Ted Talk Analysis

John Hunter and The World Peace

Game

Sara Garca Blanco

Submitted to Professor Jos M. Prieto
In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the subject
Intervention & Treatment in Social, Educational and Occupational
Psychology

Ted Talk Analysis

Garca, Sara

Introduction: The importance of making a good presentation

Living in the Technological Era, we are constantly being bombarded with
information and, with our modern life hectic schedules, we do not have time to sort
through all of it. We therefore tend to look for the material that stands out from the rest,
the piece of information that has the ability to catch our attention and surprise us.
Having a world changing idea is not enough; it is how the idea is presented that is key

Ted Talk Analysis

Garca, Sara

to its success. If you present yourself and your idea poorly, it wont get anywhere, it will
be lost and forgotten.
The World Peace Game, which he presented at TED2011, is John Hunters
idea of what education should be like. This game has developed over the years into four
4x4x4 Plexiglas structure simulating our world and the current issues that torment it
(war, global warming, economics, politics, etc.). The objective of the game is for school
kids to work together to solve the different issues that are presented before them.
This innovative teaching method is miles away from what we can see in many
classrooms in Spain where lectures occupy most of the scheduled classroom time.
Surely, many children could benefit from Hunters idea. However, have Hunters
presentation skills aided the spread of his idea? Was he able to connect, to grab the
attention of the audience, surprise them? Did he give them something they will
remember? Was he able to generate change, new behaviors, and new cognitions? Or did
his ideas and stories get lost in the cloud of information? To be able to answer this
question, I will present my analysis of ten key aspects of any talk: Argument and
structure, storytelling, jaw-draping moments, emotional versus cognitive appeal,
convergent vs. divergent thinking, rational vs intuitive thinking, facts vs values, time
management, credibility and visual and auditory effects.

I) Argument and Structure

Hunters presentation follows a linear-chronological structure, going from his
motivation to become a teacher and the landing of his first job, to the development of
The World Peace Game and its current use by fourth grade students.

Ted Talk Analysis

Garca, Sara

According to Nancy Duarte in her talk The Secret Structure of Great Talks,
stories are a very effective way of conveying ideas and causing emotional and physical
reactions in those who listen. Nancy Duarte explored the shape of great presentations
and concluded that every effective presentation starts by describing what is and
continues to compare it to what could be, making the gap as big as possible. The middle
of the presentation should reverse back and forth from what is to what could be and it
should end with what could be and a call to action.
Hunters presentation does not follow this scheme. There is no going back and
forth between what our educational system is like and what it could become. It is just a
description of what his teaching is like and the results he is obtaining. This lack of
comparison between how he is working and what the majority of teachers around him
are doing lessens the effect that this presentation could have had. There is no contrast,
therefore there is no palpable need to change or take action.
Hunters use of the first names of family, friends and past mentors stands out
during his talk, as you can see in the presentation overview above. Calling everybody by
their first name personalizes his talk, making the characters of his story real. His use
of praise both toward the audience (i.e. I feel like Ive landed in a colony of angels)
and toward his family, friends, mentors and students is constant. It seems like he only
has positive adjectives to describe the people around him, which does wonders for the
image he is trying to portray of a humble, easy-going person who doesnt have all the
answers but is willing to share and learn from the community. His constant use of names
and praise highlights one of the key points of the presentation, the importance of
connecting to people, of building deep and trusting relationships and the lessons that can
arise from these connections. With his body language and personality, Hunter was not

