Plato would be right at home pitching an idea to a full room of VCs in Silicon Valley. Instead of delivering straightforward instruction, he made dialogue the center of focus for developing his ideas and getting others to see his point of view. Even the Ancient Greeks knew that effective communication does not follow a linear path—it requires us to incorporate the point of view of others as we engage in cooperative, iterative learning together.

In most of Plato’s writings, the protagonist Socrates engages in a conversation with another person. During a back and forth exchange, Socrates makes his “pitch” by learning more about the other person’s point of view. Through nonlinear give and take, everyone comes away better informed.

Transforming one-way presentations into a shared environment for developing knowledge together allows our expertise to come alive. This is crucial for several reasons:

We meet people on the same plane: By adopting each other’s point of view, we communicate on the same page and cut down on misunderstandings and misinterpretations.

We develop our own knowledge further: Delivering information shouldn’t be a one-way street. Pushback by others forces us to refine and sharpen our own ideas.

We go beyond the content at hand: By using our knowledge as a roadmap for jumping off into a dialogue of learning, we avoid constraining the potential of our meetings by simply “sticking to the script.”

Plato understood that the best way to communicate some of our most complicated ideas might be to develop them together in shared dialogue. Focusing on conversation, rather than instruction, allows us to engage all participants in the learning process. When we engage in learning dialogue, we iteratively develop our own expertise to synchronize each other’s perspectives and maximize the richness of the ideas being shared.

William Isaacs’ critical book, Dialogue: The Art of Thinking Together, elucidates this point further.  Isaacs wants us to understand that cogent dialogue isn’t just about passing ideas back and forth. By engaging the collective knowledge of everyone in the group, a truly effective pitch creates synergy that both unifies the group and expands its creative capabilities.

Thus, the heart of effective communication lies in establishing a relationship through which information can be shared. By building a bridge of respect and trust, ideas belong to the group and individual problems become the focus of cooperative effort.

Engaging in nonlinear dialogue adds a personal element to communication, and this is critical. Oren Jacob has spent over 20 years developing and fielding pitches. Between pitching $100 million movies at Pixar, fielding startup pitches as an EIR at August Capital, and now as co-founder and CEO of interactive media company ToyTalk, he knows an effective pitch inside and out. He makes a keen observation: “Your pitch has to be infused with humanity.”

Much of this is really about flexibility. Jacob continues, “You’re at your most human when you can respond off the cuff.” He argues that while stories require structure, they are really a conversation. Navigating the connections that structure the transitions between key points is a subtle, but important tool. Jacob suggests practicing delivering pitches in a nonlinear way to hone this skill, explaining, “It’s only by working the transitions in and out of your key points that you’ll actually get a real handle on the various bridges you can use to get where you need to be.” 


At Vimodi, we are developing technology that helps users have a more engaging, responsive and effective visual discussions and dialogues. Vimodi enables visual mobile discussions for better engagement, motivation, and creativity in meetings and daily communication. Try Vimodi App.

How often have you seen a couple at a restaurant engrossed in their phones instead of each other? Most of us agree that this occurs all too frequently. Indeed, you could easily believe that personal connections have become less valuable to us than digital ones. 

Ironically, it is precisely our need for constant personal interaction that has fueled digital interaction.  However, they are not the same and are definitely not interchangeable. On the one hand, we love technology—most of use could never be without our smart phones. On the other, we are wired to love tangible and physical interaction. For the joy of speaking to someone face to face, anticipating the curve of their lips as they begin to smile, and being washed over by the warmth of their voice, a smiley face just isn’t going to cut it.

Both personal interaction and digital interaction are necessary and important, but the key is knowing when to use each, and in particular how to resist the allure of digital when personal would be better and more fulfilling.

The Easy Temptation

The pull of technology today is in many ways no different than the lure of the Sirens in Homer’s epic poem, the Odyssey. The hero Odysseus sails home to Ithaca after the fall of Troy to reclaim his land and reunite with his family. Along his journey, he encounters the Sirens, whose song is so sweet that none can resist it: every previous sailor to hear the enchanting song immediately steered towards the Sirens, only to hit the rocks nearby and sink.

