Break Through Fear: Next Day Better London Launch Keynote

Editor's Notes

1. Hello, I’m Simon. I’m incredibly humbled to be part of the Next Day Better launch here in London. Today, I’m going to , hopefully, provide you with a useful framework with which you can go and make the next day better for yourself and other around you; those close to you, and those further afield.
2. You will be asked to do something simple, but which I hope has a profound effect. And it’s something you can take with you, and a thing that will live beyond the next 10 minutes or so. Are we ready? Let’s go.
3. In our world today, we do focus our attention, but it’s focused on a small glowing rectangle. We are its slave. The shiny shiny, the new, the cat GIF, the Tweet, the bite-size Facebook status update. It rules. We obey. Blind, we remain blinkered as we journey through our days.
4. In the minute you’ve sat watching this slide of GIFs, collectively that adds up quite a lot. If we take the population of Manila, it’s equal to 3.14 years. For London that number goes up to >15 years. What could we achieving in that time? What could one minute from each of us really add up to? Is it the fear of the blank page that stopping us? For many people, this image is scary. It’s debilitating. The lure of the pull and refresh, the shiny shiny glowing rectangle is preferable.
5. Telling people they should be doing something else with their time doesn’t work. Dictating isn’t right. They tend to do this. Maybe you’ve heard their refrain? Lalalalalalalalalalalaaaaaa!
6. It’s disasters like this. It takes this to interrupt us. Then, we donate some money and we’re back to our phones, our screens. We’re done. And that’s okay. For most people.
7. Thinking about these things isn’t easy. It actually makes us uneasy. The questions are hard enough. Finding the answers is hard. We’re staring at that blank page. Time to ask someone else.
8. Let me tell you about Andy Swann. He’s a genuine and smart chap with a simple idea that has had huge repercussions for him, in a good way!
9. He asked this question, out loud, on Twitter. Guess what? People responded, in droves. Conversations began and opinions and ideas where shared. Suddenly, Andy was at the centre of a movement – a small one, but a movement nonetheless.
10. I’ve met Andy. I like him. I would call him a friend. We met up recently for coffee. We talked about 100 Connections and I was explaining what it felt like to me. I asked him a question… one I’m now going to ask everyone in this room.
11. Who here likes algebra?
12. This is what normally happens when I ask that question. But algebra is very good at helping with that blank page, in just a single minute.
13. I call it Idea Equations.
14. X ÷ y + z = ideas. Simple stuff.
15. Let’s put that into words. Challenges ÷ Skills + Conversation = IDEAS! If you don’t know what skills are needed to solve a challenge, have a conversation and some will spring up. If you’re unsure what challenges your skills might solve, have a conversation about them with other people and you’ll discover soon enough. If you need some skills to solve a challenge – start a conversation and ideas will come out of it. You don’t have to like algebra to use it effectively.
16. Here’s an example I found doing some research for this talk. It’s fairly basic, and it’s a start. A man loses his livelihood in a typhoon. It’s a hotel. He knows he’ll get aid for shelter, and for food, but how does he go about rebuilding his business when he doesn’t know how to apply for financial aid? I’m someone who can write business communications and proposals. Perhaps there are others around me that know their way around the system better than I do? I can start with writing letters, others can build upon that.
17. So, if we can breakthrough the fear, to truly generate some good ideas, I think we should do it now. You’ll find some packs of Artefact Cards in front of you all. Open them up, grab a pen and write down or draw the challenges you see in London, or anywhere else in the world. One on each card. Then take another card and write down, or draw, your skills – it could be anything. Then I want you to share your cards with those around you and start having conversations about how they might fit together to generate ideas and solutions. If you get a problems solved, write down how you did it.
18. We’re going to take the cards you create today and put them on a Pinterest Board, so you can start pinning new solutions of your own, and share those with a worldwide audience. It only take a minute to do, but the effects could be felt across the globe.
19. Just like LEGO, your skills come together to build something. And they can be put together in infinite ways.