Ted Talk Analysis

Garca, Sara

only able to convey all this to the audience, but obviously also to his students, who trust
and admire him.
Even though Hunter pointed out important aspects of what education should
look like to be effective, it is hard to grasp those lessons with only one visualization of
the talk, since he does not repeat them or contrast them with what should not be done.
Therefore, it seems like his message got easily lost.
In the end Hunter told a story, a story that was powerful enough to trigger
emotions of admiration, love, surprise and hope in the audience, but a story nonetheless.
A story that with no clear call to action will most likely end up being forgotten by the
audience.
II) Storytelling
Storytelling is the heartbeat of Hunters presentation. His vocabulary choice (i.e.
old wooden, weather-worn table, kitchen table -- peeling green paint, it's kind of
rickety) triggered vivid images in those who listened, bringing the concepts to life. He
placed his stories at the beginning and at the end of the presentation, surrounding his
description of the World Peace Game.
Each of them had a clear why, a clear purpose. The first story is the one on The
Wisdom Table which he compares to his game in the sense that both highlight the
importance of having an empty space to allow learning, insights and knowledge to arise,
grow and develop. His second story on how he became a teacher and landed his first
job, also illustrates this empty space idea with the question he got asked when he was
hired, what do you want to do? The last three stories about the game served to
highlight this and other key ideas of his talk: the children being in charge of the
classroom with the teachers role being that of a facilitator, the power of collective

Ted Talk Analysis

Garca, Sara

wisdom and the spontaneous and unexpected ideas and lessons that arise around an
empty space.
Each of the stories were clear and detailed, with a beginning, middle and end,
and helped the audience visualize what actually happened.
The characters were also well portrayed. The audience got to know them not
only by a description and first name, but also by their actions inside the story (i.e. how a
9 year old girl created a small war to avoid a bigger one without anybody knowing the
purpose of that small war until days later).
III) Jaw-dropping moments
According to Carmine Gallo, author of the book Talk like Ted, a jaw-dropping
moment is anything in a presentation that elicits a strong emotional response such as
joy, fear, shock or surprise. The emotionally charged events during the talk occurred
after the videos containing Hunters students comments and moments of the World
Peace Game in action. It was very surprising to witness nine and ten year-old students
talk about The Art of War by Sun Tzu and apply the concepts presented in the book to
a real life situation. Seeing the childrens active engagement, participation and interest
in the class led the audience to spontaneously break into applause in more than one
occasion.
IV) Emotional versus cognitive appeal
John Hunter portrays himself as a humble, loving person. He has something
positive to say about everybody that has been a part of his life and makes sure he says it
(i.e. she is a very smart superintendent), he calls his students friends, he gives thanks to
the people in his life and he remembers his legacy and places them on stage with him.
This makes the audience automatically love him and creates an immediate emotional

Ted Talk Analysis

Garca, Sara

connection. Who wouldnt love someone who only sees the positive in you, who is
grateful to have you in his life and who makes sure you know it?
Hunter doesnt mention studies or statistics, he doesnt give long logical
arguments. He uses what he calls self-evident assessment. As he explains during the
talk, sometimes we go beyond data with the real truth of whats going on. He believes
in a type of learning and assessment that cannot be designed, planned or even tested; an
idea that goes against the educational system as it is now, which is mostly based on
standardized testing.
He works with the emotions of the audience, using music together with the
videos to give an even more powerful effect, he accompanies his arguments with
pictures of the game that are not neutral at all (i.e. little toy tanks and soldiers) and his
speech is filled with adjectives and gestures that constantly trigger images (i.e. kept my
long beard, my afro and my platform boots). Therefore we can conclude that Hunter
uses an emotional appeal in contrast to a cognitive appeal to sway the emotions of the
audience to support his argument.
V) Convergent vs. divergent thinking
John Hunter clearly believes that there is not a fixed set of logical steps needed
to arrive at a particular solution. The design of his game promotes, spontaneous patterns
of action and thinking, and allows for multiple solutions, none of them being right or
wrong. Each game can start the same way, but end in a completely different fashion,
there is space for the unexpected to happen and creativity is not only welcomed, but
desired. He has created a space where failure is accepted.
Hunters view of education is atypical. The lack of standardized assessment of
knowledge, the view of the teacher as a facilitator and not as the person who holds all
the answers, the belief that children are the ones in control of the classroom instead of

