Coming Together

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Coming Together  

I hope I didn’t give YOU a TED-ACHE after last week’s post. That was a lot to consume. I will occasionally link to the more updated version as talks become available online. I will insert a link at the bottom of this newsletter where you will see which talks are live (they are marked in green).

This week, I am digging a bit deeper into my own personal beliefs. As you have probably figured out by now, I am fond of quotes. I don’t know about you, but I am sometimes completely arrested and enthralled by quotes that perfectly capture what my own soul is trying to say but simply can’t find the words for. I guess that’s why we love the arts. Art speaks to our soul—whether it is wonderful music, majestic architecture, or a beautiful painting. 

One quote that for years has resonated with how I myself feel about the world was this one by Jean Monnet (often called the “Father of Europe” for his pioneering work that ultimately led to the formation of the European Union). (Also, please note that it was written at a time when gender equality was at its early stages of development. In your own mind please replace "men" with "people”). 

“It seemed to me, looking back, that I had always followed the same line of thought, however varied the circumstances, and no matter where I was. My sole preoccupation was to unite men, to solve the problems that divide them, and to persuade them to see their own common interest….I have always been drawn towards union, towards collective action. I cannot say why, except that Nature made me that way.”

I feel that same type of calling. Could it be a European thing? Who knows? Perhaps it has to do with growing up in a small country. In order for us to succeed, we simply had to be big exporters and thereby understand and adjust to what other people needed. Or perhaps it was growing up in the '60s and 70’s in Sweden where a rather Marxist tendency ran deep across journalism and much of the political establishment. As a deeply committed free market believer, I had to find ways to work and collaborate with many people with a very different ideological persuasion. Or maybe representing a very American brand (McDonald’s) in that landscape also helped me to hone my skills in bridging the gaps between people’s comfort zones. 

Obviously, it is important to have a clear sense of conviction. I am not talking about diluting what we believe in, but I am talking about also elevating what we belong to. COVID isolation and an ever-growing social media have created a period of extreme division and polarization. And I am convinced that we have amplified our differences beyond recognition. In fact, most media have an incentive to just pour gasoline on the fire of division. It drives more clicks and fuels more flames. Literally. 

I am genuinely hoping that we are witnessing the beginning of the end of that awful time. More and more people I meet are fed up with anger, zero-sum thinking, identity politics, and dehumanizing other people just because they might have a different point of view. Belonging is as important as believing. And we have a lot of work to do on the former. 

I had a great week where I spent time with my partners the way we used to. Real meetings. We visited our locations and spent time with the people who do the really hard work and are the faces of our brands. We broke bread, we listened, we learned and we connected. 

After 2 weeks of hundreds of real meetings and vibrant conversations, it is so obvious to me that there is no substitute for real communication than coming together. Community shares the same etymological root as communication which at its core means sharing. We can’t develop shared beliefs without shared encounters. There is more to ‘communicating’ than 140 characters, blogs, and text messages. Or listening to TV or radio hosts spewing out their onesided versions of reality.

We communicate with all our senses and when we are together we also bare witness to the valuable exchange of ideas that happens in a room. People build their arguments on prior messages and thereby a more uniform and coherent narrative is unfolding. 

As spring is here, as more and more people are returning to our offices let’s hope that we are witnessing the return of a more human conversation. And I am convinced it starts by being more together than apart. Literally and figuratively.

Welcome back, humanity! 

PS. 2 things. 

First, please join the movement #startswithus and help us overcome division. Click here. 

Second, here is My TED 2023 Summary with updated links to live talks (in green)