Years ago, when my kids were in middle school, I volunteered as a coach for the Future Problem Solvers, a competitive academic program designed to help young people develop the creative thinking skills they will need as tomorrow’s leaders.

While the bulk of the time was spent teaching students problem-solving methodology, almost one third of the time was devoted to solution-selling techniques. We can expend a great deal of time and effort on wondrous ideas, but if we can’t get buy-in from decision makers, we toil in vain.

This leads us back to the fundamentals found in ISO 9004:2000—the quality management principles. More precisely, it directs us to the seventh of these principles: “Factual approach to decision making.” The standard states, “Effective decisions are based on the analysis of data and information.”

Often individuals bemoan the lack of senior management support for improvement initiatives. They grouse that management only pays lip service to the ISO standards system and that there is no real endorsement of the quality management system model as a practical and effective component of the organization. The pathetic whine goes, “They just won’t listen.”

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