How to create actionable change

How to create actionable change

It’s time for the penultimate installment in your step-by-step guide to building the Red Thread? of your message or content: all about how to turn your big idea into action.

WHAT ARE THE ACTIONS?

Actions answer the question, “How…?”. Those “How” questions can include questions like “How do I make the Change?,” “How do you help me make the Change?,” “How do I know I’ve been successful?,” and so on.

Because the Actions make the Change concrete for your Audience, they are necessary for the Change to take effect.

The good news? If you’ve already developed your idea into an approach or a suite of products or services, you already have your Actions (or at least one set of them!).

The Actions should fit comfortably into this sentence:

Here’s how [to make the Change]:… [ACTIONS]

They should also meet the following criteria:

  • Contain at least one specific element that makes the Change concrete
  • Fall into at least one of four types (more on these, below):
  • PROCESS: sequential steps your Audience needs to take in order to create the Change; almost always stated as verbs and usually in stepwise order. (E.g., Step 1, 2, 3; Level A, B, C)
  • COMPONENTS: necessary elements, including products, that have no prescribed order or hierarchy; usually stated as nouns (E.g., food, activity, mindset; publishing, consulting, training products)
  • CRITERIA: qualities of a successful Change; usually stated as adjectives (E.g., warm, sunny, relaxed; relevant, resilient, remarkable, repeatable)
  • CATEGORIESareas (as in departments, levels, phases, etc.) where the Change can or should be applied (E.g., Marketing, Sales, Operations; personal, local, global)
  • Tie back to the concepts and language of your GoalProblem, and Truth

Examples

Here’s how…

  • “…Create simple urine tests that providers administer during their patient’s visits” (Life science startup client UrSure, project: investor pitch)
  • “…Use people like ethnographers and user researchers to collect and interpret data that can’t be quantified, like stories, emotions, and interactions” (Client Tricia Wang’s TED talk)
  • “…Create a new editorial position of Newsletter Editor” (Nonprofit media company client; project – persuasive messaging coaching to get funding to create a new newsletter)
  • “…There are four steps: 1. Identify and deactivate past experiences. 2. Change the language we use in the stories we tell ourselves about what’s happening. 3. Reconnect with the enjoyment of being the center of attention. 4. Build capacity to tolerate new, more positive feelings. ” (Client Linda Ugelow; project: drafting keynote)
  • “…Offer options associated with different functions or job levels. For example, someone at a more junior level could choose between one day of remote work every month or one additional day of personal time off. Someone at a higher level could choose between three days.” (Client Tracy Timm; project: diversifying message to a new audience)
  • “…Buy a diamond engagement ring” (DeBeers — not a client, just one of my favorite examples!)
  • “…Conduct Fear Experiments?, which have these components: Focus, Energy, Action, Repeat” (Client Judi Holler; project: revising keynote)
  • “…to help your team progress through each of four levels: Contributor, Mentor, Developer, Visionary….” (Client Ted Ma; project: differentiating core message)

HOW TO BUILD YOUR ACTIONS

STEP ONE: Brainstorm your Action types

  • DO THIS: To find Process Actions, ask yourself, “What are the steps necessary to create the change?”
  • DO THIS: To find Component Actions, ask yourself, “What elements need to be in place? What’s required to make this real, no matter the order?”
  • DO THIS: To find Criteria Actions, ask yourself, “What qualities or traits describe a successful Change?”
  • DO THIS: To find Category Actions, ask yourself, “What are all the applications of the Change? What are all the areas in which it can or should be applied?”

STEP TWO: Pick your type

  • DO THIS: Based on the nature of the content you’re building, decide which Action type you’ll use. As before, keep your brainstorms. You’ll want them for future uses!

STEP THREE: Narrow the choices

  • DO THIS: Narrow down your brainstormed Actions to 1–5 options per type.

STEP FOUR: Modify for memorability

  • DO THIS: With your narrowed list of Actions, see if you can find a group of description words that work together as an alliterative, rhythmical, or similar type of “poetic” (and thus memorable) set

STEP FIVE: Name it to claim it

  • DO THIS: If it makes sense for your desired outcomes or brand, work to find a name for your Action set. Draw from the language you’ve used so far in your Red Thread, relevant metaphors, idioms or other expressions, or even your own background or branding.

MIX, MATCH, MAXIMIZE

As you’re going through and brainstorming your Action types, you may start to notice something: more than one type can apply to your Change. In fact, you’ll often want, or even need, to “mix and match” your Action types.

For example, you could say that to be successful, your Change needs to have three Components. To explain to your Audience how to put those Components into place, you could present a five-step Process.

Or, in another example, you could talk about how your Change works in both a marketing and a sales capacity (Categories). You could then go on to explain the Criteria for making your Change successful with each team… and maybe even the Process for doing that.

The options are nearly endless, but often not necessary. If your message is brief and your Change simple, don’t overcomplicate it!

But if you’re building a message that needs to be strong enough to build a book, workshop, or business on, you may want and need to have the broad, solid foundation all those combinations provide.

***

Regardless of how you arrive at them, your Actions represent the practical end of your Red Thread?. You’ve moved your audience from their initial question, through an understanding of the real Problem, brought them a Truth that forced a choice, presented a Change that achieved their Goal, and given them the Actions to take to make that Change real.

Next up? Showing how taking that mental journey may have brought them more than they realized. That’s what I call the “Goal, Revisited.” Stay tuned!

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Tamsen Webster, MA, MBA的更多文章

  • Duck bunny

    Duck bunny

    For those of you familiar with my first book, Find Your Red Thread: Make Your Big Ideas Irresistible, I talk about what…

    2 条评论
  • When two truths fight, only one wins

    When two truths fight, only one wins

    All change involves choice. Sometimes, that choice is between two things someone deeply believes or values.

    5 条评论
  • Pain is the enemy of long-term change

    Pain is the enemy of long-term change

    Think about pain for a minute. How did you learn not to touch a hot stove? By touching it, right? And did you keep…

    2 条评论
  • Identity is the greatest influencer

    Identity is the greatest influencer

    A client who worked at a Fortune 500 company reached out to me with an intriguing dilemma. A few years before she and I…

    3 条评论
  • Change isn’t just an action, it’s a reaction

    Change isn’t just an action, it’s a reaction

    In 1847, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis faced a grim puzzle.

    3 条评论
  • The 4 Audiences for Change

    The 4 Audiences for Change

    Hello, today! It’s one of those strange paradoxes of life. Change is a natural state of the universe—everything…

  • Transform Your Expertise into Everyday Understanding

    Transform Your Expertise into Everyday Understanding

    So often the success of a change starts with what you say (or write!). But when you're trying to build buy-in—where…

    2 条评论
  • How to find what shines

    How to find what shines

    Think about an idea or concept that, once you heard or read it, you couldn’t forget it. In fact, not only could you not…

    11 条评论
  • How to find what shines

    How to find what shines

    Think about an idea or concept that, once you heard or read it, you couldn’t forget it. In fact, not only could you not…

    11 条评论
  • The Swipefile Returns

    The Swipefile Returns

    It’s been a minute, I know, but over the past few months, I’ve been cooking up some big new projects that you’ll start…

    4 条评论

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了