic career.

0:06:18.242,0:06:20.668
But at one point,[br]he had a moment of crisis.

0:06:21.066,0:06:25.139
He was in the hospital looking[br]at one of his MRI machines in use,

0:06:25.163,0:06:28.410
when he saw a young family,[br]and this little girl.

0:06:28.787,0:06:32.239
And that little girl was crying[br]and was terrified.

0:06:32.263,0:06:34.809
And Doug was really disappointed to learn

0:06:35.642,0:06:39.497
that nearly 80 percent[br]of the pediatric patients in this hospital

0:06:39.521,0:06:43.239
had to be sedated in order[br]to deal with his MRI machine.

0:06:45.065,0:06:47.144
And this was really disappointing to Doug,

0:06:47.168,0:06:49.821
because before this time,[br]he was proud of what he did.

0:06:49.845,0:06:51.976
He was saving lives with this machine.

0:06:52.437,0:06:56.957
But it really hurt him to see the fear[br]that this machine caused in kids.

0:06:57.438,0:07:01.898
About that time, he was at the d.school[br]at Stanford taking classes.

0:07:01.922,0:07:06.573
He was learning about our process,[br]about design thinking, about empathy,

0:07:06.597,0:07:08.422
about iterative prototyping.

0:07:08.446,0:07:13.135
And he would take this new knowledge[br]and do something quite extraordinary.

0:07:13.159,0:07:16.896
He would redesign the entire experience

0:07:16.920,0:07:18.158
of being scanned.

0:07:18.560,0:07:20.159
And this is what he came up with.

0:07:20.183,0:07:21.202
(Laughter)

0:07:21.226,0:07:23.799
He turned it into[br]an adventure for the kids.

0:07:23.823,0:07:26.081
He painted the walls[br]and he painted the machine,

0:07:26.105,0:07:28.884
and he got the operators retrained[br]by people who know kids,

0:07:28.908,0:07:31.418
like children's museum people.

0:07:31.442,0:07:35.140
And now when the kid comes,[br]it's an experience.

0:07:35.164,0:07:38.770
And they talk to them about the noise[br]and the movement of the ship.

0:07:38.794,0:07:40.191
And when they come, they say,

0:07:40.215,0:07:42.342
"OK, you're going to go[br]into the pirate ship,

0:07:42.366,0:07:45.883
but be very still, because we don't want[br]the pirates to find you."

0:07:47.314,0:07:50.070
And the results were super dramatic:

0:07:50.974,0:07:54.124
from something like 80 percent[br]of the kids needing to be sedated,

0:07:54.148,0:07:58.402
to something like 10 percent[br]of the kids needing to be sedated.

0:07:58.426,0:08:00.465
And the hospital and GE were happy, too,

0:08:00.489,0:08:03.648
because you didn't have to call[br]the anesthesiologist all the time,

0:08:03.672,0:08:06.480
and they could put more kids[br]through the machine in a day.

0:08:06.504,0:08:08.411
So the quantitative results were great.

0:08:08.435,0:08:12.101
But Doug's results that he cared about[br]were much more qualitative.

0:08:12.463,0:08:14.189
He was with one of the mothers

0:08:14.213,0:08:16.523
waiting for her child[br]to come out of the scan.

0:08:16.547,0:08:18.913
And when the little girl[br]came out of her scan,

0:08:18.937,0:08:20.833
she ran up to her mother and said,

0:08:20.857,0:08:22.797
"Mommy, can we come back tomorrow?"

0:08:22.821,0:08:25.049
(Laughter)

0:08:26.046,0:08:29.467
And so, I've heard Doug tell[br]the story many times

0:08:29.491,0:08:31.777
of his personal transformation

0:08:31.801,0:08:35.147
and the breakthrough design[br]that happened from it,

0:08:35.171,0:08:38.282
but I've never really seen him[br]tell the story of the little girl

0:08:38.306,0:08:39.743
without a tear in his eye.

0:08:40.055,0:08:42.320
Doug's story takes place in a hospital.

0:08:43.021,0:08:45.200
I know a thing or two about hospitals.