Odysseus knows that he wants to hear the song, but he also doesn’t want to crash the ship and fail in his quest. So, he literally puts himself “in a bind.” He has his crew tie him to the mast of the ship, and has the rest of the sailors fill their ears with beeswax, so that only he can hear the song, but he is tightly bound and cannot sink the ship.

By constraining himself this way, Odysseus actually achieves a better outcome. This tale from the Odyssey is an example of how behavioral economists approach “dynamic inconsistency,” the idea that our preferences may change over time in ways that directly conflict with previous desires. That is, I would like to have deeper engaging conversations with friends in person, but I know that when my phone vibrates I will immediately turn to the conversation my other friends are having on Twitter. I would like to have better relationships with my colleagues at work, but when faced with a choice between dropping by their office or shooting them an email, I’ll choose the latter. How to break the spell?

Breaking the Spell

Two modern artists have captured this sentiment directly in their work:  the enigmatic Banksy conveys this brilliantly in his new street art, “Mobile Lovers*,” and writer/director Gary Turk speaks with power about this in the moving short film, “Look Up*.” “Mobile Lovers” speaks for itself, and Turk’s video of a spoken word love story pleads with an online generation to “look up” from our personal devices long enough to seize real life in its full satisfaction. Both artists are getting plenty of airplay and online shares right now—“Look Up” is at forty million views and counting. Clearly the Siren call of digital is worrying us.  

Dont let your device dictate who you are

Sherry Turkle, MIT professor of social studies of science and technology, lamented the disconnectedness of society in her powerful TED talk "Connected but alone?" & her New York Times article, “The Flight From Conversation,” two years ago. She warned that we are sacrificing conversation for a connection and that our devices are becoming so powerful that they change not only what we do, but also who we are.

Overindulging on digital turns us into robots, and it can be a slippery slope—the only limit to indefinite computer and device use is mental exhaustion. In his TEDx talk, Professor Luis Almeida interviews students who exhibit symptoms of “technology numbness” from logging long hours online without any breaks.

Strike a balance between digital literacies and interpersonal conversation

However, quitting cold turkey isn’t just going to work—it’s not realistic. We believe that technology that enhances personal interactions and that helps us switch back and forth between personal and digital is the real answer.

High school teacher Paul Barnwell of The Atlantic has this exact kind of approach in mind and applies it in his classroom. He asks, “What if we focused on sharpening students’ ability to move back and forth between the digital and real world?” If the march of digital interaction is inevitable, breaking the spell means not simply telling students to avoid digital interactions but teaching them to know when digital or personal are the right way to communicate. 

“We can use technology to encourage students to strike a balance between digital literacies and interpersonal conversation,” argues Barnwell. He notes that students tend to take conversations more seriously when recorded and that smartphones make excellent recording devices. 

Without a doubt, digital interaction is here to stay and clearly some types of communication are better on our “always-on” mobile devices, like where to meet or how to get there. But when we use the same technology for more complex items it fails us. Indeed, there is real joy and richness in connecting in person. One can only guess what personal connection Banksy’s mobile lovers are missing by staying digitally connected. 

Photo* - "Mobile Lovers," by Banksy
Video* - “Look Up,” by Gary Turk

At Vimodi, we are developing technology that helps users have a more engaging, responsive and effective visual discussions and dialogues. Vimodi enables visual mobile discussions for better engagement, motivation, and creativity in meetings and daily communication. Try Vimodi App for free.

What can we learn from French chefs about getting buy-in for innovative ideas? Actually, quite a lot.

Pan-fried salmon is nearly a staple in most restaurants today. In fact, the dish—pan-fried salmon with sorrel sauce—created a hotbed of controversy in French cooking in the 1970s when first served by the legendary Troisgros brothers at their Michelin-starred restaurant.

During that time, a group of French chefs including the Troisgros brothers began a period of category crossing that led to the creation of the now widely popular “nouvelle” cuisine. How did they do it? By connecting elements from classical cuisine with the new cooking styles to establish a new gastronomic identity.

It wasn’t easy—initially, the chefs that blended elements from classical and nouvelle cuisine were rated more harshly by Guide Michelin critics. However, eventually critics accepted this gastronomic “bricolage” and new gastronomic style was born.

