Creative thought-work is hard work, and one of the ways I build up my mental stamina is by collecting motivational quotes. Several years ago, one of my go-to aphorisms came from the Victorian essayist, Walter Bagehot, who wrote:
“One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea.”
When I first came across those words, I assumed they described the intellectual effort of birthing an original thought. However, I recently tracked the quote down to its source and discovered that’s not what Bagehot was really saying.
This bit of detective work gave me a fresh appreciation for the challenges my clients face as they try to articulate novel concepts for audiences who aren’t in love with novelty for novelty’s sake.
Compared with technical communication, and even some forms of science communication, communicating at the edge of innovation feels much more difficult. It’s like the difference between a hiking trail that’s rated “easy”, which is really just a walk in a park, and one that’s rated “difficult,” for which you might need special gear and a lot more stamina.
Breakthrough Ideas are Inherently Upsetting
In his 1872 book Physics and Politics, Bagehot maps emerging scientific theories about evolution on to the development of political and social structures. In his Darwinian reading of history, societies progress by moving through “an age of discussion,” during which novel ideas are publicly aired and debated.
But this process is not easy, and not all societies are willing and able to endure it—because encountering a new idea is “one of the greatest pains to human nature.”
In other words, the difficulty associated with novel concepts isn’t creating them but rather communicating them in ways that don’t cause the audience too much distress. Here’s how Bagehot expands on this insight, which is as relevant today as it was more than 150 years ago:
One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea. It is, as common people say, so “upsetting;” it makes you think that, after all, your favourite notions may be wrong, your firmest beliefs ill-founded; it is certain that till now there was no place allotted in your mind to the new and startling inhabitant, and now that it has conquered an entrance you do not at once see which of your old ideas it will or will not turn out, with which of them it can be reconciled, and with which it is at essential enmity. Naturally, therefore, common men hate a new idea, and are disposed more or less to ill-treat the original man who brings it.
Setting aside Bagehot’s obvious classism, sexism, and racism, his observations point to a timeless truth: for many people, the idea of something new and improved is NOT a welcome thought. The status quo is comfortable and comforting while change is disconcerting, even threatening.
This explains why it’s so hard to succeed at innovation communication, the sharing of breakthrough ideas and information, and why we can’t lean on conventional communication advice when we have something truly disruptive to say.
Recognize the Threat You Pose
You’re using Plain Language, bulleted lists, and colorful charts. You’ve done all you can to simplify your complex ideas, and they’re still not landing with decision-makers. What’s the problem?
Before you get into playing the blame game, please know that it’s not you. Nor is it them. It’s simply human nature to find novel ideas painfully difficult to absorb and process.
As an innovator or someone who supports innovators, you may find it hard to relate to Bagehot’s depiction of how “common men” relate to uncommon thinking. But getting buy-in for innovative ideas starts with recognizing the hurdles you face, including the common fear of the new.
Bagehot paints a stark picture of what it’s like for someone who’s not an innovative thinker to come face to face with a bold new idea. He likens it to experiencing a home invasion.
The violence of the metaphor is rather shocking but very apt. Watch how Bagehot plays out the comparison. The new idea enters the mind as “a new and startling inhabitant.” As it breaches the threshold, it throws the home into a state of chaos, jockeying for space with the old, familiar ideas. The result is inner turbulence, the mind at war with itself as it tries to sort out which ideas to keep and which to “turn out.”
Make Your Ideas Safe to Approach
Long before “disruptive innovation” became a buzzword, Bagehot named the core challenge of selling innovative ideas. Those who relish the thrill of creating new ideas must make those ideas feel safe for audiences that don’t share their high tolerance for intellectual risk.
Bear in mind that innovators are intellectual daredevils. Like sky divers or polar explorers, they’re driven by curiosity and the desire to push the boundaries of the knowable. But few of the collaborators they need to move their innovation forward share that risk profile.
People like funders, investors, clients, policymakers, and industry partners crave certainty. They want assurance that the novel will deliver on its future promise without wrecking their current world.
Communicating at the edge of innovation therefore requires a specialized set of skills. It’s not enough to clearly explain how the innovation works and provide evidence to prove potential benefits.
Innovators who get traction for their ideas understand that their primary task is to connect with the audience emotionally so they can create a sense of psychological safety and build trust. They recognize that they must earn the right to share radically new concepts by first establishing common interests and showing they’re likable, reliable, and good-natured.
Help With the Hurdles of Innovation Communication
In addition, successful innovation communication must overcome peculiar problems. Experts who are genuine pioneers in their field are often communicating in a contextual and linguistic vacuum. There are few historical precedents or current examples to point to, and they may need to invent new language to introduce ground-breaking discoveries. The abstractness of revolutionary ideas is part of what makes them bewildering and frightening to audiences who find it hard to grasp the intangible.
Over the past seven years, I’ve had the privilege of working with innovators in various settings, across a wide range of academic disciplines and industry sectors. Time and again, I’ve noticed clients wrestling with the phenomenon Bagehot captures so graphically in his home invasion scenario.
Typically, these researchers and technical experts are strong communicators when they’re speaking or writing peer to peer. Many of them have published in academic or trade journals and delivered conference presentations. Their challenge isn’t putting an intelligible sentence or paragraph together—it’s bridging the gap between their field of knowledge and the space where their audience lives and makes sense of things.
On the Clarity Connect blog, you’ll find more than 115 articles to help innovators connect more effectively with the collaborators they need to move innovation forward. We’re now in the process of compiling a short e-anthology, which will gather in a single publication the articles that seem to have resonated the most strongly over the years with innovators from various fields.
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