How To Find – And Use – Your Core Idea To Grab Attention and Engagement
When I first started work in leadership development fifteen years ago, it was common to take nine months to design and launch a learning programme. Now, it’s often three months or less. As technology stomps its foot on the accelerator pedal of change, delivery timescales are shrinking across all industries.
In this environment, whenever you seek to communicate there’s a common factor: the clock is always ticking. Whether it’s the first line of an email, or the opening words of a presentation, time and attention are scarce. I advise you to cut through the tangled undergrowth of your data, arguments and examples to find the simple, salient, relatable point. Here are three reasons why that will help you to engage people.
Firstly, a Core Idea makes influence easier. Imagine you have ten minutes in the diary of someone you desperately need to persuade. Instead of apologising at the end that there’s “so much more to say” you communicate your Core Idea in a few minutes and then engage the person in conversation. Verbal efficiency means you also have time to repeat and reinforce the message. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was once asked how he structured his iconic speeches. He replied: “If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time – a tremendous whack.”
Secondly, a Core Idea is more likely to be shared. When I was a child, my mother told me: “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”. Little did I know her wisdom dated back 2,500 years to pre-Roman times. Authors Chip and Dan Heath in their book Made to Stick: Why some ideas take hold and others come unstuck illustrate the virality of proverbs. The phrase my mother shared was derived from the original Latin: “Avis in manibus melior est quam dupla silvis” (A bird in the hand is better than two in the woods). In the digital age, shareability is the aim.
Thirdly, a Core Idea provides a stable platform for collaboration. Most companies are experimenting with some flavour of the Agile Methodology which rewards rapid communication and teamwork. The film industry knew the value of Core Ideas long before buzzwords like Agile, Scrum and Kanban echoed off whiteboards in corporate meeting rooms. Movie producers always had to sell their idea in just a line or two. The sci-fi horror flick Alien was pitched as “Jaws, on a spaceship”. Concept clarity is vital because films take years, even decades, to travel from the original outline to the big screen. This process is like the child’s whispering game Pass It On: hundreds of people must understand, communicate, and replicate the Core Idea. The vision has to be rock solid as it’s reinterpreted through the eyes of writers, directors, technicians, actors, and marketers.
The key to finding a Core Idea is to be brave enough to cut out irrelevant detail. Here are three questions to uncover the core:
- What MUST be told? The essential point, which must relate and align with your target audience’s current understanding, knowledge, and context of the subject. Your Core Idea is in here. However, it may take many drafts to find it. It’s a good discipline to write it down in 15 words or less (the headline of this article is just ten words and took a lot of experimentation to write). As the French writer and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupery comments: “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away”.
- What SHOULD be told? Helpful material, but not critical. This might be left out, depending on the available timeslot for your influencing opportunity.
- What COULD be told? Interesting but weaker points that belong in a pre-read, a longer conversation, or a follow-up.
We live in an increasingly complex world, where leaders must seek to influence nuanced topics such as mental health, diversity, equity and inclusion, the impact of organisational transformation, and the role of Artifical Intelligence in the workplace. It’s important to note, using a Core Idea isn’t an attempt to grossly over-simplify and hoodwink. It’s not a page ripped from the playbook of our current crop of populist politicians. It’s the skill of intentionally revealing the tip of the information iceberg to offer an insight, solution, or benefit. By rapidly grabbing someone with your Core Idea you create a golden opportunity in turbulent times: to frame the conversation before it even starts.
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