Ted Talk Analysis

Garca, Sara

the teacher, etc. greatly differ from the current doctrine of our educational system. We
can hence conclude that Hunter is a divergent thinker.
VI) Rational vs intuitive thinking
Hunter uses intuitive thinking, and promotes the children to do the same. Instead
of being an analytical thinker, focusing on structure, details and concrete evidence, he
tends to be more of a synthetical thinker, focusing more on how concepts and ideas
relate. He believes the world lacks order and predictability, that the unexpected can
emerge at any time and that the consequences of our actions are unknown. During his
class, Hunter becomes vulnerable and open to the unknowable, relying on feeling and
an inner sense of trust in his students and their collective wisdom.
VII) Facts vs values
As it has been mentioned before, John Hunter does not seem to be a believer in
facts, proof, statistics, standardized testing, etc. He bases his presentation on his own
values and perceptions and he makes sure the audience knows about this (i.e. we go
beyond data with the truth of whats going on Self-evident assessment). Without
getting into whether he is right or wrong here, his believes are probably contraire to
those of the audience, which is composed mostly of scientists and researchers who are
used to working with large quantities of observable data. Therefore this lack of analysis
and comparison may be detrimental for the applicability, generalizability and spread of
his ideas.
He does use videos of the actual game, which serves as proof of what it is
actually like and how students react to it.
VIII) Time management

Ted Talk Analysis

Garca, Sara

Hunters management of time was adequate. He finished on time, without

rushing or cutting the talk short. His talk was clearly practiced and prepared. The videos
and images fitted well with his speech.
IX) Credibility
Hunters body language and stance is relaxed (he wears baggy clothes and puts a
hand in his pocket once in a while). He wears a soft smile, his shoulders are rounded
and hunched over, knees slightly bent, he looks down to his shoes every now and then
and his gestures, movements and rate of speech are slow. This could be taken as a sign
of nervousness or lack of confidence, however it seems to give the audience a calmness,
homelike feeling, since it goes together with his humble personality. He makes eye
contact, his gaze is confident and strong, and he makes sure to cover all space zones
acknowledging everybody in the audience. His facial expression as opposite to his body
language, portrays security and confidence. This contrast between his body language
and facial expression mix well together to make him seem credible, capable and strong
and yet humble, kind and sincere. This fits with his discourse, his values and the way he
treats his students, which help his credibility on stage. He is very comfortable on stage,
laughing together with the audience at times.
The way the students talk about him also helps his credibility.
X) Visual and auditory effects.
The use of videos, images and music are key in this presentation, since they
show the audience what the game is really like and how students react to it. They
provoke some of the strongest emotional reactions in the audience.
Conclusion:
My first impression when watching this talk was of lack of structure, clear
message and disorganization. However, after analyzing his choice of stories, the videos,

Ted Talk Analysis

Garca, Sara

vocabulary, his body language, personality, etc. I felt that holistically it all fitted well
together. Some of his attitudes on stage (i.e. hunched shoulders, hand in his pocket, etc.)
when analyzed alone, may seem erroneous, however when analyzed in the context of
the talk, they are coherent with who he is and what he does.
Hunters vocabulary choice, the rate of speech, sometimes fast, sometimes slow,
his use of silence and pauses, the way he connected with the audience sometimes
laughing with them or giving them a serious stare when the issue was important, etc.
was, in my opinion, excellent.
Yes, the talk could have used a clearer structure and a reinforcement of key
points. The topic itself was really interesting and maybe he could have exploited it in a
more successful way. However, I think he was very successful in portraying what he
wanted to show. That nor he not anybody in this world, has all the answers. That letting
the individuality of each person arise, allowing them to figure out what is right and
wrong through their own particular experiences is the most valuable thing. At first I
thought there was no call to action in this talk. Now I see that his call to action involves
what he continuously did during his talk, connecting with people, appreciating their
qualities and individuality, giving them freedom to express themselves and dont judge
their actions. If you listen in a kind, tender and humble way, if you are open to the
unexpected, wonderful things can happen. And what a better way of showing this, than
through example.

References
Beckett, D. (2013) 33 Steps to Great Presentations. Bookboon.com

Ted Talk Analysis

Garca, Sara

Duarte, N. (November, 2013). The Secret Structure of Great Talks. [Video file].
Retrieved

from:

http://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_duarte_the_secret_structure_of_great_talks
Gallo, C. (2014). Talk Like Ted. New York: St Martins Press.
Hunter, J. (March, 2011). Teaching with the World Peace Game. [Video file]. Retrieved
from: http://www.ted.com/talks/john_hunter_on_the_world_peace_game?
language