When great work is presented, it’s often met with resistance. People can find a new idea radical, scary or even off-kilter. Yet, the acceptance or rejection of an idea has little to do with the merits of the idea itself and more to do with what is considered normal or standard for any given situation. The proposed idea is often judged on the basis of what came before it – as opposed to what will come after it in terms of impact or memorability.

Which means you often end up with two sides facing off each other. You have those who are strongly for the motion and those who are against it. Two camps, both at loggerheads with each other. So how do you help bridge the divide? How do you sell an idea to those who will never see eye to eye despite your best intentions?

Hint: Just open the window.

The Overton Window, developed by policy analyst Joseph Overton, refers to the range of subjects and arguments acceptable to the mainstream population at any given time. It’s also known as the window of discourse.

Overton explains that in order to make extreme ideas go mainstream, you have to persuade people to see the viability of your idea. One would think that reason and logic should help achieve this. But that would be wrong. Surprisingly, it often means proposing something so pathologically illogical, even briefly, that the less ‘illogical’ alternative suddenly seems more viable.

The Overton Window showcases how extremities veer incrementally towards consensus. The middle is what most people would consider “normal” (and what most marketers would consider “safe”), but anything beyond “acceptable” is where things begin to break down. And yet, creative individuals know in their bones that ideas borne of these fringes are actually the ones that work. Ideas that cater to the middle may be widely accepted but are also wildly ignored.

Which is why Overton suggests applying ‘normalising’ techniques that will help your ideas sound more acceptable. One way is to take the long and winding road to improve the desired idea, harnessing feedback and adjusting the perceived value of your proposition — give or take 10 years. Or you can take a cue from Donald Trump, who is a media-savvy master of the technique.

When Trump wanted to improve border security by reducing migration and increasing deportation, he anticipated backlash (both from reasonable, law-abiding people and the American constitution). So, to get his radical ideas accepted, he proposed even more outlandish ideas: “Let’s build a wall and get the Mexicans to pay for it!” he rallied. The media went wild. This was crazy and unacceptable. How could anyone support something so unthinkable? But, during this public outrage, Trump passed several border control policies that sounded more acceptable compared to some of his unthinkable conjectures – of which there are many.

At the other extreme, even Greta Thunberg shamed and admonished policymakers long enough to ensure that the EU passes legislation for a 55% cut in emissions, which, she complained, is still not enough. Without her extremities, however, even a 10% cut would have sounded reasonable to most people.

Or take the CEO of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, who famously said, “Bad publicity sells far more seats than the good.” In order to mitigate complaints from passengers about his low-cost, no-frills airline, he suggested putting coin slots on toilet doors. “People might actually have to spend a pound to pay the penny,” he said. In the aftermath, passengers eventually settled for the lousy service – so long as the toilets were free. The genius, of course, is that O’Leary was never going to execute such an outrageous idea. But, in comparison, it did help make his current offering look palatable.

In short, if you want your best creative ideas to go from extreme to mainstream, simply radicalise before you prophesise.

Over to you.

Faraz Maqsood Hamidi is CCO and CEO, The D’Hamidi Partnership, a worldwide partner agency of WPI.