|
How to sell your Great New Idea to bosses
Today, I was going to continue with a topic I started last month… but no. I'll do that next month. Instead, today’s email looks at reports that tell bosses about your Great New Idea. You've also a couple of fun bits.
On with today's topic. Imagine that, to persuade bosses of your Great New Idea, you've written nine pages of well-crafted logic. Often on training days, delegates bring along such reports for us to briefly discuss... and I always – always - ask its author a simple, single question. One that makes a huge difference to the report - and yet paradoxically makes no difference to the advice I give its author. Confused? Stay tuned, I explain later.
Step back... even if we present bosses with logical ideas that make sense, some bosses have a remarkable ability to reject them. They dismiss our analysis as out-of-date (“your industry stats are 2021 - but it’s now 2022…”).
Or they nit-pick on irrelevant differences (“those rivals are in 50 to 60 countries… but we’re in only 49…”).
Or – get this – they dismiss it as theoretical. Or ‘logical’, as if it's an insult.
And they do this for one simple reason: they don’t want to do what we're suggesting. As the saying goes: “How many bosses does it take to change a light-bulb? One, but they must really want to change”.
Result: despite all our facts, evidence, and carefully constructed prose and logic, nothing changes. That’s because logic – and analysis – helps us generate ideas and reach conclusions, but often isn’t the best way to persuade others to go along with them. It struggles to get under people’s skin and win hearts and minds.
We nod along to it – but don’t go along with it.
But it gets worse. You see, consider this question: what do bosses despise more than a page of logic explaining why they should do something they don’t want to?
Answer: nine pages of logic.
For some reason, we delude ourselves that we can beat bosses into submission with the strength and depth of our logic. We can’t. After all, how often do bosses slap their foreheads and go: “Goodness me! I’ve been wrong all along!! I’ve always thought we should do (a), but your logic says we should do (z)!! Thank you so much for pointing out my flawed thinking…”.
So let's return to the single, simple question I ask delegates on a training day when we look at their nine pages of logic and analysis: “Are you pushing on an open door or a closed door?”. Are bosses on board with this? Or a bit against it?
There then follows an easy tried-and-tested decision tree:
1. If it’s an open door, don’t write nine pages. You don’t need to – bosses like your idea anyway. Also, if you write too much, you might unwittingly mention something that undermines your case. Instead, write just a page. Two pages maximum.
2. If it’s a closed door, don’t write nine pages (I told you the decision tree was easy). You won’t persuade bosses with nine pages of logic. It just annoys them. Instead, write just a page. Two pages maximum.
If that decision tree confused you, see the figure below.
|
