I had a super time at the Great Ideas conference, although the notes in my learning journal are a little sparse this year. That is partially because I did have to skip a session or two in order to continue re-creating my slides for my presentation, after my hard drive crashed.

But I noticed a couple of related points from two of the keynotes, one by Dan Heath on ideas that “stick” and one from Ned Hallowell on being “crazy busy.” One of Dan’s six characteristics of “sticky” ideas is that they are unexpected. The single best way to get attention, he said, is to break a pattern.

This is one reason why organizations must expect constant change. I am forgetting who said it, but I remember reading a great point about the danger of finding a winning strategy. Once you find that winning strategy, you then hold onto it, usually past its point of most effectiveness. But when it becomes standard, or expected, it will lose its stickiness.

On the other hand, Ned Hallowell’s presentation was talking about how completely stressed out we all are from having too much to do. One of his points was that we only pay attention when the stimulation is powerful. Louder, brighter. It’s as if a few ideas started raising their “voice” (in order to break a pattern, and stick), so the overall noise level increases. Breaking the pattern means speaking even louder, or moving faster. Then THAT becomes the new normal. Do you see the problem?

It reminds me of school buses. Around here, school buses recently started sporting a white strobe light on top of the bus. When I first saw these, it captured my attention quickly, which, I assume, was its intention. But now I don’t notice them. There are a lot of school buses around here, they all have the strobe light, so it fades into the background. And you’d think a huge, bright yellow bus would already capture my attention, wouldn’t you?

That’s why I like Dan’s first law: simplicity. In today’s environment, you can break a pattern by being simple, by speaking clearly. Maybe even by being quiet?