Promoting Ideas for Change

you need to put together a compelling business case to convince others that your idea has practical potential.

Unless you are a top manager in your organization, chances are that you will need to "sell" your ideas for change at some point. Maybe you are an entrepreneur pitching an idea to a promotional investor, or you have a great idea about how to make things work more efficiently in your organization. In either case, you will need support if your idea is to become a reality.

Whatever the starting point, the destination will be the same: you need to convince someone else that your idea is great and that it will work and that they will get their investment (of time and money) back. And they need to believe in you and your capacity to deliver all of this. The problem is that you believing in your idea is unlikely to be enough -- you need to put together a compelling business case to convince others that your idea has practical potential.

ACTION POINT: Practice selling your idea to others, inviting critical comments and suggestions for how to improve it. Anticipating the big questions before you make the pitch to decision-makers will help ensure your message gets across.