slug: big-idea-formula view: skill audience: llm layer: block agent: storyteller companion: corpus/storymakers/frameworks/block/big-idea-formula.md

Big Idea Formula — operational reference

One sentence. A Big Idea is the speaker's unique point of view plus what's at stake for the audience, written as one declarative sentence with a verb and ideally the word "you".

Decision tree

What is the deck's job?
├── INFORM (status update, training, recap) → no Big Idea needed; write a clear topic title.
├── DECIDE (analytical recommendation, scrutinised line-by-line)
│   → use Pyramid Principle + governing thought; the apex sentence may also serve as the Big Idea.
└── MOVE (persuade, change behaviour, shift mental model)
    │   → Big Idea is the right entry tool. Continue.
    │
    ├── Can you write the message as one complete sentence with a verb?
    │   ├── No → it is a topic, not a thesis. Force a verb. Iterate.
    │   └── Yes → continue.
    ├── Does the sentence carry the speaker's UNIQUE stance?
    │   ├── No (a competitor on the same panel could say it verbatim) → sharpen the point of view.
    │   └── Yes → continue.
    ├── Does the sentence name what is at stake for the AUDIENCE?
    │   ├── No (stake stays on the speaker) → reroute the verb to "you".
    │   └── Yes → continue.
    └── Repeatable in an elevator (≤ ~25 words, no comma-spliced second clause)?
        ├── No → compress. Cut adjectives. Drop the second clause.
        └── Yes → ship as the deck's Big Idea. Filter every slide against it.

Big Idea vs governing thought. A governing thought is the answer to a decision question — analytical, MECE-decomposable, defended slide-by-slide. A Big Idea is a position the audience must internalise — narrative, audience-stake-routed, repeated in the hallway. The same sentence can do both jobs in a strategy deck; in a keynote, only the Big Idea applies.

Recipe (45-minute Big Idea workshop)

State the topic. What is the talk about, in one phrase. (5 min)
Write the speaker's stance. "I believe ___." One sentence. (10 min)
Name the audience specifically. Not "stakeholders" — "the GPs of the funds that hold our Series C". (5 min)
Write what they lose if they reject the idea, in their currency. (5 min)
Write what they gain if they accept it. (5 min)
Splice into one sentence. Stance + stake, audience-routed, ≤ 25 words, contains a verb, contains "you". (10 min)
Stress-test. Plagiarism test (could a competitor say this verbatim?). Audience test (does you appear?). Compression test (can it survive an elevator?). (5 min)

Headline language (verbatim bank)

"By [acting], you [gain X], because [contrarian reason]."
"If we don't [act], you lose [audience-stake]."
"[Subject] is no longer [old frame] — it is [new frame] — and your [audience asset] depends on it."
"Today, [we] [reinvent / replace / abandon] [the prior thing]."

Anti-patterns to refuse

Pattern	Why it fails
Topic-as-title ("Sustainability Roadmap")	No verb, no stance, no stake. Calendar entry, not a thesis.
Speaker-stakes only ("Our margin is at risk")	The audience has not been told what they lose.
Two ideas spliced with and	Pick one. The other is the action, not the thesis.
Abstract verbs (leverage, unlock, empower)	Cuttable with no loss of meaning. Use real verbs.
Big Idea written after the deck is built	The deck won't defend it. Write the sentence first.
Sentence > ~25 words / needs a second clause	Compress. If you can't, the Idea is not compressed yet.
"Lunar mission" style label	A calendar entry is not a thesis.

When NOT to use it

Analytical memos scrutinised line by line — use Pyramid + governing thought.
Discovery / problem-definition workshops where the answer hasn't crystallised — premature Big Ideas calcify weak analysis.
Pure information transfer (status update, training material) where no behaviour change is sought.

Output checklist

A Big Idea is shippable when:

One complete sentence — noun, verb, period.
Contains "you" (or a direct audience referent).
States the speaker's unique stance (plagiarism test passes).
Names a consequence in the audience's currency.
≤ ~25 words; repeatable from memory after one hearing.
Every slide in the deck demonstrably ladders up to it (or gets cut).
Survives the "so what?" test on every clause.

Canonical signals (for matchers)

Keywords: big idea, our point of view, we believe, what's at stake, the takeaway, central message, core message, the one thing, tweetable, if you remember nothing else.
Component kinds: title (one-sentence declarative slide title), callout (the Big Idea as hero quote), quote (verbatim version on opener / closer slides), subtitle (stake clause beneath a stance title).
Slide-level shape: a single hero slide bearing one declarative sentence — typically the opener or the closer — with no surrounding bullets, no chart, no logo grid; the whole slide is the sentence.

References

Duarte, Resonate, Wiley 2010 — canonical chapter, Sparkline. Duarte, The secret structure of great talks, TEDxEast Nov 2010 — Sparkline reveal. Duarte, HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations, HBR Press 2012 — operational restatement. Heath & Heath, Made to Stick, Random House 2007 — SUCCESs as quality test.