0:08:46.470,0:08:49.640
A few years ago, I felt a lump[br]on the side of my neck.

0:08:51.211,0:08:53.406
It was my turn in the MRI machine.

0:08:53.964,0:08:56.924
It was cancer, it was the bad kind.

0:08:56.948,0:09:00.107
I was told I had a 40 percent[br]chance of survival.

0:09:00.903,0:09:03.809
So while you're sitting[br]around with the other patients,

0:09:03.833,0:09:05.057
in your pajamas,

0:09:05.081,0:09:07.109
and everybody's pale and thin --

0:09:07.133,0:09:08.149
(Laughter)

0:09:08.173,0:09:11.438
you know? -- and you're waiting[br]for your turn to get the gamma rays,

0:09:11.462,0:09:13.114
you think of a lot of things.

0:09:13.138,0:09:15.716
Mostly, you think about:[br]Am I going to survive?

0:09:16.381,0:09:17.649
And I thought a lot about:

0:09:17.673,0:09:20.591
What was my daughter's life[br]going to be like without me?

0:09:22.496,0:09:24.914
But you think about other things.

0:09:24.938,0:09:27.924
I thought a lot about:[br]What was I put on Earth to do?

0:09:27.948,0:09:31.190
What was my calling? What should I do?

0:09:31.363,0:09:33.411
I was lucky because I had lots of options.

0:09:33.435,0:09:35.394
We'd been working in health and wellness,

0:09:35.418,0:09:37.516
and K-12, and the developing world.

0:09:37.540,0:09:40.192
so there were lots of projects[br]that I could work on.

0:09:40.612,0:09:42.930
But then I decided[br]and committed at this point,

0:09:42.954,0:09:44.799
to the thing I most wanted to do,

0:09:46.234,0:09:49.925
which was to help as many[br]people as possible

0:09:49.949,0:09:53.081
regain the creative confidence[br]they lost along their way.

0:09:53.822,0:09:56.646
And if I was going to survive,[br]that's what I wanted to do.

0:09:56.670,0:09:58.131
I survived, just so you know.

0:09:58.155,0:10:00.226
(Laughter)

0:10:00.250,0:10:06.869
(Applause)

0:10:06.983,0:10:10.888
I really believe that when people[br]gain this confidence --

0:10:10.912,0:10:13.913
and we see it all the time[br]at the d.school and at IDEO --

0:10:13.937,0:10:16.735
that they actually start[br]working on the things

0:10:16.759,0:10:18.746
that are really important in their lives.

0:10:18.770,0:10:22.481
We see people quit what they're doing[br]and go in new directions.

0:10:22.505,0:10:28.954
We see them come up with more[br]interesting -- and just more -- ideas,

0:10:28.978,0:10:31.881
so they can choose from better ideas.

0:10:31.905,0:10:33.928
And they just make better decisions.

0:10:34.498,0:10:37.991
I know at TED, you're supposed to have[br]a change-the-world kind of thing,

0:10:38.015,0:10:40.715
isn't that -- everybody has[br]a change-the-world thing?

0:10:40.739,0:10:43.866
If there is one for me, this is it,[br]to help this happen.

0:10:43.890,0:10:46.630
So I hope you'll join me on my quest,

0:10:46.654,0:10:48.264
you as, kind of, thought leaders.

0:10:48.288,0:10:52.529
It would be really great if you didn't let[br]people divide the world

0:10:52.553,0:10:56.515
into the creatives and the non-creatives,[br]like it's some God-given thing,

0:10:56.539,0:11:00.895
and to have people realize[br]that they're naturally creative,

0:11:01.049,0:11:04.578
and that those natural people[br]should let their ideas fly;

0:11:05.665,0:11:09.841
that they should achieve[br]what Bandura calls self-efficacy,

0:11:09.865,0:11:13.128
that you can do what you set out to do,

0:11:13.152,0:11:16.840
and that you can reach a place[br]of creative confidence

0:11:16.864,0:11:18.548
and touch the snake.

0:11:18.572,0:11:19.724
Thank you.

0:11:19.748,0:11:26.063
(Applause)