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John Hagel carefully observes the unexpected on the “edges” of business, where things bump up against each other to produce change. In this video story, The Power of Pull co-author shares a personal story about passion and how, for companies big and small, it can create sustained extreme performance improvement.

How do you scale change? Money, money, money. In this thought provoking story, Carbon War Room CEO Jigar Shah injects a healthy dose of logic into the very passionate debate about saving our environment. Financial innovation he says is the key to systems level change.

37Signals co-founder Jason Fried sits down with BIF chief catalyst Saul Kaplan to talk about his latest book Rework. In the video, Fried takes a critical look at everything from social media to meetings to growth to the “over-rated” word innovation.

Oscar-winning short film producer Jana Sue Memel knows a thing or two about storytelling. But how do you bridge the Hollywood way with business? How do you teach corporations how to tell a story? How to you inspire executives to share more about themselves? In this video, she offers her own innovative spin on the art of the narrative.

Social entrepreneur Jacob Colker inspires with his story about creating The Extraordinaries – a micro-volunteer platform that can turn a few minutes of spare time into real social value.

Filmmaker and marine conservationist Fabien Cousteau urges us to “go blue” and save our precious ocean habitats which house 97% of the world’s biodiversity. He also shares details about his latest project, the non-profit Plant A Fish.

Technology, in all its many forms and facets has been Don Tapscott’s life’s work. In this video recorded over Skype, Don shares insights from his latest book Macrowikinomics. Convinced that the “industrial economy has run out of gas,” we hear a story about the need to re-create the institutions and pillars that grew from the industrial economy.

Make magazine publisher Dale Dougherty is creating a global community around the do-it-yourself enthusiast. In this video, he talks about how his deep love of learning and tinkering rejuvenated the DIY movement.

Clear-sighted, logical with a splash of ingenuity. Meet 7th grader Cassandra Lin who has created a (truly) revolutionary business model called T.G.I.F. that turns cooking oil into biodiesel to provide emergency heating for the needy in her community.

Working for the Central Intelligence Agency for more than 30 years has given Carmen Medina a sharp appreciation for the idea of transparency. In this video story, the recently-retired deputy director of intelligence asks three questions: Is the public perception of CIA accurate and useful? What is the motor that runs the world? And, are we the world? Her answers will surprise and inspire you.

Ben Berkowitz wants to create a little disruption to keep government honest. In this video, he shares his experiences building SeeClickFix, a Gov 2.0 web app that gives citizens the chance to instantly report local community problems to their government and the media.

Author and journalist Alan Webber reminds us that access to information is not a problem. But content isn’t king. Context is. In this video story, Webber talks about the media industry’s dire lack of context and the need for journalists to return to their roots with deep investigate reporting.

Bruce Nussbaum, formerly of BusinessWeek and now professor of innovation and design at the New School wonders why designers complain so much about lack of respect instead of just going ahead and solving gnarly problems like healthcare. In this video conversation with BIF founder Saul Kaplan, Bruce explains how design is much more than creativity. It’s really a mechanism for change and action.

Is it really worth daring to be great? SY Partners chairman Keith Yamashita dares us all in this moving video story crafted as a metaphor from the Charles and Ray Eames video “Powers of Ten.” It’s a remarkable tale that reminds us that the future is here for us to create and it starts one collaborative duo at a time.

How did Zappos.com become an overnight success? In this video, Hsieh talks about the many paths the company took to finding happiness (and profits!) and shares insights from his latest book Delivering Happiness. Mid-way through the talk, his Chief Happiness Officer Jenn Lim takes the stage to share experiences from the innovative book tour and the movement Hsieh and his team hope to inspire.

The role of the physician is to elicit, interpret and act upon someone’s story. Physician Sayantani DasGupta says somewhere along the way, healthcare has become too empirically-minded. In this video, she weaves her own unique narrative about the healing power of story.

There's no higher purpose than to be a catalyst. In this video story, BIF founder Saul Kaplan talks about what it's like to start a positive reaction then get out of the way and trust what comes next.

The only way to communicate is to understand what it is like not to understand. The inimitable Richard Saul Wurman begins his story by telling the audience “you’re all stupid,” He finishes with a few tales about why it’s an utter joy to really not know things because that’s the best starting point for innovation.

What makes you want to get out of bed in the morning? We all need a good reason. Without one, we don’t live as long, we aren’t as productive and we aren’t happy. In this inspiring video story, executive coach Richard Leider takes us on a journey through his more than 40 years of research studying the power of purpose.

Photojournalist team Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio share stories from their latest book What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets. Through portraits of people around the world and the food that fuels them over the course of a single day, we see the similarities as well as the extreme differences in the ways that we approach and consume food, often challenging the tacit assumptions hidden in our daily fare.

In Peter Hartwell’s ideal world, sensor technology will be integrated into every aspect of our lives. In this fascinating video, the lead scientist of HP’s Central Nervous System for the Earth (CeNSE) project shares the potential of the technology and how we will one day be able to listen to the “heartbeat of the earth.”

Educational gaming is challenging standard notions of what a classroom is supposed to be. It has the potential to shake out obsolete practices that hamper vibrant learning. In this video, Tabula Digita CEO Ntiedo Etuk talks about the critical role video gaming will play in transforming our K-12 education systems.

BIF executive director Melissa Withers tells a story about the Business Innovation Factory and the organization’s North star question: How do you get off the whiteboard and into the real world?

Healthcare social entrepreneur Meg Wirth notes that except for HIV, giving birth is the most prevalent way women die in Africa, Asia and much of Latin America. In this video story, Meg shares tales from her non-profit’s effort to make this perilous gap more noticeable to people who might be able to close it.

What constitutes art in the age of technology? In this video, artist Marla Allison shares her unique approach to weaving technology into ancient Native American artistic practices.

Babson president Len Schlesinger observes that infants view things with an open mind. As they learn more, they get better at predicting responses to actions, awareness gets narrower and deeper, and people begin to optimize their lives. Until they can’t. And this is the struggle of the entrepreneur. In this video story, Len inspires us to think differently about keeping an open mind.

Content today lives in multiple spaces and places. But how do we make sure that what is beautiful and wonderful about offline media is not lost or degraded when brought online? In this video, ScrollMotion CEO Josh Koppel gives us a digital history lesson and shows us the power of platform technology.

John Rinn has the distinction of being named by Popular Science magazine as one of the “brilliant 10” young geniuses shaking up science today. In this video story he shows us why. Rinn is immersed in the relatively obscure world of lincRNA (large intergenic non-coding RNA) that might just hold some critical clues about human biology and disease.

From MIT’s Media Lab to the Rhode Island School of Design, John Maeda talks about finding a different center, one that incorporates art into science and technology. In this video, the RISD president presents a different kind of thinking – one that is idea-driven and incorporates intuition, design, emotion and art into education curriculum.

Social entrepreneurship is now reaching the world of venture capital. In this video story, Kim Scheinberg talks about a new kind of fund she created that leaves it up to entrepreneurs to choose the second round of investments. Along the way, Scheinberg realized that…

This is one of the best healthcare innovation stories we’ve ever heard. Former Ritz Carlton executive Gerard van Grinsven is now the CEO of a new kind of hospital in Detroit, Michigan. One that makes you feel – at the perhaps the time you need it the most – as if you’re staying at the Ritz.