How bricolage helps buy-in

A team of researchers from Stanford, EM Lyon, HEC Paris, led by Hayagreeva Rao found that successful chefs were not the ones that simply produced dishes in both categories, but those that selectively integrated elements of the new style into their old style cuisine. By building off established techniques, the chefs were able to use the existing approach to entice diners to the new cuisine.

Celebrated chef and restaurateur Daniel Boloud and culinary guru Dorie Greenspan write that the Troisgros’ salmon and sorrel dish became a touchstone that truly marked that passage from classical to nouvelle cuisine. They argue that the manner in which the brothers chose elements from classical cooking and blended them in new ways was the key to their success. They explain, “The components of the dish were not the newsmakers—they’d been used singly and in combination for years by chefs in France.” Building on the classical foundation and innovating from it, “It was the way in which the salmon was cooked and the manner in which the plate was arranged that rocked the culinary establishment.”

Bizarre (and connected) is better

The idea that customers and critics will be more accepting of new ideas if they are linked to familiar ones has been embraced by British chef, Heston Blumenthal. His innovative combinations like salmon and licorice have earned him accolades – and three Michelin stars - for his restaurant, The Fat Duck, where the kitchen looks like a chemistry lab. Blumenthal’s take on modern cuisine is built on the idea that novel, atypical category combinations can work, especially when they are connected to things that are familiar (both salmon and licorice have roots in Dutch cuisine).

In research sponsored by Northwestern University Institute on Complex Systems Brian Uzzi and his team analyzed 17.9 million academic papers to uncover what kind of work leads to the greatest scientific impact, and found that the most impactful work had both high novelty and conventionality. In other words, it made unusual combinations of ideas but was also critically grounded in the foundations of existing work. 

This has important implications for getting buy-in of new ideas. For an innovative, groundbreaking idea to be accepted, it’s essential to present the idea in the context of prior work. By linking the old ideas to new ones, audiences will be more receptive and have a better understanding of the new concept. Without the connections, a new idea is likely to be rejected out of hand. 

Our love-hate relationship with creative ideas

Why does this occur? Surprisingly, research at Wharton, UNC, Cornell by Jennifer S. Mueller and colleagues, has shown that human beings actually have a subtle bias against creativity. Somewhat paradoxically, even when people say that they desire creative, exciting ideas, in fact, they tend to shy away from them especially faced with uncertainty. In a recent research study, study subjects who believed they were open to creative ideas evaluated creative ideas negatively if they were put in an uncertain situation.  

What results like these teach us is that people do have a strong desire for creativity and innovation. However, in order to gain their buy-in for novel ideas, it’s important to connect the new ideas to the accepted ones when presenting them. By linking the old with the new, innovations don’t appear as a fad or a flash in the pan (no pun intended), but can be understood as important building blocks in the continuing progress of our ideas.  

Creativity is connecting things

Steve Jobs, in describing the generation of novel ideas, is famously quoted as saying, "Creativity is just connecting things." The lessons from the French chefs and the rise of nouvelle cuisine tell us that generating the ideas is only part of the innovation process. We need to communicate the connections, not only the ideas, for others to accept them. 

Photo* – Edison Light Globes

At Vimodi, we are developing technology that helps users have a more engaging, responsive and effective visual discussions and dialogues. Vimodi enables visual mobile discussions for better engagement, motivation, and creativity in meetings and daily communication. Try Vimodi App.

How much technology is too much? French president François Hollande would argue that even a little can be distracting. Last week, the president made a move to ban the use of all mobile phones in cabinet meetings. A spokesman for Hollande indicated that the president wanted to increase the focus and attention staff members paid in meetings.

What’s the reasoning behind getting rid of technology in meetings?

Leaders like Hollande believe that technology can be constraining, and they are not totally wrong. Hollande’s spokesman explains, “Each of us will now have to talk and listen to what is to what is said and will no longer be able to tap away at this magnificent tool.”

Let’s break this down—the statement does a couple things. Hollande’s spokesman both identifies a benefit and a problem to using technology in political meetings. On the one hand, having mobile devices on hand can be distracting and can detract from focus and effort on the task at hand. On the other, having access to powerful tools such as the Internet and apps that allow for real time updating of information can be an invaluable and “magnificent” boost to production.

