Four ways to kill a good idea

Buy-inJohn P. Kotter & Lorne A. Whitehead

Anguished at the massacring of genuinely good ideas all the time for all sorts of reasons, John P. Kotter and Lorne A. Whitehead have written Buy-in (Harvard) as a guide to building sufficiently strong support around your ideas so that successful action follows. The first part of the book is a story about getting buy-in for an idea – a simple, imaginative, and useful one – but not before it gets ‘slammed again and again with misinformed, unfair, and outrageous concerns and questions, any of which could have wounded or killed it'.

Fear-mongering

The ‘method' is discussed in the second part of the book, and it begins with ‘four ways to kill a good idea.' Fear-mongering, the most common of the four, is aimed at raising anxieties so that a thoughtful examination of a proposal is very difficult if not impossible, the authors explain. “People begin to worry that implementing a genuinely good plan, pursuing a great idea, or making a needed vision a reality might be filled with frightening risks – even though that is not really the case.”

Watch out for the many ways in which fear may be created. The trick, as Kotter and Whitehead describe, is to start with an undeniable fact and then to spin a tale that ends with consequences that are actually frightening or that just pushes the anxiety buttons we all have.

Death by delay

Delay, the next ‘killer,' uses questions and concerns to slow the communication and discussion of a plan to such an extent that sufficient buy-in cannot be achieved before a critical cut-off time or date. It may come in the garb of a logical suggestion, but if accepted it will make the project miss its window of opportunity.

“A case is made that sounds so reasonable, where we should wait (just a bit) until some other project is done, or we should send this back into committee (just to straighten up a few points), or (just) put off the activity until the next budget cycle.” Meanwhile, momentum is lost, or another idea, not nearly as good, can gain a foothold.

Maze of confusion

When proposing an idea, be ready to face ‘confusion,' the third enemy, which may innocuously surface as questions that so muddle the conversation with irrelevant facts, convoluted logic, or many alternatives that it becomes impossible to have a clear and intelligent dialogue for building the buy-in.

For instance, after a series of ‘what about', the conversation may slide into endless side discussions about unrelated things. “Eventually, people conclude that the idea has not been well thought out. Or they feel stupid because they cannot follow the conversation (which tends to create anger, which can flow back toward the proposal or the proposer). Or they get that head-about-to-burst feeling, which they relieve by setting aside the proposal or plan.”

Ridicule/character assassination

The fourth way to kill a good idea aims at people behind the idea, to make the proposers look silly, with questions raised about their competence. While in the case of ‘confusion' the perpetrator could be ‘a Lookus, who, perhaps unconsciously, has a need to appear to be the smartest person in the room, or by a Spaci, who just doesn't think very clearly,' the ‘ridicule' attack can come from ‘a Pompus,' raising an issue ‘with an oh-so-innocent, yet subtly condescending look on his face'.

When this strategy works, there can be collateral damage, the authors observe. “Not only is a good idea wounded, and a person's reputation unfairly tarnished, but all the additional sensible ideas from the proposer might have less credibility, at least until the memory of the attack fades.”

D. Murali

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