How Good People Turn Evil

This is a presentation I wrote and gave some months ago at a university course aptly named “Presentation Skills”. I revisited it yesterday and figured it is worth posting because it is an issue that is quite close to my heart.

How good people turn evil
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Most of the presentation is based on Phil Zimbardo’s excellent book The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil. Zimbardo is best known for conducting the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment and he revisited his notorious experiment while working as an advisor for the defense in the Abu Ghraib trials. His report of the experiment, but also of other crimes and the Abu Ghraib abuses is chilling, but it is worth reading because he filters his findings into 7 factors that take good people down the road to evil. Very simple truths that can be observed wherever we hurt each other.
We should pay more attention to his final advice to stress the normal in heroes and empower everybody to be ready to assume this role themselves. Here is a behavior that I would really love to positively influence.

If you want to see him present in person, take a look at his presentation at TED.com:


Great vs. Good

This is the presentation Simon Law, planning director of new True Worldwide gave here at Miami Ad School Europe. His key point was that today, as the advertising industry has evolved into a mature business, has learned and mastered many things, most of the work actually is good. (Or not as bad as it used to be.) In this environment only great work will stand out and it harder to achieve than ever.

Great vs. Good
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I liked about his presentation that it did not bring up only the usual suspects of great work, but a few older and not exhaustedly reblogged examples. And some with very interesting angles.
Of course, if you are expecting a formula or recipe for instant great, there is no such thing. Only hard work, sweat and tears, mastering the craft, brutal honesty with yourself and most importantly: resisting the temptation of good.

Persuasive Presentation

Take a look at this video:

Nick Vujicic is a total inspiration.

You see, I have been thinking lately about persuasion. Especially the really complicated kinds that go deeper than selling stuff, but touching people and changing their attitude (about themselves or important issues). I believe there are many people out there who tell these kids exactly the same things as Nick, they probably use exact the same words, but their words could never as resounding. Why is that, I wonder?

I have written down some thoughts about this, but it needs more thinking.