TCSE: Ted Corpus Search Engine

Recorded at	February 10, 2010
Event	TED2010
Duration (min:sec)	05:46
Video Type	TED Stage Talk
Words per minute	225.78 very fast
Readability (FK)	59.56 easy
Speaker	Omar Ahmad
Country	United States of America
Occupation	politician
Description	Mayor of San Carlos, California (1964-2011)


1	00:15	One of the things that
2	00:17	defines a TEDster
3	00:19	is you've taken your passion,
4	00:21	and you've turned it into stewardship.
5	00:23	You actually put action to the issues you care about.
6	00:26	But what you're going to find eventually is
7	00:28	you may need to actually get elected officials
8	00:30	to help you out.
9	00:32	So, how do you do that?
10	00:34	One of the things I should probably tell you is,
11	00:36	I worked for the Discovery Channel early in my career,
12	00:39	and that sort of warped my framework.
13	00:41	So, when you start to think about politicians,
14	00:44	you've got to realize these are strange creatures.
15	00:47	Other than the fact that they can't tell directions,
16	00:49	and they have very strange breeding habits,
17	00:52	how do you actually work with these things? (Laughter)
18	00:56	What we need to understand is:
19	00:58	What drives the political creature?
20	01:00	And there are two things that are primary in a politician's heart:
21	01:03	One is reputation and influence.
22	01:05	These are the primary tools by which
23	01:07	a politician can do his job.
24	01:09	The second one -- unlike most animals,
25	01:11	which is survival of the species --
26	01:13	this is preservation of self.
27	01:15	Now you may think it's money,
28	01:17	but that's actually sort of a proxy
29	01:19	to what I can do to preserve myself.
30	01:22	Now, the challenge with you moving your issue forward
31	01:25	is these animals are getting broadcast to all the time.
32	01:29	So, what doesn't work, in terms of getting your issue to be important?
33	01:32	You can send them an email.
34	01:34	Well, unfortunately, I've got so many
35	01:36	Viagra ads coming at me,
36	01:38	your email is lost.
37	01:40	It doesn't matter, it's spam.
38	01:42	How about you get on the phone?
39	01:44	Well, chances are I've got a droid who's picking up the phone,
40	01:46	"Yes, they called, and they said they didn't like it."
41	01:48	That doesn't move.
42	01:50	Face to face would work,
43	01:52	but it's hard to set it up.
44	01:54	It's hard to get the context and actually get the communication to work.
45	01:57	Yes, contributions actually do make a difference
46	02:00	and they set a context for having a conversation,
47	02:02	but it takes some time to build up.
48	02:04	So what actually works?
49	02:06	And the answer is rather strange.
50	02:08	It's a letter.
51	02:10	We live in a digital world,
52	02:12	but we're fairly analog creatures.
53	02:14	Letters actually work.
54	02:16	Even the top dog himself
55	02:18	takes time every day to read 10 letters
56	02:20	that are picked out by staff.
57	02:22	I can tell you that every official that I've ever worked with
58	02:25	will tell you about the letters they get
59	02:27	and what they mean.
60	02:29	So, how are you going to write your letter?
61	02:31	First of all, you're going to pick up an analog device: a pen.
62	02:36	I know these are tough, and you may have a hard time
63	02:38	getting your hand bent around it, (Laughter)
64	02:40	but this is actually critical.
65	02:42	And it is critical that
66	02:44	you actually handwrite your letter.
67	02:46	It is so novel to see this,
68	02:48	that somebody actually picked up an analog device
69	02:50	and has written to me.
70	02:52	Second of all, I'm going to recommend that
71	02:54	you get into a proactive stance
72	02:56	and write to your elected officials at least once a month.
73	02:58	Here's my promise to you:
74	03:00	If you are consistent and do this,
75	03:02	within three months the elected official will start calling you
76	03:04	when that issue comes up and say, "What do you think?"
77	03:07	Now, I'm going to give you
78	03:09	a four paragraph format to work with.
79	03:12	Now, when you approach these animals,
80	03:15	you need to understand there's a dangerous end to them,
81	03:18	and you also need to approach them
82	03:20	with some level of respect and a little bit of wariness.
83	03:23	So in paragraph number one,
84	03:25	what I'm going to tell you to do is very simply this:
85	03:28	You appreciate them.
86	03:30	You may not appreciate the person, you may not appreciate anything else,
87	03:32	but maybe you appreciate the fact that they've got a tough gig.
88	03:34	When animals are going to make a point, they make the point.
89	03:36	They don't spend a lot of time dicking around.
90	03:38	So, here you go. (Laughter)
91	03:40	Paragraph number two:
92	03:42	You may actually have to just get very blunt
93	03:44	and say what's really on your mind.
94	03:47	When you do this,
95	03:49	don't attack people;
96	03:51	you attack tactics.
97	03:53	Ad hominem attacks will get you nowhere.
98	03:55	Paragraph number three:
99	03:57	When animals are attacked or cornered,
100	03:59	they will fight to the death,
101	04:01	so you have to give them an exit.
102	04:03	Most of the time, if they have an exit strategy, they should take it.
103	04:06	"Obviously, you're intelligent.
104	04:08	If you had the right information,
105	04:10	you would have done the right thing." (Laughter)
106	04:12	Lastly, you want to be the nurturing agent.
107	04:15	You're the safe place to come in to.
108	04:18	So, in paragraph number four,
109	04:20	you're going to tell people,
110	04:22	"If no one is providing you with this information, let me help." (Laughter)
111	04:26	Animals do displays. They do two things:
112	04:28	They warn you or they try to attract you
113	04:30	and say, "We need to mate."
114	04:34	You're going to do that by the way you sign your letter.
115	04:36	You do a number of things: you're a vice president,
116	04:38	you volunteer, you do something else.
117	04:40	Why is is this important?
118	04:42	Because this establishes the two
119	04:44	primary criteria for the political creature:
120	04:46	that you have influence in a large sphere,
121	04:49	and that my preservation depends on you.
122	04:52	Here is one very quick hack,
123	04:54	especially for the feds in the audience.
124	04:56	Here's how you mail your letter.
125	04:58	First of all, you send the original to the district office.
126	05:01	So, you send the copy to the main office.
127	05:04	If they follow protocol, they'll pick up the phone and say, "Hey, do you have the original?"
128	05:07	Then some droid in the back puts the name on a tickler
129	05:09	and says, "Oh, this is an important letter."
130	05:12	And you actually get into the folder
131	05:14	that the elected official actually has to read.
132	05:17	So, what your letter means:
133	05:19	I've got to tell you, we are all in a party,
134	05:22	and political officials are the pinatas.
135	05:24	(Laughter)
136	05:29	We are harangued, lectured to,
137	05:31	sold, marketed,
138	05:33	but a letter is actually one of the few times
139	05:35	that we have honest communication.
140	05:37	I got this letter when I was first elected,
141	05:39	and I still carry it to
142	05:41	every council meeting I go to.
143	05:43	This is an opportunity at real dialogue,
144	05:46	and if you have stewardship
145	05:48	and want to communicate,
146	05:50	that dialogue is incredibly powerful.
147	05:52	So when you do that, here's what I can promise:
148	05:55	You're going to be the 800 pound gorilla in the forest.
149	05:57	Get writing.
150	05:59	(Applause)

Omar Ahmad: Political change with pen and paper