Look Who it Was Random video

Leadership lessons behind bars: Robyn Scott at TEDxOxbridge

3,418 views · Published 30 June 2014 · 15:27 · Indexed 21 September 2026

Channel: TEDx Talks · 2014 · Nonprofits & Activism

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In prison, you possess nothing: no assets, no credibility. So effecting change relies almost entirely on persuading and mobilising other people.

In this TEDxOxbridge talk, Social Entrepreneur and Author Robyn Scott tells the story of how, a decade ago, in South Africa's most dangerous prison, a group of just twenty men — most murderers — started an AIDS orphans adoption programme, saving or changing the lives of hundreds of prisoners and destitute children, and changing the perceptions of thousands. How they achieved this — and how they have gone on to start other pioneering programmes such as learning to code — offers many lessons for leadership and innovation beyond bars. These include the potential lost opportunity if we focus only on technology or capital as a way to solve problems, and forget to also ask how can we create innovative or disruptive behaviour or thinking.

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