You’re not living in the 19th century

So why throw out the baby with the bathwater? During the industrialization of Great Britain in the early 1800s, a group of disgruntled textile workers called the Luddites engaged in a series of protests aimed at rebelling against the technological tide of the times. Their method? “Machine breaking”: Destroy every piece of technical machinery they could find in order to halt innovation and break free of the Industrial Revolution. Even if you’re not a historical scholar, it should be clear who won out in the end.

The Luddites unilaterally rebelled against crucial technological developments of their time because they were unable to harness the power of new innovations and separate the good from the bad. Because they were unable to adopt and adapt, they soon became irrelevant.

Don’t be a machine breaker

While Hollande may accomplish some gain in focus by banning phones, he’s also “broken” any effectiveness this technology may have in his meetings. This kind of unilateral approach is a copout. The solution is not to ban mobile devices, slide presentations, or any other kind of technology, but to figure out how to use them to increase engagement in meetings. Rather than simply viewing them as new-fangled distractions, the onus is on effective leaders and communicators to figure out how to adapt and adopt new technological tools to stay on the cutting edge.

Pope Francis seems to have figured this out. Only ordained in March 2013, he already has 463,000 Facebook likes and 160,000 Instagram followers. He tweets regularly to his 3.5 million followers, and stresses the importance of taking an active role in using technology to bring ideas and people together, explaining, “It is not enough to be passerby on the digital highways, simply ‘connected’; connections need to grow into true encounters.” Pope Francis argues that the current “revolution” in communications media will facilitate the diffusion of ideas with personal engagement like never before.

It is a poor carpenter who blames his tools

With all of the technology available to use for communicating ideas, we are selling ourselves short by taking a canned, impersonal approach to delivering information. When these go wrong, it is unfair to blame the technology itself—communicators must take an active role in managing the tools available. Don’t shun technology. Instead, think about how to use it to increase the engagement of your audience.

Hollande’s solution is short sighted. Sure, he gets his cabinet ministers to stop fiddling with their mobile devices in meetings. But he also is missing out on the potential that mobile technology could have for increasing engagement in discussions. The challenge is not to avoid mobile technology but to design apps that make it work the way we need it to.

Photo* - BBC News 

At Vimodi, we are developing technology that helps users have a more engaging, responsive and effective visual discussions and dialogues. Vimodi enables visual mobile discussions for better engagement, motivation, and creativity in meetings and daily communication. Try Vimodi App.

What do executives at Amazon and nuclear physicists at Fermilab have in common?  While a tempting response, the answer is not the potential for world dominance.  It is something far less sinister but perhaps more relevant to everyone. Both have both embraced the idea that the secret to effective communication is not slick PowerPoint but instead active dialogue with the audience. To get there, they have returned to the basics when meeting to discuss ideas: whiteboards at Fermilab and white papers at Amazon.

A recent story in Symmetry Magazine covered a move by physics collective Fermilab to engage in a process of “physics by hand.” Organizers of the lab’s biweekly forum on Large Hadron Collider physics decided last fall to forgo PowerPoint presentation talks and instead have discussion leaders present their material using low-tech whiteboards and markers.

Talks that were once linear, one-way presentations of information have been transformed into dialogues that engage the entire group. Professor Andrew Askew, associate professor of physics at Florida State University and co-organizer of the forum, explained, “We all feel inundated by PowerPoint… We wanted to draw out the importance of the audience.”

Not having PowerPoint as a crutch to rely on can be good for presenters too: speakers themselves must find ways to make deliver their content in a way that connects with the audience instead of letting the slides do all of the work. Askew noted, “With only a whiteboard, you have your ideas and a pen in your hand.”

Moving to a more non-linear presentation style forces the speaker to focus their presentation more on the connections between the concepts rather than a predetermined chain of material. Askew explained, “The participants go further off script, with more interaction and curiosity.”

Physicists are not alone. Leaders such as Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Yahoo's Marissa Mayer, and LinkedIn’s Jeff Weiner have eliminated PowerPoint from their meetings as well. And Steve Jobs once remarked that anyone who knows that they are talking about does not need a PowerPoint.

To be sure, eliminating PowerPoint does free discussions from forced linearity, but doing so creates another problem. For many years, researchers in the fields of neuroscience and psychology have found that learning and retention of information is drastically improved when we interact with visuals rather than only words. Rather than simply banning PowerPoint, a better solution is a tool that blends a nonlinear mind-mapping approach with access to critical visual aids.

