Inspiring the Citizens and Consumers

I'm going to talk about key ways to motivate people when pitching ideas, products and policy. One way is from a TEDtalk; focusing on the dream and vision. The other is from a collection of fragments of public work and is closely related, focusing on the narrative.

The first is vision. It is the norm both in politics and in business. It is run by those who pride themselves on being rational, and when presenting ideas they do the rational thing: first they tell us what the product/plan is, then they tell us why it's necessary and the impact, and they end with the vision of society after this is done.
It's rational, but it leaves the electorate and investors yawning and thinking about coffee.
Political and business academics are again at odds with reality.

To inspire people you reverse the order of presentation! You begin with your vision, the end goal in mind, why things can and should be that way, and then you end on your product or policy to bring that about! This approach is uniquely idealistic and pragmatic.

The second means of inspiring people would be the narrative. Politically speaking, the narrative has been generally seen as irrational, as the culture and traditions associated with our heritage are seen to set us back and impede progress. I would argue that it is in fact rational, we respond to narratives and our heritage basically because we cannot make sense of ourselves without looking at how we got here on a metaphorical timeline.

That aside, investors and voters need a good story. The story of how we got here, where we are, and what we're going to do about it. This begins with a vision of the past instead of the future, and the final solution may freely be contrasted with any opposition or competitor's idea. Apple employs this brilliantly. Obama however, shied away from discussing 'how we got here' for the sake of bipartisanship, and it's a small but crucial part of what hurts his support.