Getting People on the Same Page

May 15 2016
By: Terry L. Mathis

Have you ever had a good idea only to find how hard it is to sell your idea to your boss, your peers, your team or other key stakeholders whose cooperation you need to make your idea become reality? Getting people on the same page at the same time is a challenge for anyone in any organization. Selling your approach to others may not be your best talent, even when you have breakthrough thinking.

Here is an alternative: hire an expert to sell your idea for you. You probably got your idea from an expert who had the idea first or had another idea that led to yours. Hire that expert to talk to your associates and sell them on it. Short on budget? Buy the book that sparked your idea and ask everyone involved to read it. Now the idea is not just yours; it belongs to an expert. The expert can probably explain and sell the idea better than you can. Others might agree or disagree, but they likely won't question the source or nit-pick the details. You can skip most of the questions and interpersonal noise and get right to the core matters and concepts.

Organizations that align the reading of new materials by key personnel have a much easier time adopting new ideas than do those who simply brainstorm and debate. Breakthroughs often come from outside of the discipline they impact. Keeping leaders reading new material together can both enlighten and align creative thinking. All progress begins with thinking differently. Read and think together!