Topic 8: Meld & Disseminate

Topic 8 - Meld & Disseminate > Convergence > Convergence
Topic 8 - Meld & Disseminate > Prototyping > Prototyping
Topic 8 - Meld & Disseminate > Dissemination: Keenness for newness > Dissemination: Keenness for newness
Topic 8 - Meld & Disseminate > Dissemination: Openness to change > Dissemination: Openness to change
Topic 8 - Meld & Disseminate > Discussion of stop & thinks > Discussion of stop & thinks
Topic 8 - Meld & Disseminate > Topic 8 Wrap-Up > Concept Review

Once you’ve come up with lots of ideas, some pretty wild, how do we narrow down to the few we can move forward? How do we take that best idea and sell it to the world?
Idea prioritization selection is called convergence.
The expense and time needed to test whether our idea might be true or work, makes it impossible to pursue every idea we generate.
In stating our question, we made sure it was plausible, useful, and actionable.
The first two principles, plausible and useful, advise that the idea is not clearly disproven by current evidence, and that it might be beneficial.
Actionable suggests the ability to bring the idea to society.

Rapid prototyping is used by industries from engineering to big pharma.
The pharmaceutical industry tests new drugs within a hierarchy of increasingly complex and costly research trials.

Phase one trials test dosing and enroll a few subjects.
Phase two studies enroll a few dozen and focus on safety.
Finally, phase three enrolls hundreds or thousands as full-fledged tests of efficacy.

In business, focus groups and market surveys give us imperfect, but useful information about how customers may behave.

Change is hard, and revolutionary ideas are often rejected before they’re accepted.
Keenness for newness requires paying attention to what is new.
Malcolm Gladwell in his popular book The Tipping Point argues that grabbing attention is aided by gaining advocacy from the right people.
These right people are highly connected, attuned to new trends, great at selling dreams, or a combination of all three.
Highly connected people appear at the center of social networks.
Those were the right people, the same kinds of people who can bring public awareness to your invention.

Openness involves a willingness to break frames.
Opening minds can be accomplished by formulating the idea in the right way.
Finally, opening minds – that is, challenging frames – can happen through hitching our idea to something considered socially good or bad.

Discussing today’s stop and think questions, the best ideas are those that are plausible, useful, and actionable.

Convergence on one or a few ideas requires determining which are the most plausible, useful, and actionable.
Dissemination of a new idea becomes more likely when people pay attention, are open to change, and eager for reform.
These attributes can be aided by finding the right people, positioning the idea, and priming the social environment.