- Great ideas,
ideas that have the power to change the world,
aren't just found, they're built.
They're built piece by piece in our minds
until we have that what feels like sudden realization
that makes a new direction suddenly clear.
To make our ideas, that idea irresistible to somebody else
we have to do the same thing,
we have to build the idea piece by piece in their mind.
And that's what we're doing
in this little mini series here on Find the Red Thread.
In the last two episodes we went deep on the Problem,
the intractable, invisible problem of perspective
that stands in the way of the other piece, the Goal,
the irresistible outcome that awaits our audience
if they adopt our idea.
This week it's the Idea itself,
the idea behind the idea,
the thing that makes the Problem impossible to ignore
but also puts the Goal within the audience's reach.
That, I'd say, is pretty irresistible.
I'm Tamsen Webster of tamsenwebster.com
and that's what we're talking about this week
on Find the Red Thread.
(lively music)
If we have what we know
is an important solution or change to the world,
we have this big idea that we want to get out there,
it can be so tempting to skip right to it
especially if we've taken the time
to help people understand why it's so important
and so different.
We've taken the time to help people understand
that by adopting the solution
there's an outcome for them, that's the Goal.
If we've taken the time to help them understand
that there's this invisible intractable,
previously intractable problem that stands in the way,
then of course we say,
"We've done all that work
"shouldn't they automatically understand
"that this solution is the right one?"
They may if you skip right to it
but it won't yet be irresistible and here's why.
It's only when there's one other piece of information
that puts the problem and the Goal in conflict
will that solution that you want to put in front of them
become something that they can't ignore.
It becomes irresistible.
So, the goal that we have here
is to move our solution from being understandable
to feeling inevitable.
And to do that we have to find the idea behind our idea.
So, what is that idea behind our big idea?
Well, it can be a couple different things.
It can be a value or a belief or a discovery.
It can be some kind of fundamental truth
that someone believes about themselves or about the world.
For instance, a fundamental truth for me might be
I believe we have all the resources that we need.
A discovery might be that something
that we didn't previously think was possible was possible.
A belief might be that all people
are trying to do something good.
All of these things can classify
as the idea behind your idea.
So, how do you know that you found the right one,
the one that will turn your solution
into an inevitable one?
Well, here's the test.
We need to see whether or not
it makes the Problem impossible to ignore.
Now, here's what I mean.
If they understand and agreed
with this goal that you've set,
this irresistible outcome
and if they've understood and agreed
with this problem of perspective
that there's two ways to look at something
and they've only been looking at one;
and that by only looking at one
they've been missing something else.
Now when you introduce this third piece of information
it should make it impossible for them
to let that problem of perspective stand
because our brain can't stand that kind of gap.
Let me give you an example to make this more clear.
I worked with a wonderful speaker named Dheeraj Roy
on his TEDxCambridge talk,
and the topic of his talk was
how he and his lab at MIT was able to
recover the memories of early Alzheimer's mice.
Now, this would help us achieve
a very important and irresistible outcome
to help extend the normal life
of somebody with early Alzheimer's disease,
extend the period of time
where they could retain their memory
and interact with people the way that they always did.
Now, the problem that Dheeraj set up
was a problem of perspective.
Now, the perspective was how we looked
at memory in the first place.
See, as Dheeraj explained, we tended to think
that if somebody could tell us they had a memory
then that proved that it existed.
But if someone couldn't tell us they have a memory
then we assume the memory was gone.
But, Dheeraj thought to himself,
but what if that memory is like a book in the library
and this is his metaphor.
So if it's like a book in the library
what if it's not that the book is lost
but that we've somehow lost the connection
with how to find it.
For those of you with a certain age
we've somehow destroyed the card catalog,
the thing that helps us find the book in the first place.
So, that Problem against that Goal is interesting
and understandable but why we wouldn't want to solve it.
But the solution doesn't become inevitable
until we understand a third thing:
that through Dheeraj's work,
it's possible to strengthen that retrieval system,
it's possible to strengthen
how we recover memories in the first place.
With that piece of information in play
it means that if we want to extend
the normal life of somebody with early Alzheimer's
then it's impossible for us to ignore the fact
that we've only been looking at half of the equation.
We've only been looking at
whether or not the memory still exists.
We can't ignore the fact
that now that we know it's possible to
strengthen that retrieval mechanism;
we can't ignore the fact that we haven't been looking there
which makes the conclusion inevitable,
the Change inevitable.
The changes inevitable is that we need
to be spending more time figuring out
when, how and where to strengthen that retrieval mechanism
in order to achieve our irresistible outcome.
So, for you, the idea can be all sorts of different things.
It's always, I'm going to argue, hard to find
because it's going to be the most core assumption
underlying why you believe so strongly in your idea.
But a couple things that will help you find it:
First, test it.
Make sure that if it's true
that if somebody still wants the Goal
it makes the Problem impossible to ignore.
But second, make sure that it also
makes the Changes that you're going to recommend
be inevitable or feel inevitable.
That means that the solution,
the Idea that you come up with
has to have two very distinct qualities.
The first is that it needs to be descriptive.
There can't be any Change language in it.
It needs to be a statement,
an observation, a description of the world
or of people or of the person that you're talking to.
It is not an action, that would make it a change.
The first thing it has to be descriptive.
The second thing is that it needs to be neutral.
In Dheeraj's case it needed to be possible
for us to do this.
So, it doesn't mean that like one thing is good
and another thing is bad.
It needs to be a neutral statement
because as a neutral statement
it makes both the problem impossible to ignore
and the Change inevitable.
So, on this step to your irresistible idea
make sure that you put all three pieces in place.
Make sure you build those pieces of the Idea
in your audience's mind,
not just that irresistible outcome
and that intractable, invisible Problem,
but the Idea that makes both of those things
impossible to ignore and the Change,
the solution inevitable.
I'm Tamsen Webster of tamsenwebster.com
and that was this week's episode of Find the Red Thread.
If you want a worksheet to help you find
your own red thread, go to findyourredthread.com
and download the worksheet there.
(lively music)
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