Effective Persuasion: How to Sell an Idea at Work

Published: Thu, 06/19/14

"Persuasion is often more effectual than force." -- Aesop, ancient Greek storyteller.

Every innovation—from the fishhook to the miniskirt to the Space Shuttle—started with a simple, intangible idea. In business, new ideas help us improve everything from mechanical and work processes to our product lines. In a very real sense, businesses depend upon ideas to survive.

This does not mean, however, that those who operate those businesses are invariably open to new ideas. They may prefer sticking with what they know, rather than taking a chance on something unproven. You can yank up your ideas like weeds before they have time to mature. This may be a good thing, but may also prove bad if you can't—or won't—distinguish between the true weeds and the flower seedlings.

There may come a time when one of your carefully nurtured ideas—or one of your team members'—has matured into something truly useful. Given a little TLC, it might prove fruitful to your organization. Now you just have to get it past the defenses of the people whose failure to support it may result in its death. They consider dozens of ideas a month. What makes yours different from the rest?

Cautionary Tales

You don't hear much about the ideas that upper management successfully shoots down; nor should you. When no one cares enough for an idea to fight for it successfully, then it could be flawed or ahead of its time. Back in the 1840s, Charles Babbage designed a "difference engine," a mechanical computer that some modern engineers claim would have worked, if Babbage had possessed a sufficiently potent power source to run it. But he didn't, so the computer revolution would have to wait another century to begin.

However, we see dozens of examples of ideas whose time had come, but that stalled (at least temporarily) due to erroneous decisions or perceptions on the part of the company's leadership. For example: Western Union's decision not to buy the patent for the telephone in 1876, citing it as an "electric toy." Then there was the brush-off Google founders Brin and Page received when they went to Yahoo looking for an infusion of cash in the 1990s. These represent just a few ideas that went on to make their inventors a fortune.

To keep your big idea from getting the brush off, try these tips when it's time to present it to others:

1. Outline the implementation process ahead of time. When I was on the board of directors for the National Speakers Association, board members had this strange habit of asking about the implementation plan before approving a proposal. They wanted to know its originators had thought through the next steps and were ready to spring into action. They weren't impressed with half-baked ideas and hazy answers—they wanted to know the proposer knew what he/she was doing.

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(C) 2014 Laura Stack. Laura Stack is America's premier expert in personal productivity. For over 20 years, her speeches and seminars have helped professionals, leaders, teams, and organizations improve output, execute efficiently, and save time at work. She's the author or coauthor of 10 books, most recently, Execution IS the Strategy. To invite Laura to speak at your next meet or register for her free weekly newsletter, visit www.TheProductivityPro.com.