Buy-In : Saving Your Idea From Getting Shot Down

I seem to have found Midas touch as far as choice of books that I opt to read is concerned. “Buy-In” (By John Kotter, Publisher: HBR Press) is that pot of gold that I touched lately. The central theme of the book as the title suggests is how to get buy-in for your idea (the one you passionately believe in) by successfully countering the attacks and thus winning the hearts & minds of the people who finally decide to support & implement it. 

I was reminded of a story from the Oriya Mahabharata while reading this book. Let me recount it before I begin my comprehension of the book. One day, Arjuna saw a strange creature in the forest, a creature he had never seen before. It seemed like a fusion of nine animals, its head was that of a rooster, its neck was that of a peacock, its back was a bull’s; it had a lion's waist and serpent's tail, and its four limbs were those of a human, a deer, a tiger and an elephant. 

At first Arjuna thought that it was a monster. He raised his bow to kill it. But then he realized that simply because it was a stranger did not make it a monster. A creature that does not exist in human imagination can exist in the imagination of the cosmos. He lowered his bow and the creature raised its human limb, a hand, in blessing. The 'monster' was Krishna himself, checking how much patience Arjuna had for creatures he did not recognize. However everybody is not as prudent as Arjuna and therefore we find many attackers who are ready to shoot an idea that does not appeal to their conscience at first instance.

Kotter describes many forms of such attackers with some interesting names like “Pompus Meani” the one who values self-importance above doing good, “Heidi Agenda” who has some hidden personal agenda in opposing the idea. “Avoidus Riski” who brings in fear in the minds of people who are likely to support the idea. “Lookus Smarti” is the one whose sole objective is to look smart in front of the crowd so he presents irrelevant statistics, which no one understands and therefore challenges. “Divertus Attenti” is the one who diverts people’s attention from the points being discussed by bringing in issues, which are irrelevant but according to him are more important than the one being discussed. In reality we find such individuals when we are presenting an idea. 

The book like many scripts has characters; the central one is named Hank (who is a brother-in-law of hero even Kotter like any obedient husband is strongly made to believe that most intelligent person in this world is no intelligent than one’s brother-in-law J) 

The book is divided into two parts, part I sets up a stage by a way of a story of the Centerville library. The story is about a proposal being discussed at the annual meeting of the members served by the library. Library needs computers for faster & efficient working by the staff and also by the under privileged children who cannot afford a personal computer, there is a vendor who is ready to donate a computer and its peripherals for every six computers bought by the Centerville families. There are numerous attempts by the attackers to shoot down the idea, but every time Hank uses proper strategy to counter them and wins the hearts and the mind of the people who finally support the idea. 

According to author there are four strategies attackers use to shoot down an idea 

1.Death by Delay: In this attacker endlessly puts off or diverts discussion of your idea until all the momentum is lost. Some of the statements that are made to put of the idea are “ the right time to implement this idea is in our silver jubilee year, which is ten years from now” ? or rather better & indirect is by saying “ let’s set up a committee to review the merit of the idea”

2.Confusion: presenting so much distracting information that confidence is your proposal dies. Here some other information is presented in so much detail, which does not have any relation with the proposal being discussed, still it makes people believe that a presenter has a point of view, which they are not able to understand, so they stay back from the proposal 

3.Fear Mongering: stirring up irrational anxieties about your idea, I think these people are “ Virgo” ? ( I can tell this from my personal experience, my wife is a Virgo & I courageously put this here as I am sure she is not going to read this post ) 

4.Character assassination: undermining your reputation and credibility this shuts off the idea presenter completely. The strategy many times may not be direct but takes an indirect route; sometimes by saying “We have many Newtons here we don’t want one more. We know apple falls due to force of gravity” in other words what it means is that you are not presenting anything great and we all know it better than you do. 

There are counter-intuitive strategies that author talks further 

1.Gain people’s attention by allowing the attackers in and letting them attack.

2.Win the minds of the relevant, attentive audience with simple, clear and commonsense responses.

3.Win their hearts by, most of all, showing respect.

4.Constantly monitor the people whose hearts and minds you need, the broad audience, not the few attackers

5.Prepare for these steps in advance 

The best part of the book comes in chapter 7, where author recounts twenty-four attacks that are commonly observed, if you find the 25th please write to Kotter and also let me know. What is the best part you may ask, first & foremost each attack is summarized in one page & to make it crispier it is divided into two parts; viz attack description and likely response. Each of these is so convincing that I have decided to keep this part of book in the form of cards, so I can refer it when I need it. I never copied in any exam but professional life these days is like a open book exam, so all is fair while one counters the attacks.

I am not going to list here the 24 strategies, which you can see for yourself by getting the book on your shelf &; then putting your hand on it. I also fear if I share this part Kotter will sue me and he being master of BUY-IN can really buy-in everyone against me and then I will not be writing the blog posts ever after, so let me end this by giving you three sections the author has classified these 24 strategies into. 

1.We don’t need your idea because the problem it solves doesn’t exist.

2.Okay, a problem exists, but your solution isn’t a good one.

3.Okay a problem exists and your solution is good one, but it will never work here.

So here is a great book with a very handy message in the end. I summaries it like a VEG CRISPY; 

Don’t get 51 % people in your favor to win a mandate; there are good chances that it will never get implemented. Try to win a mandate with a support in excess of 80 % by answering all the questions attacker is shooting at you all this by being humble, passionate about your idea (if you are not passionate don’t ever present the idea) and using a common sense.( which is not liked by an erudite) 

Go learn the tactics; after all you don’t have to learn everything from your own experiences, there are others to help you, just lend your eyes (if you are observant) and ears (if you are a good listener)