One simple question to gain stakeholder support
You’ve finally done it! You and your team put in some heavy brainstorming and came up with the perfect idea for how to fix the “big problem” you identified in your company. Maybe your idea is a new system or process. Maybe it’s a massive change initiative. Maybe you’ve just settled on some goals that will move your organization in the right direction. Whatever the solution, you and your team members feel fantastic about your accomplishment.
Your cheering only lasts a minute though. It comes to an abrupt halt the second you realize coming up with the great idea was the easy part. Now you have to sell your idea to those stakeholders who decide whether it becomes a reality or ends up in the scrap bin. And even a truly perfect solution can’t sell itself.
As you think about presenting your idea to your stakeholders ask one critical question:
What will this idea actually change the company’s operations? How will things be different (in the real world) once this idea is brought to life?
Even if your stakeholders don’t ask you this directly when you present your idea, it’s what’s on their minds. They want to know, in very clear terms, what exactly will be different in their world as the result of implementing your idea. They are not interested in capabilities, functionality or possibility. They want to hear real-world specifics.
- Where will they experience efficiencies?
- Where will and how will customer service improve?
- How will quality control get better?
- Where will costs be reduced?
The specific metrics of improvements your stakeholders want to hear about vary between organizations and ideas. Know which items are truly critical to your organization, and then clearly and unambiguously connect those items to your idea.
Here’s the most important part: Don’t wait until you are going to pitch the idea to your stakeholders to work through this question.
Do it right now, while the idea is still fresh in your mind and while the IT team is still in the room.
Get your IT team used to asking and answering this question for nearly everything they work on. Doing so will not only give you the key talking points for stakeholders, it will also help you and your team vet your great ideas to make sure it solves a problem that’s truly important to the business.
