Ted Audio Collective

In 2017, students at Columbia Business School conducted a survey.

They wanted to better understand the student experience and any areas that needed improvement.

There was a lot that came out of this survey. The good, the bad, the ugly.

And one interesting tidbit was that the students were eager to have more conversations about gender, race, class, and other social dynamics that have a huge impact on the educational experience.

One respondent noted that there were no cultural norms around having difficult conversations.

My colleagues and I took special note of this comment. We teach the required leadership course.

And to be an effective leader, you need to be able to have difficult conversations.

So the minute we read this feedback, we decided to take action.

It was on us to step up and create a safe space for students to be comfortable having nuanced conversations.

But how do you actually do this?

What kinds of emotions or ideas make a conversation difficult?

And what kinds of environments help people engage in these conversations in a safe and productive way?

I'm a doobachinola. This is Ted Business.

Our speaker today is youth leader Shreya Joshi.

She founded a student-led organization called Project Teal to help young people become engaged citizens.

In this talk, Shreya discusses the benefits we gain when we have hard conversations with people with whom we disagree.

Then after the talk, I'll share some of the tools we use with our students that you might be able to use in your organizations to help people have difficult conversations.

But first, a quick break.

Okay, guys, let's go back to high school.

Does anyone remember that feeling of walking into the school cafeteria with your try in your hand and not knowing where to sit?

Yeah, I see some people nodding.

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