Curating ideas during a pandemic

Or “How coaching speakers helped me while the world was falling apart”.

March 2020.

I was coaching some of the TED Fellows and everyone was in full preparation mode. In a month they were about to go on stage on the TED2020 event in Vancouver. Their excitement was rising. Their focus was on their ideas presented from the red circle.

At the same time, I was about to head off to San Diego for the YPO 2020 EDGE event. My speakers for that were already fully prepared. Months of drafting their talks and rehearsing, so that they’d be ready on time. A week before I was supposed to fly out, the event got cancelled. A hard and right decision by the organising committee, as a global event of that magnitude posed too much of a risk for everyone involved.

A little later, TED had to cancel their event in Vancouver. The weeklong, in-person conference was converted into an eight-week unique virtual experience, running from May to July.

Back then, I was trying to understand what was happening. My reality was shaken. People were dying, lockdown, cases rising, masks, restrictions. I could not work, I could not focus. Everything had hit pause. Not only for me, but for everyone. The world felt numb.

Our preparation timeline for the talks expanded. At first, for a while, there was silence. Time expanded and contracted in funny ways. Our emails and calls would start and end with a genuine “Are you OK?” and end with “stay safe and healthy”, with more gravitas in these words than ever before. Uncertainty around the coronavirus made our resilience reach new levels.

At times I felt the world was falling apart.

Helping people work on ideas that keep this world going forward, however, was what kept me going. One of the brilliant scientists replied with apologies to a delayed email, “I got pulled into a COVID-19 project on ventilators last week and its been nonstop since”.

“Wow”, I muttered while reading the email. One part of me was thinking that we need to make progress on the draft. The other, of course, was thinking that’s way more important right now. “Take all the time you need”, I replied. Some of my speakers were struggling with family or friends being sick with COVID-19. Others had lost interest. Others could not focus.

I found myself connecting with them more than ever. We talked about life changes and break ups. About pain and stress for family members being away. We pondered on the PTSD and other mental scars that this might leave to many and the effect of the pandemic to our young children. A lot of resilience, love and empathy added to our conversations in order to make sure we were all in a good place. Strong, healthy and ready to go forward with our optimism to make this world a better place. Them in the driver’s seat and myself, well more of as a facilitator, making sure their brilliant stories create as much impact as possible.

Despite all the hurdles, working with these bright people on their talks was my immunity to what was happening.

In April TED launched TED Connects. A live conversation series featuring experts, whose ideas can help us reflect and work through this uncertain time with a sense of responsibility, compassion and wisdom. And I felt connected. Even more so. I was in tears during Elizabeth Gilbert’s session when she said that it’s “OK to feel overwhelmed. Here’s what to do next”. If you haven’t watched this conversation yet, I really really suggest you do so.

I had to keep myself together. For myself, my family and for my speakers. “Heck they’re top in their fields, we’re in this together and professionalism is and will be my middle name”. I made this my little mantra.

As I helped them refine their talks, they reminded me of the importance of reducing CO2 emissions, investigative journalism, astrophysics and the grand unknown universe, fighting for democracy and against stereotypes in our lives. The unstoppable, uncontainable power of their ideas helped me recalibrate my compass, in ways they can’t imagine.

We made it through the year. They successfully put their ideas out to the world. And who knows the ripple effect that these will create.

“Resilience is our shared genetic inheritance,” Elizabeth Gilbert says.

And I could not agree more.