Reflect and Discuss

Roundtable preparation

Roundtable Discussions are live, small-group (max 4 students) conversations centering on the topics raised in the TED talk. Guided by Kenny, an American business trainer with more than 35 years of professional experience, the Roundtable Discussions are designed to help you build fluency and confidence in spontaneous conversation with other advanced-level English speakers from around the world. To participate in the Roundtable Discussion, you’ll need to reserve a seat. Click the link below for more information.

Read more about Roundtable Discussions >>

Prepare for the Roundtable Discussion by reflecting on the questions below. Practice answering them using vocabulary that was introduced in this lesson. You’ll get the best practice if you practice answering by speaking out loud.

• Imagine that you are explaining the eight lessons to somebody who has not seen the video. Use your own words to summarize each lesson. Give positive and negative examples from your own experience to illustrate each lesson. Use the new vocabulary that you learned when possible.
  • Your employees are adults.
  • The job of management isn’t to control people; it’s to build great teams.
  • People want to do work that means something.
  • Everybody in your business should understand the business.
  • Everyone in your company should be able to handle the truth.
  • Your company needs to live out its values.
  • All startup ideas are stupid.
  • Every company needs to be excited for change.
    
• Which of these eight lessons do you think are the most useful? Why? Tell us about a time when one of these insights made a positive impact. Describe a specific situation. What was the challenge? How, exactly, was the situation improved by one of these idea principles?
  
• Do you think any of the lessons are impractical or that they might only be practical in certain contexts? Describe a specific context in which one of these principles would be impractical. Explain why the principle would not work in that context, and explain what principle should be applied instead.
  
• With these eight lessons in mind, what changes would you like to make to your company? Write down three changes that you would make. How would you go about initiating these changes? Describe specific actions you could take or policies you could implement. Describe what short-term and long-term effects might be realized.
  
• With these eight lessons in mind, what changes do you think you could make personally? Write down three changes that you could make personally. For example, what would be one specific change that you could make starting today? What effect would that change have on your experience at work and on the experience of your colleagues?
  
• Is there anything that you would add to the lessons that Patty mentions? Explain.
  
• At the beginning of this lesson, you were asked to list five things that you really liked about companies you’ve worked for. Are any of those things connected to the lessons that were given in the video? How are they connected?
  
• How, if at all, will these ideas change moving forward into the future? Will any of these lessons gain importance in the next 10 years? 20 years? Will any of them become less relevant or less practical?