Storytelling is useful when you want to change behaviour
Economist Ramanan Laxminarayan wants to change behaviour amongst GPs and industry. Oh as well as potentially change the price of a widely used drug. (Or does he? Watch and see for yourself!) That’s a pretty big ask when a profession is being asked to change years of accepted practice and when an industry profits from they way they do things.
You should watch this talk if you have ever benefited from antibiotics. Basically, because of industry practices and over prescription of antibiotics and the way our bodies work, we are becoming increasingly immune to them. And there is no alternative, no Plan B. What happens when your silver bullet no longer does the job? This is quite a scary talk.
Ramanan wants to improve understanding of drug resistance as a problem of managing a shared global resource. He teaches at Princeton and is a Director and Senior Fellow at the Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP). He has advised the World Health Organization and World Bank on evaluating malaria treatment policy, vaccination strategies, the economic burden of tuberculosis, and control of non-communicable diseases. In 2012, he created the Immunization Technical Support Unit in India, which has been credited with improving the immunization program in the country. He knows what he is talking about and easily qualifies as an expert witness.
It’s no surprise that this talk went so quickly from TEDMED to TED.com and that over 850 000 people have seen this talk within the last year. Not many economists have a reach that far – but thanks to my content curating colleagues at TEDMED who crucially select the talks that make it onto the stage, this important subject has been given important visibility within the medical profession!
Things to learn from this TEDMED talk.
There are always a number of things that one can learn from a TEDMED or TED talk. The good but sparing use of graphics would one of many good characteristics of this talk.
But the thing I want to focus on here is the use of storytelling to make this potentially complicated issue relevant and immediate and urgent to anyone who has ever played or worked in garden. Which means everyone. That’s pretty cool coming from an economist!
I have worked with speakers on talks that have ended on TEDx, TEDMED and TED stages and I am also a TEDMED SpeakerCoach. If you have an “idea worth spreading” give me a call and we can discuss how I can help you maximise the impact of your talk.