There are no simple solutions to the complex problems the nuclear physicists at Fermilab grapple with, but it is clear that demand for a visual discussion app is growing.

*Photo: Peter Darling TypePad


At Vimodi, we are developing technology that helps users have a more engaging, responsive and effective visual discussions and dialogues. Vimodi enables visual mobile discussions for better engagement, motivation, and creativity in meetings and daily communication. Try Vimodi App.

You might be familiar with the well-known “Grandmother Test” for determining how user-friendly and easy to understand an idea is. Sit down your grandmother, grandfather, or another family member who is completely unfamiliar with the subject area you’re working on, give them your best pitch, and see if they get the basic idea.

Clarity is a good start, but its not enough. The main point of the test is to make sure that people will understand what you’re talking about. But, your grandmother will usually try to support you and listen no matter what you have to say. Imagine giving the same talk to someone you just met in a bar—would they get bored and walk away?

IDEO Project Lead Nicole Kahn has a solution for transforming presentations into stories that captivate, and she calls it the “Bar Test.”

"Bars are friendly, social places, sure, but something really important happens when you’re at a bar,” explains Kahn. “You use really direct language. You make sure that what you’re saying is entertaining and engaging. You don’t quote tons of data. You don’t use overly corporate language — except maybe in air quotes.”

Before giving a presentation, Kahn and her IDEO colleagues run the Bar Test by giving their presentations to friends or co-workers who are unfamiliar with the subject area. "We grab a colleague …and buy them a beer or a coffee and spend 15 minutes to see if they understand the point of the presentation."

15 minutes could save you.....

Kahn recommends taking 15 minutes to see if they understand the point of the presentation. “We look for when they lean in, or when they look away or reach for their phone. We look for nods and ‘uh-huhs’—we look for what surprises and delights. That’s how we figure out what’s sticky and resonating.”

Why so short? Using only 15 minutes has a dual-pronged effect. First, it forces the story to be succinct. You must get to the point quickly, and also make the story pop. This is helpful, because it compels us to sift through what’s really important for conveying an idea. You might have 5 or 8 slides relating to an idea, but are they all really necessary for describing the heart of your idea?

15 minutes also keeps the investment low. That’s the beauty of the Bar test: it allows for a low-cost trial and error approach. If your first attempt doesn’t get a great response, that’s all right—spend your next 15-minute session using a new approach. The key is to be flexible, and don’t get stuck on one idea.

Passing the Bar test

Kahn stresses three essential strategies

Develop a cohesive “through-line”: What is the main takeaway? Make sure everything in your presentation builds up to and reinforces the underlying “big idea.”

Use compelling anecdotes: These little narratives are what bring your ideas to life and make them personal. Kahn suggests using anecdotes that “provide a tactile sense of experience, take your audience on a journey, and create drama.”

Incorporate personal reflection: Don’t be a robot. Think strategically about moments when you can use your own personal experiences and feelings. These can help cue your audience to react and feel what you want them to during the story.

More bar tricks

Use questions to engage others. Arthur Palac, formerly one of Miller Beers' top ranked salespeople, describes the importance of bolstering your message by asking reinforcing questions such as “Have you ever felt that before?” or “Has something like this ever happened to you?” According to Palac, "If you’ve been talking for over 20 minutes and you haven’t asked a single question of the audience, you’ve lost them."  

Use visuals. Visuals don’t just provide another level of information you can use to deliver your ideas, they actually change the dynamics of the entire presentation. Kahn explains, “When you have visuals on the screen and not a lot of words, you make people dependent on you as the presenter to know what’s going on. You have the authority in the room. The slides do not.” Text-filled slides usurp your power to control the room, craft your personal narrative, and hold the audience’s attention.

The next time you need to get buy-in for an idea or make a sales pitch to a customer give the Bar Test a try. No offense to grandma of course.

Photo* - Daily Star Sunday

At Vimodi, we are developing technology that helps users have a more engaging, responsive and effective visual discussions and dialogues. Vimodi enables visual mobile discussions for better engagement, motivation, and creativity in meetings and daily communication. Try Vimodi App.