Ideas change everything

We need to turn our response to crisis inside out

21,437 plays|

Shalini Unnikrishnan |

TED@BCG London

• June 2015

During the peak of the Ebola crisis, the recovery process in Africa was not going according to plan. Failure after sobering failure forced health consultant Shalini Unnikrishnan to recognize that they had approached the crisis from the wrong direction. In this impassioned talk, she urges the response to the next pandemic to be centered on the people it impacts rather than the virus that spreads the disease. She advocates for a new approach that will infuse scientific procedures with the emotion, tradition and belief that are inextricably intertwined when crises are both global and local at once.

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

During the peak of the Ebola crisis, the recovery process in Africa was not going according to plan. Failure after sobering failure forced health consultant Shalini Unnikrishnan to recognize that they had approached the crisis from the wrong direction. In this impassioned talk, she urges the response to the next pandemic to be centered on the people it impacts rather than the virus that spreads the disease. She advocates for a new approach that will infuse scientific procedures with the emotion, tradition and belief that are inextricably intertwined when crises are both global and local at once.

Want to use TED Talks in your organization?

About the speaker

Shalini Unnikrishnan

Crisis strategist

Shalini Unnikrishnan is a Partner in the Chicago office of BCG and sits on the US Board of Directors of the Tony Blair Africa Governance Initiative. In 2014, Unnikrishnan provided on-the-ground support in the creation of the UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response to handle the escalating crisis. She holds an MBA in Healthcare Management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a Masters in International Relations from SAIS Johns Hopkins University.

About TED Institute

Every year, TED works with a group of select companies and foundations to identify internal ideators, inventors, connectors, and creators. Drawing on the same rigorous regimen that has prepared speakers for the TED main stage, TED Institute works closely with each partner, overseeing curation and providing intensive one-on-one talk development to sharpen and fine tune ideas. The culmination is an event produced, recorded, and hosted by TED, generating a growing library of valuable TED Talks that can spur innovation and transform organizations.

Read more about the TED Institute