What Matters Most
and a big
good morning to the students and the
visitors joining this tedx event either
live or viewing the recording on demand
thank you so much for your time
in these unprecedented and complex times
the scarcest resource that
any of us has is attention so i
appreciate
your 18 minutes the motivation for
diversion
it sits within all of us and it’s driven
by
boredom negativity bias rumination and
to master
distraction we need to overcome the
discomfort
that comes with it sometimes reimagining
difficult work
as being purposeful and enjoyable can
refocus us
understanding our emotional triggers for
behaviors
and how we describe ourselves and the
world around us
matters greatly to how empowered and
capable that we feel
to make a difference in many ways
probably
like all of you here i have multiple
roles
i work for microsoft education marketing
based here in the united states of
america
yet i’m also a parent i’m a teacher and
i’m a learner
i’m also a bad surfer as you can see
from
some of the images on the slide what
matters most is the topic
for this session today my career if you
like has been defined by exploring where
best practice
and next practice intersect where
technology is levered to extend
to amplify and to enhance the very
qualities that make us
most human we know that
as humans we have some very basic needs
which
haven’t changed and they’re important to
keep in mind during these complicated
times
to be seen to be heard to belong
and to feel like we have some freedom
and choice
never before has this been so important
to be seen to be heard
to belong and to feel empowered
in fact this is what drew me to
microsoft first of all
beforehand i worked as a school
principal the driving mission for the
company is to empower
every learner on the planet to achieve
more and this picture
is from a surf school that i was a
leader at and i was
terrified and it reminded me of what it
was like
to learn something new and strange to
feel uncertain
and unsure to feel clumsy and
incompetent
i felt as a learner i felt shame and
frustration
but i also had coaches who gave me the
right mix
of pressure and support and that’s what
matters most
tip number one is
pressure and support in the right
balance can lead to
powerful learning and deep learning so
finding that right mix
and recognizing and appreciating that at
times you need
support but you need the right balance
of pressure
to be able to drive you to do your best
so when you’re feeling pressure
it’s maybe a good thing if you know that
you have the right level of support
the next one is to recognize that what
matters most
is that emotions matter they act as a
gatekeeper to cognition
to attention and to motivation so
how we feel unconsciously directs
our behaviors and is incredibly
important to develop the language to be
able to
recognize understand label and express
our emotional self and as mark bracket
from the yale center for emotional
intelligence says
to become an emotion detective to be
able to
recognize and understand the emotions in
others
and how they’re driving behavior and
adjust
our responses accordingly to become
socially aware as we self-regulate
ourselves emotions also matter because
they
drive better decision-making through the
development of empathy
they lead to stronger and more authentic
social connections
and they directly influence how we care
for ourselves
physically and mentally
one thing i want to call out that
matters most is mindset
so in adopting a growth mindset
we acknowledge and we embrace the
imperfections
in ourselves and others so we face our
challenges
bravely and honestly we pay attention
to our words and our thoughts how we
describe
ourselves our capabilities and those
around us
seeking all ways to lift people up and
to build on other people’s brilliant
ideas so
pay attention to the words and the
thoughts that you use to describe
yourself
and your learning and your life redefine
what success and genius looks like
maybe it’s not just being the smartest
kid
the fastest kid maybe success is being
the kindest kid or the person who can
bring the best out in others who can
organize groups to achieve amazing
things
it’s important to value the process over
just simply the product learning from
our own mistakes
and our mistakes from others so mindset
matters what else matters
finding your purpose matters one of the
things that comes through studies
of young people across the globe over
and over again
is that they want to engage in work that
has purpose
and passion and when you conduct surveys
of generation z
in the workforce and you ask them what
drives them
it’s not so much about money and
position
but it’s about working with purpose and
passion engaging in work that is
purposeful
that contributes positively to society
or economies
and engaging a work that’s enjoyable it
has some sort of intrinsic
excitement and joy added to it it
connects to a passion
and we know that when we’re engaged in
work with passion whether you’re
passionate about
art or maths or science or dance or
skateboarding
when you’re engaged in something you
love doing it never feels like
work and the time never feels like it’s
dragging does it it goes by
in an instant when we’re engaged in
purpose and passion
so shifting
purpose to action matters greatly and
for this group listening into this tedx
talk youth event talk
many of you are entrepreneurs and doing
incredible things and i’ve
seen and heard some of those you’re
already doing this
shifting purpose and shifting it to
action
matters finding out along the way who
are the people
that can help you how do you go about
accepting
inviting their strengths and wisdom and
taking those on boards
how do you ensure that you are open and
accepting
as you find out about your strengths and
the areas that you’re less
