Beating Naysayers
In Summary Vijay Ramachandran
Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea From Getting Shot Down
By John P. Kotter & Lorne A. Whitehead
Published by Harvard Business Review Press (Oct 2010).
Rs 495
What do you do when your idea—that unique and amazing harvest of your intellect—is cruelly rebuffed and consigned to a dustbin by your peers? Would you:
a) Try to prove that you are right, quoting data and statistics
b) Try a strategic retreat by putting you best face on it
c) Feel sick about your colleagues
d) Assure yourself that your time will come one day
Kotter and Whitehead would advise you that these are all options doomed to further failure. Instead, in their book, Buy In: Saving Your Good Idea From Getting Shot Down, they suggest that understanding the opposition and formulating a strategy to take it head-on, is as important as your idea.
The authors nail down common attacks that nitpickers use and teach us to effectively use the energy of that attack to blunt it and move it forward in a judo-like move. Ultimately, that’s also key to both standing your ground successfully as it is to getting noticed.
Immensely readable, and filled with examples of how to build a counter-attack strategy, the book impresses with its simple and direct advice.
If you’ve ever had a ‘good idea’ shot down then you owe it to yourself to pick up this the book. Here are some excerpts from reviews two of your peers who, like me, heartily recommend it:
CIO REVIEWS Expand all | Collapse all
Rajesh Batra CTO, Global Health
At first look, I would have skipped Buy In, but its subtitle “saving your good idea from getting shot down”, caught my attention. I was taken aback by the authors’ recommendations of taking people on with rationale rather than burying them in data. Most of us, when presented with some of the attacks (as illustrated in the book) would lose our composure, roll up our sleeves—and begin a losing battle. The problem is that we think that logic and strong reasoning will win the day. Whereas, the commonest ways that an idea is attacked are related to the fears and emotions of the audience. The book focuses on the fact that if one is not prepared to respond to the challenge, ideas will most likely be rejected. The book gives an insight into the 24 common attacks which you are likely to face with some thoughts on how you can handle them. It’s a short book, illustrated with a long story, but it reads quickly and is well worth reading if you find your ideas being shot down way more often than they should.
VIRENDER PAL CTO, SPICEJET
It’s a tactfully written book, especially helpful in figuring out how to re-direct attacks to your advantage. It’s a must-read for go-getters. It helps identify potential road blocks, maneuvering past them, getting your ideas accepted, and silencing and winning over both reasonable and unreasonable objections. In the book’s first half, the authors build a theoretical foundation for tackling those who oppose your ideas. In the latter half, a practical method for dealing with such attacks is described. I found this approach engaging and educational. I highly recommend to not only CIOs but also to those who’ve faced opposition to their ideas at any point.
