Why Simple Ideas Are Often the Best

No, this isn’t a rock concert. You’re looking at the finishers of The Color Run?, a 5K race in Trento, Italy. There will be over 300 such races this year, worldwide.

I want to tell you about the race to illustrate the power of a simple idea.

Basically, you wear a white T-shirt, and - according to their web site - as you run the course, “You will see smiling faces along the course whose main goal is to douse you in colorful powder to ensure that you look like you ran through a beautiful rainbow by the time you cross the finish line.”

That’s it. That’s the idea. Simple, right?

Founded in 2011 as a profit-making event, this program has grown into what the organizers claim is the single largest event series in the world.

In a world filled with 5K and 10K races, this one stands out for its focus less on fitness and more on fun. Participants share advice like “keep your arms down and twirl as you move through the color throws to get a more even color placement” and “If you don’t want to spend the next few days scrubbing colored powder out of your center part, wear a cap or a wig (in white of course!)”

In fairness, this isn’t even an original idea. It’s a commercial version of the Hindu festival of Holi, which includes throwing colors on people as one element of the festival. (If you want to learn more about the festival and its relation to the race idea, here’s a nice summary.)

But the commercial race shows what is possible when you brilliantly execute a simple idea. Too often in business, professionals - and entire companies - stagnate because they lack a “big idea” to change their circumstances. In reality, they don’t need innovation; they need a good idea that people understand well enough that they can execute it brilliantly.

The race works because it is an incredibly simple idea. You can describe it in a few words, and have other people instantly grasp it. “That sounds like fun!” is almost certainly the response you’ll get.

Once you arrive at such an idea, you can execute it again and again. My guess is that The Color Run? in Brooklyn, New York is not much different from the one in Marseille, France.

The more complicated an idea, the less likely it is to survive and thrive. Complicated ideas have a tendency to fall apart, because people can not describe them accurately or consistently.

So if you want to do something innovative and unique, try a simple idea that you can execute brilliantly.