strong in and finding people to help you
a wishbone is no replacement for a
backbone
so shifting purpose to action
matters greatly
this is an important one too the journey
matters
through school and through life we’re
not in
any race here so what you do every day
to lift others up
matters because it directly reflects on
your character
which builds your reputation which is
something
you cannot buy but it’s easily given
away
the journey matters through school and
through life
so how do you express gratitude each day
to those who help lift you up and how do
you help lift up others
how are you helping someone learn today
are you the smart kid the fast kid the
funny kid
the kind kid be the kind kid
lift people up each and every day
that leads us to character and character
maybe you could describe it as this is
how you behave
when no one is watching and
whereas skills can be taught and are
useful in a specific
situation so i can learn to code it will
help
me do this i can learn to ride a bike
it will help me ride a skill can be
learned and
it’s usually developed for something
very specific
and known character traits
dispositions however you want to
describe them personalities
these are useful in situations which are
unknown
ambiguous complex challenging
changing it’s in those situations in
fact just like
right now that we need people whose
character
we can trust whose character draws
people
in reassures them and they have
character traits like
judgment perspective
honesty curiosity a sense of fairness
humor adaptability
focus patience so these are
character traits which can be developed
over time
which contribute positively and
purposefully to life
to learning and to work your character
matters
i touched on skills and yes they’re
critical we know that the new future
ready skills will be this delicate blend
of
social and emotional skills so the
ability to be self-aware
to self-regulate to be able to develop
relationships set positive goals and
achieve those
plus also higher order cognitive skills
so the ability to synthesize
information to make rational decisions
that the higher order cognitive skills
will be important
plus also those technical skills to the
digital economy
so to become indispensable now and into
the near future
you need a delicate mix of these new
future ready skills remember
between 30 and 40 percent of the
projected growth
jobs across the decade of the 2030s will
place a premium
on social and emotional skills because
these
are the skills which ai and automation
cannot replicate these are the qualities
that make us
most human make sure you sharpen those
in your skill set
to be needed in the world of work and
society
in the future this one is a little bit
like
mindset but how you navigate challenge
matters greatly because again it
reflects on your character
it draws on your skills how you accept
how you invite how you embrace how you
turn life challenges and school
challenges
into a gift and what do you do with a
gift well
you receive it you acknowledge it and
then you look for the value that it can
bring to your life
so one thing we’re clear about is that
our greatest natural resource on the
planet
other students like you in our
classrooms and our communities
across the globe we see you working as
student activists
as student entrepreneurs students civic
leaders
coaches mentors carers performers
athletes artists scientists
we see all of the things that you can do
and
what matters most is providing young
people like yourselves
with the tools and the environments to
have authentic voice
around the things that matter most to
you right now
a chance to speak up for yourselves
speak up on behalf of those who don’t
have a voice
to have options and informed choices
large and small which guide you towards
autonomy
and agency so you can become those
active
informed creative and confident young
people
who can make responsible decisions
because
you are literally shaping the society we
will all
live in each and every day so student
voice
student choice student agency matters
so let’s summarize this around
what matters most what matters most
is probably this first one which is
it’s what you choose to do with what you
know
that matters so not just doing
things right but doing the right things
you matter whoever you are listening to
this live or on demand
you matter and importantly your big
ideas matter and the world needs
your big ideas as you hear from the
esteemed speakers over the next
the next few sessions they have big
ideas
connected to purpose and passion and
these big ideas your big ideas
matter to the world so share them out
share your art share your poetry
share your skills teach someone else
giving back your contribution matters
giving back is the most empowering thing
that we can all do
to our classmates to our friends and
family our communities and ultimately
more broadly to society
how can i help someone today we are all
teachers
we’re all learners
technology matters here although this
talk around what matters most is not a
technology talk
it’s through technology that young
people make sense of their world
explore identity and contribute
positively and purposefully
to civic society technology matters
because it allows us to expand
explore and to influence
so to be seen
to be heard to belong and to be
empowered
that’s what matters the most at the
moment
so thank you very much for the
invitation to come and speak at tedx
youth event here
i can’t wait to hear the speakers coming
up with their bold
brilliant ideas to make the world a
better place the power
is indeed in your hands so thank you
again for the opportunity
and thank you to the organizing group
for putting on such an incredible event
i’m mark smarville i’m looking forward
to talking to you another time
another day another place bye for now
stay safe