No one really talks about the food and snacks at an official TED conference. They are game changers.
After my first ninety minutes of back-to-back talks at TED Global 2010, my brain felt like mush. With each talk, my mind felt blown open and rewired. I was used to watching one TED talk at a time. I was not prepared for sitting through a couple of TED talks loosely connected by a common theme, delivered live. Strangely, this is not the most memorable part of my first TED.
As I gathered my stuff, and myself, and walked out of the auditorium, I suddenly noticed a large array of eye-catching snacks. I am a foodie (glutton according to my dad), and always ready to try out any new food. This was also at a time when healthy snacks, energizing drinks, and protein bars were not a thing yet. The vast display of snacks were nothing less than a wonderland.
In addition to the snacks, every TED break also featured catered food. It took me two days—and a conversation with someone from the TED team—to realize why they provided so much food or should I say fuel.
Intense mental work, even if it is passive like attentively listening to talks, can lead to exhaustion. Sustained concentration is tiring, and TED seemed to understand that people need fuel to stay engaged. The snacks and the food service were all part of TED's brilliant conference design.
Sadly, I forgot all about this experience when designing the CoolCoach Fellowship in 2017. A big part of our program design was Sunday training. Every Sunday we had a whole day of training lined up for our Fellows.
As a team of educators, we made sure that our training plan was designed with plenty of activities and breaks. The design factored in our Fellows' learning levels and abilities. All of them were kinesthetically gifted with limited academic qualifications and skills. In spite of designing special modules to help them with their academic skills, we were disappointed by the learning outcomes we were able to achieve Sunday after Sunday.
Lucky for us, an experienced educator, Jayanthi Nayak, came down to observe a Sunday training and help us figure out how to improve it. I will never forget Jayanthi's insight at the end of Sunday training. As we debriefed, I asked her what was the issue, was it our structure, or our pedagogy? She looked me dead in the eye, and said, "Your Fellows are HUNGRY!"
Jayanthi elaborated, most of the Fellows were coming for Sunday training on an empty stomach. We started the day early, and our Fellows came from homes where there was little leftover food and no one was waking up to make an early breakfast for them. This combined with a workout during the day, and limited lunch that they brought and shared, our Fellows were trying to absorb all that we were throwing at them with their stomachs probably growling.
From the very next Sunday, we started providing them with breakfast. Within a couple of weeks, we added sessions on Healthy Meals, which were practical nutrition sessions that not only taught them about nutrition but also introduced them to different healthy meals they themselves prepared.
Once hunger was solved, learning improved. A problem we thought was pedagogical was, in part, nutritional.