Don’t pitch your idea until you’ve done this first

My earliest jobs (post-army) were in knowledge work of the most blue-collar kind: schools. There is a particular kind of frustration you experience when you realise that there is no simple way to change anything. It’s literally where the best and brightest go to have their inner lights extinguished. Between the bureaucracy of the state and the internal politics and positioning, let’s just say that new ideas don’t flourish in the high-school environment.

It made the perfect breeding ground to start developing my persuasion skills, and it taught me an important lesson: the people who you think are in charge are rarely in charge. In fact, the people at the top, the ones who seem to have all the power, are actually the most hemmed in - by regulation, or opinion, what’s always been done, or stakeholder pushback. It’s rare to see a leader who is willing to buck trends openly - doing so spends valuable political capital, and is risky if the decision doesn’t pan out.

So when you’re the one with the revolutionary idea, how can you get it accepted?Meet my friend Alistair

Alistair works at a prominent publisher where I live. He’s a smart guy — a former full-stack developer — so he sees the world in systems and optimisations. Trying to gather information for a report one day, he realised that he couldn’t see sales data more than three months back. “That’s strange,” he said to himself as he fired off an email to a colleague. “This kind of stuff is normally automated.”

Lo and behold, he discoverd that this multi-million dollar operation hadn’t connected their Shopify to their Quickbooks. That this trivially simple process had been overlooked was surprising in and of itself, but what was more surprising was that he couldn’t seem to find anyone that cared. No one wanted to fix it.

And it goes with so many good ideas that we — and others — have at work. They flounder on the rocks of indifference, or worse — sabotage. ### The mine field of human communication We are territorial creatures, wired to protect our tribe and our property. It’s not for nothing that the defense agencies weren’t talking to each other before 9/11 — and even after had to have a special act of Congress to establish the proper channels. At work, different people vie for promotions, budget, and recognition. It’s not easy to convince someone to go along with your idea when it’s going to be you who gets the credit.

Persuading others of your idea, especially in a work environment, is much less about talking to the “boss”, and much more about understanding the structure of power and persuasion behind the scenes. When your idea is the natural next step in the right people’s mouths, it gets done.

The first phase, then, in getting your ideas accepted, is to map out the playing field and the four key archetypes:Gatekeepers

On paper, the gatekeepers don’t seem relevant to any decisions in an org. Secretaries, EAs, long-standing PMs — they seem like bit players when compared with the higher-ups. If you’ve ever seen Suits, you’ll know this is a mistake. Donna controls what information gets to Harvey, who gets a meeting, and thus, she controls what gets considered. The same is true of someone who you need for access to data or systems — without their approval, you’ll never get what you need to get your idea off the ground.Experts

Every organisation has individuals who are the “go-to” people for specific knowledge, regardless of their formal position. Their authority is not granted by the hierarchy but earned through demonstrated competence and expertise. When a senior engineer, a data scientist, or a legal counsel speaks on their area of expertise, their opinion often carries more weight than that of a generalist manager. Their endorsement can lend immense credibility to a new idea.Social Connectors

These are the nodes in the social network, the people who everyone seems to know and who seem to know everyone. They are often the repositories of specific knowledge of who to talk to about what, who is influential on whom, and what the overall climate of the room or org is. If you want to understand what the real sentiment is on the ground, these people are invaluable allies.Legacy Holders

These are often long-serving employees who possess deep institutional knowledge. They remember past projects, both successes and failures, and understand the historical context of “why things are the way they are”. Consulting with legacy holders is essential for anticipating objections rooted in past failures (e.g., “We tried something similar five years ago and it was a disaster”). Their insights can help preemptively address these historical scars in the proposal.Mapping the territory

It’s of course not enough to know who these people are; they must be consulted and used in the process of getting your idea accepted. Before any decision you want considered, understand who these key players are and think about how you can bring them into your idea. This mapping is crucial for the overall success of your idea; it’s not just a nice to have.

One way you can do this is by soliciting opinion. People love to give opinions on things, and when you ask them, they are implicitly given “expert” status. When you validate someone’s authority in this way, the research suggests that you’re much more likely to begin building a foundation of support.

By getting their opinion, you’re also leveraging another powerful psychological lever — that of reciprocity. We are compelled to return favours, often at a higher rate than the favour that was done for us. By eliciting opinion and acknowledging expertise, we create a feeling of obligation on their part to do the same for us.

This intelligence-gathering phase is simultaneously a “seed planting” and “pre-selling” exercise. But be careful about being too forceful with your idea: Questions should not only elicit information but also gently introduce the problem space that the idea will eventually solve, priming the stakeholder to see the need for a solution long before one is formally proposed.There’s always more

Identifying stakeholders is merely the first step. A comprehensive influence campaign requires a deep, psychological, and political profile of each key player. The objective is to move beyond a simple list of names and roles to a nuanced understanding of their individual motivations, interests, and potential points of resistance.

But that’s perhaps an issue for another edition of the newsletter.I’d love to hear from you

When have you had an idea that really succeeded at work? What did you do to get it off the ground?

Until next week,

PS — If you wondered why this didn't come yesterday, it's because it was Rosh HaShana, the Jewish new year. Happy new year!