Mini-Assignment 1b – TED Talks – The Power of Vulnerability

In this intriguing TED Talk, Brene Brown shares her thoughts on vulnerability and what she calls “whole-hearted people”. Brown is a research professor at the University of Houston’s Graduate College of Social Work, and she has focused her career on studying vulnerability, courage, authenticity, and shame. Her unique way of presenting, one she refers to as simply story-telling, conveys her thoughts on human need for connection and the role vulnerability plays in the lives of happy whole-hearted people. Though her talk is certainly worth the 20 minutes, it took me a while to connect its content with the D.Studio and the material we have covered.

Brene Brown is a researcher, and hence she is in a way a designer. She develops her own hypotheses, does the work, prototypes her hypotheses, and if all goes well, reaches a conclusion that fits her initial query. However, unlike the scientific approach, it became clear that she chose to adapt herself to a design-thinkers approach. She implements Ask-Try-Do without even realizing it.  Brown started her research by looking at the central characteristic that makes us human: the inherent desire to be connected; to be accepted by those around us. She asked questions regarding the importance of connection, and hence did the research. It is at this point that her design process greatly shifted. Instead of coming to a conclusion about the world around her, Brown became deeply affected by her own findings. She became intensely aware of her own vulnerability problems, and took a break from her work. She met with other therapists, and spent a year overcoming her vulnerability.

As with the Ask-Try-Do model, Brown continually asked herself questions concerning the outcomes of her research. Halfway through the study, she needed to re-evaluate her own approach, and was hence subjected to altering her Do-ing phase. Her process of learning, reflecting, adjusting and approaching a problem from a new, personal angle, is very similar to my D.Studio experience. Going into the course I had one idea about what we would be doing, but as the term progressed, I quickly learned that the idea I had was not accurate at all. I was a bit disappointed for a little while, but I asked myself to evaluate the real value of this course, and from henceforth I greatly enjoyed the content.

In my own way, I had to make myself vulnerable; I had to drop my highly analytical mind and get involved in a class where the crazier the idea, the better the idea. Like Brown, I had to re-evaluate my approach, and it paid off in the end. To conclude: the content of this TED talks was difficult to convey to a Design-Thinker… however, I have tried to explain how Brown went through the Ask-Try-Do model with her own research. Like many students in our class, by digging deeper into the way she thought, Brown underwent a change in her thinking process: the desired effect of a design course in a business school.