ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Nilofer Merchant - Corporate director, author
Business innovator Nilofer Merchant thinks deeply about the frameworks, strategies and cultural values of companies.

Why you should listen

Nilofer Merchant has been helping to grow businesses -- from Fortune 500s to web startups -- for 20 years. She’s worked for major companies (like Apple and Autodesk) and early web startups (remember Golive?). Logitech, Symantec, HP, Yahoo, VMWare, and many others have turned to her guidance to develop new product strategies, enter new markets, defend against competitors and optimize revenue.

Today she serves on boards for both public and private companies, and writes books about collaboration, like The New How: Creating Business Solutions Through Collaborative Strategy, and openness -- check out her recent ebook 11 Rules for Creating Value in the #SocialEra, chosen by Fast Company as one of the Best Business Books of 2012. She also writes for HBR, including the personal and brave essay about a previous attempt on the TED stage: "What I Learned from My TED Talk."

Watch Nilofer's moving TEDxHouston talk on "onlyness" >>

More profile about the speaker
Nilofer Merchant | Speaker | TED.com
TED2013

Nilofer Merchant: Got a meeting? Take a walk

Nilofer Merchant: Bilera bat daukazu? Egin ibilalditxo bat

Filmed:
3,297,237 views

Nilofer Merchant-ek zure bizitzan eragin handia izan dezakeen ideia txiki bat aurkezten du: Banakako bilera bat duzun hurrengo aldian, "bilera ibilia" bihurtu ezazu -- eta ibiltzen eta hitz egiten zoazen heinean ideiei ateratzen utzi iezaiezu.
- Corporate director, author
Business innovator Nilofer Merchant thinks deeply about the frameworks, strategies and cultural values of companies. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:13
What you're doing,
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Egiten ari zarena,
00:15
right now, at this very moment,
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une honetan, oraintxe bertan,
00:18
is killing you.
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zu hiltzen ari da.
00:20
More than cars or the Internet
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Autoak edo Internetek baino gehiago
00:22
or even that little mobile device we keep talking about,
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edo beti hitz egiten ari garen
aparailu mugikor txiki hori baino gehiago,
00:25
the technology you're using the most almost every day
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ia egunero gehien erabiltzen duzun teknologia
00:28
is this, your tush.
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hau da, zure ipurdia.
00:31
Nowadays people are sitting 9.3 hours a day,
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Egun jendeak 9,3 ordu pasatzen ditu eserita eguneko,
00:34
which is more than we're sleeping, at 7.7 hours.
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lotan baino gehiago, lotan 7,7 ordu pasatzen ditugu.
00:38
Sitting is so incredibly prevalent,
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Eserita egotea hain da ohikoa,
00:40
we don't even question how much we're doing it,
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ez garela galdetu ere egiten zenbat egiten dugun,
00:42
and because everyone else is doing it,
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eta beste guztiek egiten dutenez,
00:45
it doesn't even occur to us that it's not okay.
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ez zaigu burutik pasa ere egiten gaizki dagoenik.
00:47
In that way, sitting has become
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Modu horretan, eserita egotea
00:50
the smoking of our generation.
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gure belaunaldiko erretzaile izatea bihurtu da.
00:54
Of course there's health consequences to this,
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Noski guzti honek
osasunarekin erlazionatutako ondorioak ditu,
00:56
scary ones, besides the waist.
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ondorio beldurgarriak, tripaz gain.
00:59
Things like breast cancer and colon cancer
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Bularreko eta koloneko min bizia bezalakoak
01:03
are directly tied to our lack of physical [activity],
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geure ariketa fisiko faltara lotuta daude,
01:06
Ten percent in fact, on both of those.
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izatez, bi horietan %10a.
01:08
Six percent for heart disease,
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Bihotzeko gaixotasunetan %6,
01:10
seven percent for type 2 diabetes,
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2 motako diabetean %7,
01:12
which is what my father died of.
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hau izan zen nire aita akabatu zuena.
01:15
Now, any of those stats should convince each of us
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Orain, estatistika hauetako edozeinek gutako bakoitza
01:17
to get off our duff more,
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ipurdia gehiago mugitzera bultzatu beharko luke,
01:18
but if you're anything like me, it won't.
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baina ni bezalakoa bazara, ez da hala izango.
01:21
What did get me moving was a social interaction.
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Ni mugiarazi ninduena elkarrekintza soziala izan zen.
01:24
Someone invited me to a meeting,
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Norbaitek bilera batera gonbidatu ninduen,
01:26
but couldn't manage to fit me in
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baina ez zuen lortu ni
01:27
to a regular sort of conference room meeting, and said,
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bilera gela hartara sartzea, eta esan zuen,
01:30
"I have to walk my dogs tomorrow. Could you come then?"
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"Bihar nire txakurrekin buelta bat eman behar dut.
Orduan etorri zaitezke?"
01:34
It seemed kind of odd to do,
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Gauza apur bat bitxia zen,
01:36
and actually, that first meeting, I remember thinking,
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eta izatez, lehen bilera horretan,
zera pentsatu nuela oroitzen naiz,
01:38
"I have to be the one to ask the next question,"
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"nik izan behar dut
hurrengo gauza galdetzen duen pertsona,"
01:40
because I knew I was going to huff and puff
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bai bainekien arnasestuka ibiliko nintzela
01:43
during this conversation.
