The Most Important Element in Project Design
Why High-Concept Beats Vision
I used to think that vision was the most important element of a big research project. Now I realize it is not.
A vision helps create a sense of shared purpose, which is important, but it is not the most important. In fact, if you insist too much on having a shared purpose too far, you could end up limiting your project’s potential to work across disciplines and stakeholders.
A vision on its own is nothing.
There is something much more important than vision. You can have a vision for your project, and it can be an important vision, but if that is all that it is, a vision, it is not inspiring.
Think about it. We have all encountered people with a strong vision. A world where any type of cancer is easily cured is perhaps one of the most common visions, but it is not a compelling vision. Why is that? It is certainly important and something we would all like to see happen. Still, at least when I hear a vision along those lines expressed, I am undecidely nonplussed.
A vision needs much more than an idyllic depiction of the future.
Perhaps the best example is John F Kennedy’s vision to put a person on the moon. On May 26th, 1961, Kennedy said: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” Decades later, we still refer to this moonshot project. In fact, ‘moonshot’ has become a qualifier that defines a project as meaningful.
Research projects that get lasting nods of recognition
It’s also been more than a decade since I met someone in the respiratory research field who hadn’t heard of the very first project I helped develop, U-BIOPRED. It is always satisfying to see nods of recognition when U-BIOPRED is mentioned at a respiratory conference or meeting. Some even take credit for the project, though they were never really involved. What’s even more remarkable is that, among people I meet who are involved in other medical research fields, 50% also know about U-BIOPRED. You might think that such widespread recognition speaks to its impact, but I don’t think what we achieved with that project entirely explains it.
I recently participated in a panel for the Innovative Health Initiative, the successor to the EU funding body that supported U-BIOPRED, where we discussed consortium projects and what makes a good funding proposal. At one point, the conversation turned to having a purpose and, more intriguingly, to describing the project in a single sentence.
“Some of the best consortia that have approached me with ideas have been able to show me on one slide or one sentence what the purpose of the project is. I think that is the key. It is almost like you’re building a new business. You should be able to do the elevator pitch for what you want to accomplish so that you can sell that idea quickly and easily.” Maria Dutarte, Executive Director, EUPATI.
Maria’s point and the ensuing discussion led me to a realization: if you can articulate your project’s essence in just one sentence, you are on your way to creating a remarkable project, but then it struck me that it is not just being able to make a slide or a single sentence that matters. It is rather what makes it easy to describe a project in a single sentence that matters.
High concept
In Hollywood, there is a type of film known as a ‘high concept’ film. Jurassic Park is a high-concept film. High-concept films have an underlying concept that is both inspiring and easy to communicate. Something that is high concept can be communicated in ten seconds while evoking compelling possibilities.
The same goes for projects. You can have simple projects that are easy to communicate about, but they might not be very inspiring.
It turns out this easy-to-communicate/inspiring couplet is also considered essential to being a vision-driven leader. A vision that is not inspiring and communicated is pointless; the same should be true for projects driving towards a vision. High concept films and projects are ‘sticky’ ideas, which are described as simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, and emotional stories.
Any project can become a high-concept project if you identify and articulate its core purpose and compelling ‘sticky’ idea early in development. Ask yourself this: Can you describe a project in a single, memorable sentence? Better yet, challenge yourself now to distill your project’s essence into a ten-second pitch. This exercise not only clarifies your thinking but also transforms abstract insight into real-world understanding. If you can’t, the problem is likely not your use of language. It is the concept.
A special characteristic of high-concept projects
There is one characteristic I would add that high-concept projects have that high-concept films do not. That is, the concept needs to be compelling in regard to its feasibility. You tell me you are going to cure cancer. I don’t get excited. You tell me you are going to cure cancer by figuring out how to reprogram my immune system so that it functions like it did when I was 20, you have my attention. More importantly, you might even have my willingness to contribute.
For a project vision to be compelling, there must also be a clear path to achieving it. More importantly, the path to achieving that vision must itself provide a novel, easy-to-understand way to achieve it. It does not have to be easy to achieve. It has to be easy to understand.
Our natural tendency is to avoid or resist developing a high-concept project. We are in love with the familiar. What we do every day is familiar but likely not high-concept. We are afraid of the unknown. A high-concept project is likely to be different, creative, and ambitious. This is why we get excited when the concept of a project also conveys how it is going to get done.
The value of making your projects high-concept
Why should you be interested in making your projects high-concept?
First and foremost, a high-concept project attracts others. Thomas Kelley, in The Art of Innovation, points out that turning work into “wow” projects attracts attention and generates pride, drawing teams “out of thin air.” Seth Godin, the famous marketer/philosopher who describes communities and movements as ‘tribes’, points out that tribes form with a shared interest and a way to communicate. A high concept provides both of these.
