What’s a magic notion? You already know. You already know because everything you know – from the ideas and beliefs you cherish to the products and services you use every day… all of these things were originally the product of magic notions.

I believe a magic notion really is magic. It appears, seemingly, from out of nowhere. It transforms the world around it. It turns our preconceptions on their heads. And it opens up new, previously unimagined ways of thinking, being and doing. It is destructive, but also creative. It is subversive, sometimes even threatening, but it is also liberating.

The effects and consequences of magic notions can be unimaginably far-reaching. Language is the ultimate magic notion. Political and social change begins with them - democracy is a magic notion, as is the concept of non-violent resistance, the emancipation of women and the growth of environmental awareness. These are positive examples - history shows us that magic notions can also be dangerous, even deadly.

Technology is the magical notion made concrete, be it agriculture, the wheel, the printing press, the internal combustion engine, nuclear fission, the microprocessor and the mobile phone. Freedom of information is a magical notion, manifested most dramatically in the emergence of the internet. ‘Yes We Can’ is a magical notion – in our world, possibly the most magical of all.

Culture is a treasure chest of magical notions. When we look at the history of the arts – particularly in music, film and the avant-garde – we see an endless stream of them. They challenge, they disrupt, they destroy and they transform. Ultimately - not to mention ironically - the successful ones become the new orthodoxy, ready to be overturned by the magic notions that appear – inevitably - in their wake.

There are other words to describe magic notions. You hear them every day – innovation, creativity, ideas, progress, modernisation. But not only are those words tired, they are frequently applied as a sticking plaster over an unresolved mess of unconscious assumption and unchallenged convention. They are trite and they are unimaginative. They lack…… well, they lack magic.

I work with businesses and organisations that are searching for their own magic notions. Not because they’re nice things to have, but because they’re essential for survival and future prosperity. Not every organisation thinks this way. In fact, there is sometimes a healthy, if unspectacular, living to be made by adopting the conventions of any given situation or marketplace. For a while.

However, that’s not what I'm about. It’s not what I'm about for a very simple reason. It’s an approach defined by a lack of movement and adaptability, an approach based on diminishing returns, an approach where we allow larger, more powerful competitors and market leaders to set the rules. Most dangerously, it is an approach that is profoundly vulnerable to those slavishly-followed conventions being swept away overnight.

My clients realise this. Without exception, they are outspent, outnumbered and out-distributed by their competitiors. Their only option is to outwit – to be the ones who sweep away those conventions and rearrange the rules of engagement. They see the danger in following the rules and the limitless opportunities to be found in breaking them.

This is not a posture or an idle provocation. Like everyone else, I have experienced, and sometimes suffered, from the effects of constant, sweeping change. That experience has taught me that the search for the magic notion is more than a snappy angle or a cool posture. It is a necessity. It is, in fact, what the game of life has always been about.

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