Presentation Breakdown: Rich Mulholland “Escaping Educational Legacide”
This week’s presentation breakdown features Missing Link CEO and former rock star roadie Rich Mulholland. After operating lights for bands like Iron Maiden and Def Leppard, Mulholland started South Africa’s first presentation company, Missing Link. He is also an outstanding speaker and education activist.
In this TED talk, Mulholland speaks about his proposition of reinventing the educational system. He believes that people should never stop learning. The traditional model of education, one in which we attend school until our early 20s, then rely on this education to fuel our careers and minds for the remainder of our lives, is a flawed system. Let’s take a look at the structure of this fun, engaging presentation!
0:08-0:20
Mulholland opens up the presentation by greeting the audience, but then he jumps right into a declaration of his personality. He says that he always wanted to join the circus, but that he never wanted to actually follow them on stage. This gives us a brief glimpse into his personality, which we will come to recognize as being light and humorous, but with a sincere glow.
0:20-0:50
Now, Mulholland jumps right into a new idea. Notice how directly he addresses the audience and how lively they become when he speaks to them. He is very unorthodox in his approach at humor, especially for a TED talk. Within the first minute of his talk, he has made the audience laugh, while truly engaging them in a scenario that he begins to play out.
0:50-2:30
As we dive deeper into this scenario, which is an interesting one I might add, Mulholland is amping us up with suspense about the “catch” of this “gift.” He is clearly going somewhere with this, but until he finally reveals the punchline, we are clueless, but enjoying the ride. He delivers the “catch,” and gets the reaction for which he was hoping. The audience plays right into the joke. However, it isn’t simply a joke. We have been taught something through the joke, and we will spend the rest of the TED talk delving deeper into this idea. He shifts into the topic of how things change. Now, we will get to the meat of the piece. He addresses this shift with the mention of education.
2:30-3:04
Once we have made the shift into the “real” topic of the piece, Mulholland is keen to run with it while he has our attention. He doesn’t drag it out, waiting for us to wonder too much. We’ve had a little of that already. People want to get information when they want it, not when someone decides to give it to them. By using the clothing scenario, Mulholland has opened our minds to this possibility, and now he has given us a token of wisdom concerning innovation. He says, “Innovation isn’t about doing something new. Innovation is almost always about stopping doing something old.”
3:04-4:06
Mulholland turns to giving us some visuals that we can use to compare and follow the points he is talking about. He shows two graphs that differ drastically. We see his points clearly and he conveys his message in a humorous way. Then, he gives us some insights into his personal life as well as his father’s. He backs up what he is saying by addressing his past. We believe in this idea, we are on the same page because we see a an analysis of his life running parallel to his points. He is living and working the way he says that most people are living and working. After he has convinced us of this, and we see his point clearly, he moves on to another point by addressing the idea of Experience vs. Expertise.
4:06-5:23
Now, we’re getting into the heart of the presentation. Mulholland digs deeper into the current problem of age and salary. While the former system meant that the older you are the more money you make because of the experience you have, the newer model suggests that expertise, not experience, is the more valuable asset for a company to have. People are retiring earlier because they have been replaced by younger, more specifically talented and trained new employees. After showing two more graphs that illustrate his point, Mulholland explains the bigger idea in terms of a real, current problem. He directly tells the audience that they should be afraid of what’s to come. By doing this, he is preparing a call-to-action and instilling a tiny initiative into the audience in order to promote action. We will see the development of this idea later on in the presentation. As he makes the declaration, “I think every 30-year-old in the room should be crapping themselves,” the audience begins to laugh loudly, to which Mulholland responds with more humor.
5:23-6:07
Mulholland goes on to explain that everyone is plateauing earlier, including himself. People in their 20s are so excited to learn and update their skill sets. They eventually become less valuable to their companies due to more and more specialization by other, newer employees. At this point in the presentation, Mulholland is once again bringing his personal struggle with this issue into play. We are invested in the idea because we see that our speaker is also personally invested in the subject matter.
6:07-8:50
We are on the backward slope of the issue at this point. We have come across the main topic, discussed and setup the climax and then revealed the true problem. Now, Mulholland is explaining the effects of the problem, and how we can begin to come to terms with the issue. He puts into perspective the central message: all of the rules have changed. We can’t keep looking at our careers in the same, traditional way. He is setting the audience up for a solution. He uses passion and exciting body language to keep us interested in the subject matter, which will be crucial for him to do as he in the next few minutes.
8:50-9:57
Mulholland has reached a solution. He has clearly stated the answer to this problem. We have experienced the build-up of the issue, and now we are about to take action in order to solve it. Mulholland displays a clear slide with the sentence, “We need to shorten the distance between education and execution.” The structure thus far has been consistent. Mulholland has given us examples of how each portion of the problem affects our lives, and now we come to see a possible resolution to the issue. He proposes that we stop schooling earlier, begin working and then integrate education into the remainder of our lives. We never need to stop learning.
9:57-12:34
As we wrap up the presentation, we are given a thorough, clear understanding of the necessary steps to change the system. He gives us an original set of instructions that can be used to change the “business model” of educational institutions. There are three main points: 1)Sell-by Date for degrees 2)Subscription model for learning 3)Relevance is Key for maintaining functional, efficient employees. Now, we have a few concrete rules that we could follow in order to fully integrate education into our working adult lives. Then, Mulholland seals his proposition with a quote. This is a very good technique for concluding talks because it not only gives the audience a tangible piece of information, but a relevant quotation encompasses the essence of the overall idea. It reminds and reinforces the goals that the speaker has laid out. Mulholland closes the presentation in a quick, simple manner, which makes his last words easily digestible for the audience.
So, there you have it!
This piece is rather short, but informative, and most importantly, fun. Mulholland is a lively, passionate presenter who goes in a clear direction, not stopping or lulling the audience to sleep. He keeps the energy flowing and the thoughts brewing for his audience, and we are enchanted by his fresh approach to an engaging topic. Overall, this presentation gives us a chance to experience and learn in a thrilling environment, and we walk away feeling refreshed and informed with a sense of joy at having been a part of it.
Now, the real question is: how do you feel about this presentation? Are there any key points that we have missed or that you would like to discuss? As always, subscribe to our YouTube channel, leave us some feedback below or on our Facebook page, or tweet us at @BigFishPresCo!
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