How to literally position your innovative ideas.

Before you go making fancy promo videos or pitching your clever ideas to The Board, be sure you understand how you’re visually anchoring your key points. It’s one of the simplest things you can do to enhance your communication. And it’s something that nearly everyone gets wrong.

You might’ve heard it said that “93% of communication is non-verbal”. Well, as a scientist I can say that’s utter crap. But as a professional speaker, I can also say that there’s a lot of truth to it–the gestures you make, your expressions, pauses, pitch, posture, tone, clothing, slide design, and so on... all influence the meaning people will make out of what you communicate.

As someone with a clever idea, you’ll want your prospects/superiors to be very clear on how awesome it is. And if you’re going to prepare any sort of pitch, you’ll want to iron out all the non-verbal elements that detract from your message.

So, here’s the first thing you need to do:
Realise it’s not about you, or your idea. It’s about them, and how your idea can help them. It’s literally all they care about. So, get into their world. See things as they see things, so that you can communicate your idea in the clearest way to them.

In Western culture we read from left to right. If we are making graphs to measure time, we’ll usually have it increasing from left to right along the x axis. And we generally place good things higher up than less-good things (heaven, tall poppies, ivory towers, even gold medalists stand higher than the other medalists in the Olympics). We are powerfully conditioned to perceive that things placed on the right hand side are “in the future”, and things placed higher up are “better”.

This means that you’ll need to present your ideas within this system if you want to have maximum clarity and impact. Trust me–it’s easier said than done!

Here are three handy things to keep in mind:

1. Remember that up is always good, and down is either neutral (where people are now) or bad (like plunging profits is bad).


2. It’s the left and right stuff that can get confusing. For me, I simply remember that my left hand (their right) is the positive/future one. It also happens to be the side I wear my watch.


3. Before you speak, quickly check-in with the four key quadrants, so that your gestures subtly reinforce and clarify your message.

Now, all of this is useless if your idea sucks, or if you’re more concerned about getting this stuff right and looking good instead of communicating authentically. But if you have a comfortable awareness of how you are anchoring and positioning your ideas, and your intention is to communicate the value of your ideas in the clearest way possible (so that you can best help your prospects)... you’ll be onto a winner!