Move it too fast in one direction, and it "bounces"...

Within the realm of political science there is a concept called “The Overton Widow” – which has been popularized by radio and television talk show host “Glenn Beck” who has recently released a fiction book based on the concept.

The idea is this: That there is a window of “acceptable” political opinions that can be voiced with varying degrees of acceptance. anything outside the window is viewed as “not acceptable” or “radical”. The ambitions of politicians over the long haul is to shape public opinion by “moving” or “expanding/contracting” this window of acceptable ideas.

After thinking about this a bit, it occurs to me that this concept applies to all areas of collaborative discourse where there are more than one person (and perhaps in a schizo way, it can even apply to a single individual). Smaller groups with a more cohesive overall plans (Say a team of engineers) will have a large window that will encompass most of the possible spectrum of ideas within the group, without much need for moving or shaping the window. Larger groups, or groups that employ more “Brain Storming” and creative types would have a larger spectrum and smaller, more variable windows of opinion.

But if you look at our current political climate, you will see something else – what I like to call “The Overton Bounce”. This is the case where someone attempted to move the window (The Democratic party in the last presidential election) towards a more radical, socialistic idea of government. When that did not work out so well, the window bounced like the ball in the old-fashioned pong games and started moving quickly towards the political “right” and toward “more freedom” and less desire to trust politicians of any party.

(And I might add, that is a good thing)

So in your collaborative campaigns for Marketing your products, do you take stock of the Overton window of public opinion about what your product offers? Do you even know what people think about your service in general, that, if you shifted that window just a little, could reap you great benifits?

Something to think about.

David T. McKee