Status quo is a powerful beast. No matter the organization, once people are in powerful roles they tend to want to change as little as possible out of fear of losing that power. Despite all of their rhetoric about progress and change, most bosses are hard to convince to try new things.
It’s human nature to hold tightly to the traditions learned early in our careers, regardless of their irrelevance. Many of you read books and attend events with the hope of helping the company you work for. However, when you bring up a new idea you want to try, it’s hard to make it happen.
Here’s a quick guide on how to convince your boss to try new things:
1. Perform well at your job. The best leverage you have with any boss is your work performance. They are far more likely to consider suggestions from the highest performing person on the team than the least performing. Before you launch into tirades about the grand revolutions you want them to lead, make sure you’re in good standing. Be patient. Match the size of your suggestion to the quality of your reputation.
2. Consider the problems your boss needs to solve. Don’t start with your problems or what things you want to try. Instead think about the world from your boss’s perspective. What are his goals? And what do all of your bosses need to do to succeed? What achievements are they striving for? What will get them promoted?
3. Match what you want to try to their goals. Frame anything you want to try in terms of how it might help your boss. Will it help in reaching her sales quota? Will it help her get better clients? Will it help her budget? At minimum, think about your own productivity and morale: Why should your boss care about helping you to improve? Consider that and make it part of your pitch. You may discover that there are far better things to suggest than the idea you originally had.
4. Get support from respected co-workers. If your idea is interesting and possibly beneficial, it shouldn’t be hard to convince a co-worker or two to try something new. Provided the boss respects their opinion, their interest in participating helps support your objective. In some cases it might even be better if someone other than you makes the pitch. If you have a good relationship with the peers of your boss, especially peers he respects, consider asking them to participate in your project.
5. Look for books and respected organizations that support your goal. Try to find companies your boss respects that already use the practice you have in mind. Do research; find and read books and articles that can help support your case. Of course getting your boss to read them is another matter, but your research will better inform you of answers to questions your boss is likely to have. Most important, refine your own thinking about the realities of the thing you want to try. Maybe it’s not such a good idea. Or perhaps there is a different way of thinking about the problem that’s more useful.
6. Plan for a trial. Minimize managers’ apprehension by suggesting you try your idea on a trial basis, say, a week or a month. Also propose criteria for how to evaluate whether the new idea was successful after the trial period. If you’ve never pitched anything to your boss, pick the simplest version of the idea you want to try, or go the route with the fewest risks or that is of moderate importance. The next time you have something you want to try, they’ll be more apt to trust you.
7. Make the pitch. Remember that most people in power respond differently to pitches when they are in front of a group vs. when they are by themselves. Find a situation that provides the best opportunity, based on when your boss is most responsive to suggestions (e.g., via email, during your performance discussions, during coffee break). Define the problem (in terms the boss can relate to), offer the solution, define the trial terms, and reference what other companies already participate in similar projects. Observe how other people pitch to your boss and which tactics work best.
8. Work hard to make the trial work. Your reputation is on the line during the trial. If the trial goes well, and your boss agrees to use your idea, you’ll be in higher standing for the next recommendation you make and convincing her again will be far easier. If you fail, and fail badly, it will be hard to earn back their faith in you. Do everything in your power to convince your boss that doing trials, even if they fail, have minimal risk, and they provide lessons for the organization, including discovering different trial methods that might have better results.
In the end, it shouldn’t be all that hard to convince a smart, progressive boss to try new things on a trial basis. If your boss turns out to be impossible to convince, perhaps the new thing you need is a new boss.
First published on Scott Berkun’s blog.
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