There is a tradition that dates back at least as far as the 14th century, attributed to a scholar named Ibn Khaldun. He noted that social groups grow and decline in patterns. Some groups evolve and grow better than others, religious groups provide good examples. Businesses offer other examples, consider Zappos, Netflix, Amazon, Apple and Whole Foods. What happens that helps those groups grow, evolve, and adapt?

What causes some business groups to evolve while others go the other way?

Much is said about the leaders of groups, and their critical role in group success. There is another line of thought, not necessarily distinct from great leadership (often great leaders get the next point, it’s why they are great):

Business ideas that copy well and make market sense offer a huge competitive advantage.

Richard Dawkins, a british author and scientist, coined the term for ideas that copy well, they are “memes.” It rhymes with “creams.” When done right, business memes hit to the core of what each person in the business stands for. Then, the minitalks of the minitribes (the eight people or less we normally speak and work with on the job) will relate better to the big talk of the bigger tribe (the 12 or more folks who make up the entire company).

If memes (copyable ideas) are the key to success, is there a formula we can follow?

Hard to say. Business books talk about core mission, values, and purpose. These are getting there and often are forged by a few to pass along to the many. Memes don’t care who creates them (this is why great leaders intuitively work well with memes), but they are picky and subject to high volatility.

Here is one potential formula for monitoring our memes and pruning the not so great ones while honoring those that copy well, stick around, and make market sense:

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The Formula

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Talk with everyone. Memes are not selective to source, the new worker can be responsible for a great meme just as the person who has been with the company for 10 years.

Pay attention to what is said. Memes are tricky sometimes. They hide amidst other thoughts and ideas. The memes are the ones that jump out when we pay attention, they make solid sense, and sound right.

Locate the potential memes. When you hear stuff that individuals say that appears to copy well and makes the most market sense, cull them out.

Try ‘em out with other people. Take the memes you found and try them out. Do they copy well in reality? What market sense underlies them? Explore the memes, put them to the test.

Confirm that you have true memes. If the meme is copyable and makes market sense with a cross-section of the company’s individuals, then you have found a keeper!

Build a story with the memes. If memes are ideas that copy well, great stories are the mother load that stores a bunch of memes in one spot. Great businesses invariably rest on solid stories cobbled together with ideas that copy well: those market savvy memes!

Test the story. Does the story hold up? Do people believe it? Can they retell it? Does it make market sense? Does it reflect the company well and truly? Is it authentic?

Tell the story over and over again. If the story works well, it does so with the vast majority of folks who currently work at the company. It also does so with those who recently join or apply for a job. How does the story work? What effect does it have over time? This is the critical, and often neglected, essential step in the entire formula. Retell the story daily. And when the telling begins to change, even slightly, pay attention! Not all memes are helpful…

Weed out the negative memes. Some memes are highly copyable and no good for the business. Ultimately, they make no market sense. Watch for them and get rid of them… they are the worst kind of weeds!

Fit the new, positive memes into the story. When new, beneficial memes arrive on the scene, fit them into the story. Retell the story with the new meme and let the story adapt over time to changing circumstances, different people, and volatile conditions. That’s it! Build a great, successful business one meme at a time.

We will all benefit from building our businesses by paying close attention to our memes:

(1) those great ideas that copy well and

(2) make great market sense.