The Power of the Big Idea...Continued from page 2
In 1960 when John F. Kennedy was elected president, more than $20 million was spent on the presidential campaign for the very first time. The money was spent so the candidates could deliver their political ideas to the people in a compelling way through the new medium of television. Every year since then, more and more money has been spent to better communicate each candidate's political ideology, with the amount increasing more than 400 percent to $880 million in 2004.
You would think that with all that money and all those ideas being communicated in every imaginable format, people would be better informed and more convinced to take action and cast their vote for the candidate of their choice. Wrong! More has resulted in less action. Although the 2004 presidential election saw a slight increase in voter participation from the 2000 election, overall, there has been a forty-year trend of declining voter participation in national elections for U.S. president. Why?
In Thomas E. Patterson's book The Vanishing Voter, he asks, "What draws people to the campaign and what keeps them away?" He discovered after the 2000 election that despite almost a billion dollars spent to communicate lots of ideas, when surveyed on election day, a majority of people flunked a series of twelve questions seeking to ascertain whether they knew the candidates' positions on prime issues such as gun registration, defense spending, tax cuts, abortion, school vouchers, prescription drug coverage, offshore oil drilling, and affirmative action. Patterson concludes, "I don't believe that voters are more apathetic than they were 40 years ago. I think they are more confused than they were 40 years ago."2
Sure I vote, but do you know one of the primary reasons I vote? It's so I can say, "I voted." Seldom have I gone to the polls with a strong conviction that I really knew the ideology of each candidate. The main feeling I have in connection with voting is confusion, and confusion does not produce positive action.
Around the Ferguson household you can see how "more" results in less action. Having friends over for the evening usually means a scramble to clean up the house and get things presentable for company. So my wife, Sue, and I start barking out orders to the kids: "Vacuum the family room, dust the railings, put away your coat, pick up your shoes, shut the
door to your bedroom ..." What happens next? Usually they stand there staring at us and say, "What?" They are willing to help, but after our barrage of requests, they are overwhelmed and do nothing. Now, my wife says that just the boys and I have this problem and that girls can multitask. Maybe. But I think it's another example of the fact that more results in less action. Experience has taught me that if I want the kids to get something done, I'm farther ahead to give them one task, ask them to check in with me once it's finished, then give them the next task. This is the Big Idea approach. It provides clarity and produces action.