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elkarrizketan zehar.
01:45
And yet, I've taken that idea and made it my own.
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Eta hala ere, ideia hura hartu eta nire egin nuen.
01:48
So instead of going to coffee meetings
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Beraz kafe hartzeko geratu beharrean,
01:50
or fluorescent-lit conference room meetings,
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edo argi fluoreszentedun bilera geletan
geratu beharrean,
01:52
I ask people to go on a walking meeting,
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jendeari "ibiltzeko" bilera batera etortzeko esaten diot,
01:55
to the tune of 20 to 30 miles a week.
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gutxi gora behera 32-48 kilometro astean.
01:59
It's changed my life.
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Nire bizitza aldatu du.
02:01
But before that, what actually happened was,
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Baina horren aurretik, zera gertatu zen,
02:05
I used to think about it as,
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zera pentsatzen nuen,
02:05
you could take care of your health,
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zure osasunaz arduratu zaitezke,
02:07
or you could take care of obligations,
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edo zure betebeharrak egin ditzakezu,
02:10
and one always came at the cost of the other.
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eta bietako bat beti bestearen kaltetan.
02:14
So now, several hundred of these walking meetings later,
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Eta orain, "ibiltze" bilera hauetako ehunka egin ostean,
02:17
I've learned a few things.
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gauza gutxi batzuk ikasi ditut.
02:18
First, there's this amazing thing
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Lehendabizi, bada gauza eder bat,
02:20
about actually getting out of the box
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izatez, kaxatik irteteak
02:23
that leads to out-of-the-box thinking.
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kaxatik-kanpoko pentsaerara eramaten duela.
02:25
Whether it's nature or the exercise itself, it certainly works.
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Ez dakit natura den edo ariketa bera den,
baina funtzionatzen du.
02:29
And second, and probably the more reflective one,
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Eta bigarrena,
eta ziurrenik hausnarketari lotuena dagoena,
02:32
is just about how much each of us
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gutako bakoitzak arazoak
02:34
can hold problems in opposition
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bata bestearen aurka
zenbateraino mantendu ditzakeen
02:37
when they're really not that way.
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berez horrela ez daudenean.
02:39
And if we're going to solve problems
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Eta arazoak konpontzera bagoaz,
02:40
and look at the world really differently,
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eta mundua benetan
beste modu batean ikusten badugu,
02:42
whether it's in governance or business
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Bai gobernuarekin edo lan munduarekin
zerikusia duten gaietan
02:44
or environmental issues, job creation,
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edo ingurugiroarekin edo lanpostuak sortzearekin
zerikusia duten gaietan,
02:47
maybe we can think about how to reframe those problems
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agian arazoak
beste era batera nola ikusi pentsa dezakegu
02:50
as having both things be true.
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bi gauzak egiak bezala ikusiaz.
02:52
Because it was when that happened
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Hain zuzen ere hori gertatu zenean,
02:54
with this walk-and-talk idea
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"hitz egin eta ibili" ideia honekin,
02:55
that things became doable and sustainable and viable.
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gauzak posible, eta jasangarri bihurtu baitziren.
02:59
So I started this talk talking about the tush,
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Beraz hitzaldi hau ipurdiaz hitz egiten hasi dut,
03:01
so I'll end with the bottom line, which is,
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eta hala bukatuko dut, azken esaldi honekin,
03:05
walk and talk.
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hitz egin eta ibili.
03:07
Walk the talk.
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Hitzaldia ibili.
03:08
You'll be surprised at how fresh air drives fresh thinking,
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Harrituta geratuko zarete aire freskoak
ideia freskoak nola ekartzen dituen ikusita,
03:12
and in the way that you do,
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eta hori egiten ari zareten bitartean,
03:13
you'll bring into your life an entirely new set of ideas.
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zuen bizitzara ideia multzo berri bat sartuko duzue.
03:17
Thank you.
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Mila esker.
03:19
(Applause)
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(Txaloak)
Translated by Jone Aliri
Reviewed by Begoña Laka

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Nilofer Merchant - Corporate director, author
Business innovator Nilofer Merchant thinks deeply about the frameworks, strategies and cultural values of companies.

Why you should listen

Nilofer Merchant has been helping to grow businesses -- from Fortune 500s to web startups -- for 20 years. She’s worked for major companies (like Apple and Autodesk) and early web startups (remember Golive?). Logitech, Symantec, HP, Yahoo, VMWare, and many others have turned to her guidance to develop new product strategies, enter new markets, defend against competitors and optimize revenue.

Today she serves on boards for both public and private companies, and writes books about collaboration, like The New How: Creating Business Solutions Through Collaborative Strategy, and openness -- check out her recent ebook 11 Rules for Creating Value in the #SocialEra, chosen by Fast Company as one of the Best Business Books of 2012. She also writes for HBR, including the personal and brave essay about a previous attempt on the TED stage: "What I Learned from My TED Talk."

Watch Nilofer's moving TEDxHouston talk on "onlyness" >>

More profile about the speaker
Nilofer Merchant | Speaker | TED.com