This stickiness of a project is a good thing. We tend to overestimate what we can do on our own and underestimate what we can do with others. If you can simply state your project in one sentence, that helps. The trick is to make it inspiring. Imagine speaking less and achieving more; high-concept projects mean you spend fewer hours explaining and more hours building and innovating. Potential funders quickly grasp what they are supporting, allowing you to channel more energy into realization and less into persuasion.
This is important because nearly all major shifts, whether that be paradigm shifts or system-wide transformations, require that a critical mass of stakeholders is aware of and believes in the change. High concept projects are how you demonstrate what is possible. Malcolm Gladwell, in his book The Tipping Point, identifies three agents of change: Connectors (networked people) , mavens (information specialists), and persuaders. A high concept attracts all three of these types and gives them a good reason to apply themselves to your project.
The most important part of a funding proposal is not the content.
One thing I have noticed over the years is that once there is a strong concept, writing a proposal goes much, much faster. When I am asked to get involved in developing a project relatively late in the game, I often find myself in a cloud of confusion. It’s like walking into a dense fog, where numerous disjointed ideas swirl around like mist, obscuring clarity and direction. Rather than distinct landmarks, I encounter tantalizing glimpses of concepts that might fit together, yet lack cohesion. It’s only when we can thread those ideas together into a clear concept that writing becomes easier. Steven Pressfield in Turning Pro also points out that he won’t start any writing project until he is clear about the concept. Clarity about the concept upfront speeds downstream writing.
Perhaps one of the most important aspects of high-concept projects is that not only does the concept help you get funding in the first place, but once funded, they tend to attract more funding. As they are being implemented, high-concept projects tend to spawn new ideas and new opportunities.
High-concept projects are like a funding flywheel powering a neon sign. They attract more and more attention, and more and more people join in turning the flywheel, which then makes the neon sign burn brighter. So, making your project high-concept is not only important for the proposal you are writing now, but also a strategy for generating compounded returns on the effort you invest in developing a research proposal.
How do you make a project high-concept
To develop a high-concept project, you need a blend of elements.
You need to be aware of the trends affecting an entire field. For example, AI is perhaps the most prominent meta-trend right now. This requires having some degree of literacy about what they are about. By latching onto these trends, you are more likely to have a long-term impact. One thing to keep in mind is that impact is typically long-term change resulting from a combination of outcomes driven by project results. One way to create a project with the compelling, inspirational features of a high-concept project is to ground it in a pathway to impact.
You also require the ability to facilitate group thinking. Concepts often emerge and iteratively improve during group sessions. Good concepts are not just developed de novo. They emerge iteratively as ideas are discussed and an effort is made to connect them. For instance, in a recent Marie Curie proposal, the high concept became clear only when we started to think about the acronym and the logo. Up until then, it was just a vague idea. High concept projects are almost always collaborative and multi-stakeholder. You will always get a more inspiring concept by tapping into a group’s collective intelligence and creativity.
It is a process of divergent thinking, followed by a convergence into a high concept. A high-concept project developed in this way makes it easy to maximize collective intelligence and create a high-performance team. We know from multiple studies, most notably a 2010 study published in Science, that a distribution of contribution is one of the three traits of collective intelligence.
This is not only about the project’s concept. It is the beginning of building a culture, and that only happens when others understand what you are up to. A powerful way to embed this culture is through small, repeatable practices that reinforce the desired behaviors. For instance, by starting each meeting with the one-sentence concept of the project, you create a routine that not only clarifies intent but also aligns everyone on the core goals. The third thing you need is clear communication skills (writing), in which you convey the concept concretely. Fourth, it needs to be grounded in impact.
To remember these core elements easily, consider the acronym MAGIC:
Meta-trend literacy,
Ability to facilitate group thinking,
Grounding in impact,
Insightful communication, and
Collaborative multi-stakeholder approach.
The most important element is the concept.
If we return to Kennedy’s speech, his sentence about the moon shot is short, clear, inspiring, and makes getting to the moon seem feasible.
When you are developing a project, particularly a big collaborative project, making it a high-concept project is a force multiplier. Doing so will help you secure funding. It will help attract and motivate contributors and secure even more funding when the project is up and running.
Mark Twain is often credited with saying: “I apologize for such a long letter - I didn’t have time to write a short one.”
If he were writing about a big collaborative project, he might have said: “I apologize for the long project description - The project does not have a good enough underlying concept to allow me to write a short one. “
I am passionate about developing high-concept projects, and with the recent advances in biomedical research and technology, there are many opportunities to develop high-concept projects and secure the funding to bring them to fruition.
If you have a project idea you’re passionate about and want to develop it into a compelling, fundable concept, I’d love to help. Get in touch to discuss how we can bring your vision to life and secure the support it deserves.