Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down

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All those who would benefit from the idea lose.

In an extreme case, a whole company or nation may lose. The argument put forth here, summarized simply, is this: The competent creation and implementation of good ideas is a basic life skill, relevant to the 21 year old college graduate, the 55 year old corporate CEO, and virtually everyone else. This skill, or the lack of it, affects the economy, governments, families, and most certainly our own lives. This point may be obvious, but less obvious are two additional points.

First, the amount of thought and education put into making good decisions is far higher today than the knowledge and instruction on how to implement those ideas. In the world of business, for example, the field of strategy has made huge advances in the past twenty years. The field of strategy implementation, in contrast, has made much less progress. Change is one of the most powerful forces shaping everything in the world in which we live. With change swirling around us, we need to change more often, which demands good ideasideas in the form of plans, proposals, or strategies.

But, more so, we need effective action that can make those ideas be used. This is true regardless of the issue: And one of the steepest walls which stop us from making increasingly needed ideas happen is the buy-in obstacle. It would be wonderful if the good ideas you have, on or off the job, could simply stand on their own.

But far too often, this is not the case. But when true buy-in is thin, the smallest of obstacles can eventually derail a supposedly agreed-upon proposal. The questions, concerns, and arguments that wound or kill truly good ideas may seem to be limitless, but for all practical purposes they are not. There are a few dozen arguments used against good ideas that are very generic in their form, can be used in virtually any setting, and can be very powerful. Although much has been written on buy-in or related topics persuasion, communication , the method we offer here, and the 24 very specific responses to 24 common generic attacks, have a power and efficiency buy-in achieved for resources used that may be unique, and thus of great potential use to those pursuing innovation, strategy implementation, or simply trying to get one good idea accepted by an after-work, pick-up basketball team.

In a world in which we all have limited time and economic resources, unusual power and efficiency can mark the difference between what is practical and what is not, between what creates success and what does not. Would you like to tell us about a lower price? If you are a seller for this product, would you like to suggest updates through seller support? Learn more about Amazon Prime. You've got a good idea. You know it could make a crucial difference for you, your organization, your community. You present it to the group, but get confounding questions, inane comments, and verbal bullets in return.

Before you know what's happened, your idea is dead, shot down. Those who would have benefited from your proposal. Perhaps even the country. It doesn't have to be this way, maintain John Kotter and Lorne Whitehead. In Buy-In, they reveal how to win the support your idea needs to deliver valuable results. Understand the generic attack strategies that naysayers and obfuscators deploy time and time again.

See a Problem?

Then engage these adversaries with tactics tailored to each strategy. By "inviting in the lions" to critique your idea--and being prepared for them--you'll capture busy people's attention, help them grasp your proposal's value, and secure their commitment to implementing the solution. The book presents a fresh and amusing fictional narrative showing attack strategies in action.

It then provides several specific counterstrategies for each basic category the authors have defined--including: Your enemies push discussion of your idea so far into the future it's forgotten. They present so much data that confidence in your proposal dies. Critics catalyze irrational anxieties about your idea. They slam your reputation and credibility.

Smart, practical, and filled with useful advice, Buy-In equips you to anticipate and combat attacks--so your good idea makes it through to make a positive change. Read more Read less. Prime Book Box for Kids. Add all three to Cart Add all three to List. Buy the selected items together This item: Ships from and sold by Amazon.

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What other items do customers buy after viewing this item? The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life. Sponsored products related to this item What's this? Architecture of a Technodemocracy: Goal setting is for average people - but you are anything but average. Your formula for unprecedented professional success. Work smart and learn to create a culture of sustainable, proactive and durable effectiveness instead of a culture of burnout through hard work! Read this book to discover the six ingredients to becoming a supreme leader, even if you are just starting out.

Leadership Framed by Art: Trapped in your limiting thoughts? Sponsored Products are advertisements for products sold by merchants on Amazon. Product details Audio CD: Brilliance Audio; Unabridged edition April 16, Language: Related Video Shorts 0 Upload your video. Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features: Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. People resist change because it requires moving out of their comfort zone. You can have a terrific idea, but the people you hope will accept it may be reluctant to "get on board" for a wide range of reasons, some of them rationale, some of them wholly emotional.

In any event, sometimes a good idea just isn't good enough to move people to action. In this fine book he addresses the issue of "buy in," the common vernacular for engagement. Trouble is, as any would-be change advocate quickly discovers, a lot of people aren't even willing to "rent" change, not to mention buying in. Kotter shows the way.

In his typical simple language proving that not all university professors try to dazzle you with their vocabulary he provides a framework for ushering a good idea from inception through implementation.

Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down

Particularly useful is his chapter on twenty-four attacks and twenty-four responses. Here he helps you deal with many of the most common grenades that people lob over the wall when you have a good idea: Author John Kotter, Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at Harvard has been studying transformational change for decades and his research has shown that "people, even experienced executives, are not very good at transformational change, or change of any significance. The book begins with a story highlighting how good ideas get shot down and how "attacks" can be used to gain buy-in.

The book continues with the four common attack strategies - fear mongering, delay, confusion, and ridicule - with an explanation of each, and then, the twenty-four generic attack tactics people most often use with advice on how to response to each. Attack - "We've never done this in the past, and things have always been okay. In Buy-In, they reveal how to win the support your idea needs to deliver valuable results. Understand the generic attack strategies that naysayers and obfuscators deploy time and time again. Then engage these adversaries with tactics tailored to each strategy.

