The Navigation
Three tips to help you 'draft' your ideas
I grew up on a sheep, cattle, and cropping farm. One of my strongest memories is watching Dad draft sheep - it's an art form.
What I’ve come to realise is that the farmer’s art of drafting sheep is very similar to a host’s art of drafting ideas. As hosts, we need to be able to use our drafting gates constantly as we navigate through life.
Needing a little more info? I hope so because I’m about to launch into the 101 of drafting sheep… and ideas.
Drafting sheep is how farmers sort out their sheep. It might mean separating them by age groups, or by sex, weaning the lambs from the ewes, cutting out the rams after mating, or separating the smaller ones from the heavier ones.
But, in order to sort out the sheep, a farmer needs to make sheep do a whole heap of stuff they don’t naturally want to do!
First, they need to make the sheep run down a skinny chute, called a race. It’s been designed so that sheep run in a single file so the farmer can get a good look at them as they run past. In doing that, they need to run towards the farmer, who swings a small drafting gate across the race to direct each sheep into one of three bigger yards - one straight ahead, one to the left and one to the right.
The thing is, sheep don’t like to run towards people; they like to run away from them! As such, this whole drafting system has been set up so that it works for both the farmer and the sheep.
The system starts when the farmer, with the help of a couple of sheepdogs, goes up to the back paddocks to collect the sheep and bring them down to the yards. The dogs stay close enough to keep the sheep moving but far enough away not to scare them in the wrong direction. Similarly, as hosts, we need to intentionally go out to the back paddocks to collect our ideas, but not be too quick to scare off possible ideas or guests.
Next, the sheep are moved into the feed-in yard and then through a bugle - a sharp u-turn yard (yes, like the brass instrument, and yes, I had to ring Dad to find out this name). This clever design lets the sheep see and follow each other but also works to conceal the farmer they need to run past. It’s genius! However, the genius that struck me was how Dad could so quickly inspect, select and then direct the sheep into the right paddocks as they ran past. As hosts, we need to become just as skilled at inspecting and categorising everything we read, watch, and hear so we’ve always got a yard full of ideas and story options.
Finally, the farmer has to do something with the sheep in the different yards. Cull, keep, or sell. As hosts we need to be able to cull ideas, but not always the ones we first think. Often we need to sell our ideas to others in our team for them to get up. But when it comes to keeping ideas - something we need to care about as hosts, that farmers don’t, is - we need to keep ideas that we can make interesting. We only want interesting sheep.
Ultimately, drafting starts as a collection process - bringing all the sheep into one place together. Then it becomes a selection process - sorting out which sheep belong in which yard. Finally, it moves to an execution process - for farmers, this might be the more literal meaning of the word but for hosts, it’s all about taking action and bringing those ideas to life.
Unlike farming, this drafting system isn’t something hosts use occasionally. We use it constantly. It becomes a way of being. Our way to navigate life.
Here are three things that will help you get your navigation system started and running well.
Break our Algorithm
To find new, interesting topics, and get up to the back paddock we need to break the algorithm in our daily lives. It’s not only social media algorithms that warp our worldview, our social life algorithms do too. If we’re only seeing, hearing and watching the same people, places and ideas we’re swimming in a sea of sameness. Instead, we need to go to new places, meet new people, and read stuff we think we don’t care about. To break your algorithm, try my process: walk, talk, gawk, baulk. Walk to new places, talk to new people, gawk at what others are, and baulk at your usual habits. This will help you discover fresh perspectives.
Filter the Fluff
Every day we’re walking through a world (geographically or digitally) that is full of things built to deceive and influence us. We need to build a mental filter - a drafting gate - to filter out the fluff, sensationalism, and spin. Set up criteria to sift through the noise and help you find genuinely interesting ideas. Ask: Is it reliable? Is it relevant? Is it relatable? These three questions will do most of the curation for you.
Make It Interesting
It’s not enough for an idea to be important; we need to be able to make it interesting. Everything has the potential to be interesting - it comes down to how we look at it. We get to shape and frame how our audience sees, reads or hears something. By learning to approach every story from our audience's point of view, we can create story angles that intersect with their lives. It’s about building a bugle yard so we can lead our audience into something that feels natural, and then show them what they weren’t expecting.
Just like Dad's system for drafting sheep, hosts need a drafting system to collect, select, and present great content that breaks through the noise, filters out the fluff, and makes our ideas irresistibly interesting.
It’s Genius!
As you can see, there's a lot that needs to happen before a show, interview, event, or meeting. It's not all about work, but about a way of being. Last week, we talked about calibration; this week, it's navigation. These first two steps are about mindset and approach. Next week, we'll get to the step you're expecting will happen before you host anything - the preparation - which is about the work that needs to be done. But, I’ll try my hardest to lead you through a bugle yard and create an angle you’re not expecting!
Want to listen rather than read?
The Penny Drop starts as a podcast before it ends up here. If you’d rather listen while doing other things, then search for the Penny Drop wherever you get your podcasts, or just click through here and hit follow.