Define and Apply
“One of the biggest complaints about students, and smart people in general, is that they know a lot, but they don’t know how to communicate what they know. Define and apply greatly fixes this,” host Troy Campbell explained. Campbell gave us a simple way to understand how to communicate academic concepts to businesses.
In the define and apply method, a person simply defines a term and then explains how that term can be used in a specific situation. The format keeps things brief, uses jargon with definition to avoid any confusion, and keeps the application to business linked to the concept. Plus, it makes your idea seem more legitimate to the business because it pulls from evidence-based practice.
Here is an example of define apply from the episode.
Consulting for a Bike Company
Define: You could use the Ikea Effect, the finding that people enjoy things more when they themselves successfully make or assemble a product or at least part of a product. This was shown in experiments by famous behavioral economist Dan Ariely, and it may explain some of the fanaticism around Ikea products.
Apply: You could apply this concept by delivering bikes with a few steps left that would fit with the general level of your audience, such as connecting the handle bar piece as a last “triumph” moment before a first ride.
And, because host Troy Campbell is a former Disney Imagineer, he had some fun with one more example.
Theme Park Design
Define: A portal is a transitional space that makes people feel they are leaving one world and entering a distinct other world. This is explored in the book Portals of Power by Lori M. Campbell (edited by Donald E. Palumbo and C. W. Sullivan III), and it is used heavily by Disney. Disney parks have many portal tunnels where, for a moment, a person cannot see where they have just left and where they are going.
Apply: For your new Looney Tunes experience, you could create a portal tunnel with the theme of the famous concentric circles in which Porky Pig always said, “That’s All Folks.” That would be on brand and would accomplish your goal.