By "inviting in the lions" to critique your idea--and being prepared for them--you'll capture busy people's attention, help them grasp your proposal's value, and secure their commitment to implementing the solution. The book presents a fresh and amusing fictional narrative showing attack strategies in action. It then provides several specific counterstrategies for each basic category the authors have defined--including: Your enemies push discussion of your idea so far into the future it's forgotten.

They present so much data that confidence in your proposal dies. Critics catalyze irrational anxieties about your idea. They slam your reputation and credibility.

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Smart, practical, and filled with useful advice, Buy-In equips you to anticipate and combat attacks--so your good idea makes it through to make a positive change. Hardcover , pages. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Buy-In , please sign up. Lists with This Book. Jan 13, Ilya Mrz rated it it was ok Shelves: Take-Aways Every good idea or new approach is vulnerable to undeserved, unexpected attacks. You can counter all four strategies, o Take-Aways Every good idea or new approach is vulnerable to undeserved, unexpected attacks.

You can counter all four strategies, or any combination of them, with a single method: Counterintuitive as it might sound, you want people to attack your idea. Involving detractors and skeptics in your discussion helps more people notice your cause. Focus on winning over the majority of your listeners, not your attacker. Answer questions in a calm, clear, logical way, even when attackers become emotional.

Research and prepare for all likely forms of attack.

Nov 29, Ben rated it liked it Shelves: This did not need to be a whole book. The simplification of the types of obstacles new ideas encounter is helpful for quick reference, and some of the stories are good examples, but it seemed too full of fluff for its less-thanpage length. May 01, Mazen Abualnassr rated it really liked it. It was my first Business book in English. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. As you will see, they all draw on one or more strategies based on confusion, fear mongering, death-by-delay, or ridicule and character assassination.

There are many more slight variations on these 24, but these two dozen seem to be the most basic and confounding. There is also a response to each of the attacks which will not silence valid criticism, but will help stop verbal bullets fro 24 Attacks and 24 Responses Here is a list and discussion of the 24 attacks that have been used quite commonly.

There is also a response to each of the attacks which will not silence valid criticism, but will help stop verbal bullets from killing good ideas. We've never done this in the past and things have always worked out OK. But surely we have all seen that those who fail to adapt eventually become extinct. Extra money is rarely what builds truly great ventures or organizations. This is a small issue for us if it is an issue at all.

To the good people who suffer because of this problem, it certainly doesn't look small. If this is a problem, then what you are telling us is that we have been doing a lousy job. No, we're suggesting that you are doing a remarkably good job without the needed tools systems, methods, laws, etc which, in our proposal, you will have.

It's clear you have a hidden agenda and we would prefer that you take it elsewhere. Just look at the track record of the good folks behind this proposal! And why would you even suggest such a thing? Your proposal leaves too many questions unanswered. What about this and that, and this and that, and All good ideas, if they are new, raise dozens of questions that cannot be answered with certainty. It doesn't go far enough" or, "It goes too far" Attack: Your proposal doesn't go nearly far enough.

Maybe, but our idea will get us started moving in the right direction, and do so without further delay. You can't do A without doing B, yet you can't do B without doing A. So the plan won't work. Well actually, you can do a little bit of A which allows a little bit of B which allows more A which allows more of B, and so on. Your plan reminds me of a thing disgusting and terrible insert totalitarianism, organized crime, insanity, or dry rot Look, you know it isn't like that. A realistic comparison might be You are abandoning our traditional values. This plan is essential to uphold our traditional values.

Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down by John P. Kotter

Surely you don't think a few simple tricks will solve everything? No — it's the combination of your good work and some new things that, together, can make a great advance. If this is such a great idea, why hasn't it been done already? There really is a first time for everything and we do have a unique opportunity.

Your plan says X and Y, but they are incompatible. You can't have both! Actually, we didn't say X or Y—although, I grant you, it may have sounded that way. We said A and B, which are not incompatible. You can't deny this! I'm sorry — you mean well, but look at this problem you've clearly missed!

You can't deny the significance of this issue! No one can deny the significance of the issue you have raised, and, yes, we haven't explored it. But every potential problem we have found so far has been readily solved. So in light of what has happened again and again and again, I am today confident that this new issue can also be handled, just like all the rest. Look at how many different concerns there are! This can't be good!

Actually, many the questions mean we are engaged, and an engaged group both makes better decisions and implements them more successfully. We tried that before and it didn't work. Conditions inevitably change [and what we propose probably isn't exactly what was tried before] 17 "It's too difficult to understand. Too many of our people will never understand the idea and, inevitably, will not help us make it happen. We will make the required effort to convince them.

It's worth the effort to do so. Good idea, but it's the wrong time. We need to wait until this other thing is finished or this other thing is started, or the situation changes in a certain special way. The best time is almost always when you have people excited and committed to make something happen. This seems too hard! I'm not sure we are up for it. Hard can be good.

A genuinely good new idea, facing time consuming obstacles, can both raise our energy level and motivate us to eliminate wasted time.

It won't work here because we are so different. Yes it's true, we're different, but we are also very much the same. You're on a slippery slope leading to a cliff. This small move today will lead to disaster tomorrow. Good groups of people—all the time-- use common sense as a guard rail to keep them from sliding into disaster. The plan may be fine but we cannot do it without new sources of money. Actually, most important changes are achieved without new sources of money.

It will be impossible to get unanimous agreement with this plan. You are absolutely right.

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