Contributed by Darin Eich, Ph.D., President, BrainReactions LLC http://www.brainreactions.com

We have heard from many people that the importance of communicating your idea is becoming of critical importance! It is the communication that takes the idea into action. Many times, we have a great idea, and we’ve developed it thoroughly, but we are unable to communicate it so that it gets advanced. Odds are, we didn’t communicate it in a way that works with people’s minds. They didn’t get it so they didn’t feel comfortable being a part of it. The answer is simpler. Tell a story. Make it visual. Make it understandable. Help them get it. You should be able to do it in one sheet.

Here is an example. We launched a new training program on idea communication. People had to “get it.” To convey the concept, I had the idea of telling a simple visual story, with me as the main character, through a comic. I chose myself because I know that character well and because I had a few photos of myself! You innovate with the resources you have, right? The comic was easy to make with a few pictures that could convey some situations that we can all relate to. I knew the comic would gather attention because as I was building it at a San Francisco coffee shop, I had two strangers come up to me to ask me what I was doing. This has never happened with writing text! Here is what I created:

From this one visual sheet a person should understand the value of this training. See how we communicated this new training workshop and even participate in the webinar program in a simple visual website at http://ideacommunication.org. Once you create the story and visual, you can use it for articles, the web, live presentations, etc. We launched the training program and it was our most successful yet — so the communication achieved the real ultimate action outcomes we needed.

If you are taking idea generation and innovation seriously, you should take idea communication really seriously because it is what prevents our ideas from happening! These are idea communication problems you may face in your work or organization:

• A great idea doesn’t go anywhere because people don’t understand it or are not motivated to collaborate on it.
• New ideas don’t get put into action internally or externally.
• A new product or service launch requires new and more creative ideas than before.
• Change is happening faster and new communication ideas are continually needed.
• You need to present and persuade with your ideas simply and memorably so others can take a risk.

We would like to help you not only with your idea generation & development but now with your idea communication too so you can bring your innovation into action. Visit http://ideacommunication.org to see more about our training on this important topic. We can bring it live to your organization or you can participate in the recorded webinar program whenever you are ready.

| BrainReactions News, Generating Ideas & Ideation Techniques, Managing Ideas, Innovation Techniques, Gen-Y ideas, New Concepts & Ideas, BrainWaves Emagazine | Email Article | Share on Facebook | del.icio.us | digg this

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