Kare Anderson is an Emmy-winning former NBC and Wall Street Journal reporter, now connective behavior speaker and columnist for Forbes and Huffington Post. Anderson’s TED talk on The Web of Humanity: Becoming an Opportunity Maker has already attracted over 1.3 million views. Her clients are as diverse as Salesforce, Novartis, S.F. Giants and The Skoll Foundation. She’s a founding board member of Annie’s Homegrown, co-founder of nine political PACs, and author of Mutuality Matters, Moving From Me to We, Getting What You Want and other books. Anderson serves on the advisory boards of Gloopt, Raynforest, Watermark and TEDxMarin. As David Rockefeller Jr. said after hearing her speak, “Kare forever changes how you see yourself and your world.” Discover more at her blog, Moving From Me To We.
My Definition of Success | Creating new value for others by adapting a successful “something” – organizational model, process or other behavior to another situation or bringing together the right team to solve a problem or seize an opportunity where we enjoy the thrill of using our best talents together around a sweet spot of mutual interest or creating mechanisms that evoke a “virtuous circle” of self-perpetuating success or covering a story as a columnist or author that highlights something others can do that makes something better for others – all signs of adopting a mutuality mindset as I spoke about in my TEDxBerkeley and TED talks.
It has certainly evolved as I grew up a daydreamer dubbed as “phobically shy” by mental health professionals when really I wondered why people seemed to rarely say what they really meant and/or did not know what they felt. Always curious my career as a journalist gave me the opportunity (excuse) to ask direct questions and to then realize that most people really wanted to be heard, understood and appreciated – and that asking probing questions often helped them understand themselves better – out of that discovery I realized how much pleasure and sense of adventure I experienced when I found ways that unexpected allies with complementary talents could accomplish something greater –with me.
I Am Driven By | The desire to explore, learn, create, co-create – AND to stand up to injustice which is best to do with unexpected allies where, together we can offer a more enticing and fair option rather than “just” attacking those who are acting unjustly. Hint: when you don’t like your slice of the pie – co-create a bigger pie.
My Highlights | Writing about wretched prison conditions in Portugal and Spain when I was a WSJ reporter in my twenties, citing certain prisoners and spurring pressure to make reforms, backed largely by the middle class that was embarrassed to have their country viewed in that light. Ironically the prison system in California is worse than that which I covered then. Also coaching several extremely poor high schoolers so they could talk their way into getting college scholarships – and become friends for life. Winning an Emmy for my uncovering ways a decade ago United Way was trying to force companies to not include other federations of charities as options for employees to choose to donate.
A Key Talent | Capacity to characterize a situation in ways that are so vividly specific and relevant to others that sometimes they are sway to collaborate with me or support me or my idea. That involves speaking sooner to a sweet spot of mutual interest, getting specific sooner and being congruent in my words and actions. Relatedly those behaviors enable me (and others) to cultivate strong, trusted relationships so we can see a situation from more sides, find apt allies through others and stay relevant.
Principles I Live By | Assume a noble purpose in others and inspire them to act on that view.
Enable others to accomplish something greater together.
Offer a better alternative, as others see it, rather than criticizing their view and/or action.
Realize that Interconnectedness increases frequency of serendipitous encounters & unexpected insights that enable deeper friendships, and greater capacity to serve and be served.
Performing At My Peak | I accept that I am not yet keep on striving to notice when I am using my best talents for a greater good, to then observe the situations, people and other factors that seem to enable me to do so – so I can pull more of those into my life of service – ironically how I can create more adventure with and for others.
The Meaning of Life | To somehow make more situations positively meaningful for yourself and others.
The Best Advice I’ve Received | Do unto others as they would have done unto them – the Golden Golden Rule
Useful Links |
Watch Kare’s TED Talk:
