The Red Thread Podcast

Find the Red Thread at TamsenWebster.com.

Metaphors are powerful because they take one concept and marry it to another one to help someone understand something. They're a way to create an instantly-shared view of the world. To capture big ideas, you need something big enough to capture both the idea itself and all the subconcepts associated with it, a "meta-metaphor."

Resources

• EP003: Where Does The Red Thread Come From?
• The Red Thread Worksheet

Find the Red Thread at TamsenWebster.com.

"Start with Why" is pretty common advice, but it's hard to follow. It wasn't until Tamsen had a conversation with Nilofer Merchant that things shifted into place for her. She said, "change doesn't happen until we understand the context in which it happens." In other words, our Why is contextual. The good news is that that's what the Red Thread is all about: making visible the invisible context for your idea and the change that you're trying to create.

Resources

• Nilofer Merchant
• Simon Sinek - "How Great Leaders Inspire Action"
• The Red Thread Worksheet

Find the Red Thread at TamsenWebster.com.

Why do we still buy diamonds for engagement and wedding rings? Because we want to give or receive a symbol of the commitment that we're making and, of course, "A Diamond Is Forever." Behind this simple tagline is a powerful Red Thread complete with a Goal, a Problem, an Idea, a Change, and an Action.

Resources

• Why 'A Diamond Is Forever' has lasted so long
• The Red Thread Weekend
• The Red Thread Worksheet

Find the Red Thread at TamsenWebster.com.

The conventional wisdom with regards to negotiations is to "argue interests, rather than positions." The problem is that interests are often so fraught with moral obligations and deep-set beliefs about the other side that we need to go one step further. We need to think about the principles that create these interests.

Resources

• Interests vs. Positions, by Mary Rowe, Nils Fonstad, and Robert McKersie at MIT
• The Red Thread Worksheet

Find the Red Thread at TamsenWebster.com.

Our idea of what people need to make a change is really different from what information they actually need, and the difference is the distinction between curiosity and knowledge. We want people to be asking questions because curiosity is how the audience moves themselves along the Red Thread.

Resources

• EP 013: How to Match Message to Mindset
• The Red Thread Worksheet

Find your Red Thread at TamsenWebster.com.

We use the word "story" a lot, but we often mean something else: narrative. A narrative has a lot of things that stories have, like characters and motivations, but the difference is that it isn't over. It has a hoped-for end, but it's evolving, and there are any number of individual stories that support it.

Resources

• EP062: Why Telling a Complete Story Doesn't Always Work
• Ron Ploof's StoryHow
• Why Story is Not Narrative by Jeffry R. Halverson

Find the Red Thread at TamsenWebster.com.

We talk a lot about telling stories with our messages, but a common mistake is to tell a story that's already over. Nonprofits have been talking about stories for a long time because they're a great way to get potential donors to understand the impact of a gift. However, when Tamsen worked in the nonprofit sector, she noticed that some stories were more effective than others.

Resources

• In Medias Res on TVTropes.org
• The Red Thread Worksheet

Find the Red Thread at TamsenWebster.com.

Have you ever watched a detective movie and felt like you were just about to put it together right when the detective solves it? How do we get our audience to have that feeling when they're listening to our message? The thing to realize is that, just like a great detective novel, there are several roles we can play in delivering a message.

Resources

• The Complete Sherlock Holmes
• The Red Thread Worksheet

Find the Red Thread at TamsenWebster.com.

We need to reach many different people, but we have only one message. Gretchen Rubin, in The Four Tendencies, explains that there are multiple categories for how we deal with expectations. We need to explain, for those that care about external expectations, why our Goal makes sense for most people. However, for the contrarians, we also need to show the other side. Building a message that appeals to both groups will make sure that you reach everyone.

Resources

• The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin
• EP 033: The 4 Message Mindsets - Tamsen Webster

Find the Red Thread at TamsenWebster.com.

When Tamsen first started training for the Boston Marathon, she ended up injuring herself because she was new to running. To train safely, she discovered the Universal Running Cadence of 180 steps per minute, which is the speed the body needs to move to move in its most efficient manner. To keep time, Tamsen created a playlist of tracks that all were at 180 beats per minute: everything from David Bowie to Beyonce to the Beastie Boys.

Putting messages together can often feel like a highly inefficient process, and it can feel like your message isn't that different from what's already out there. When you think about the universally true things about how your audience decides to act, lean on the Red Thread to appeal to those universal needs of Goal, Problem, Idea, Change, and Actions. At the same time, keep in mind that, just like all the artists on that playlist, your unique perspective is going to make the universal individual.

Resources

• How to Improve Your Running Cadence
• Tamsen's Crazy Eclectic 180 BPM Running Playlist
• Katy Perry - "Roar"