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You feel a little jittery. Is it the presentation? Or the pot of coffee you drank this morning while rehearsing? You gather your laptop and index cards and head to the conference room.
This is the big day. You've been working on the plan for weeks now. You're ready. It's time to present your big ideas for the Summer 2010 plan.
The team is there. Laptop syncs with the projector. You're hitting your key points beautifully. You pause for questions...
And then... it starts going sideways.
John, at the end of the table casually mentions, "You know, we tried an idea similar to this in '98 and it didn't work." He is followed by Julie, "Do you think this is a good idea in this economy?"
Matt chimes in... (*phew* a friend).
He corrects... "Sure, in any economy, Julie! And, John...'98 was '98 - that was last century. I think this is a good idea. The only problem with it is...."
Noooooo!
You've just witnessed the Idea Killers. Killjoys armed with their favorite invisible weapon - killer phrases.
In his book,  What A Great Idea! 2.0, Chic Thompson writes about - among other things - how new ideas are often struck down with killer phrases. These phrases reflect the lack of acceptance of something new or different. He also points out that killer phrases "are as inevitable in the innovation process as ideas themselves."
Psychologists say the human reaction to a new idea unfolds something like below, which Chic calls the Five Stages Of Idea Acceptance.
The door-lock analogy is pretty accurate... You can have four of the five locks open, but the door won't open until all five are unlatched.
How To Apply This
By knowing the stages you can either:
(a) have already figured out how to...
- make it relevant,
- prove it,
- make it safe, and
- show it is saleable
...when you present it. Or at least:
(b) be aware each of these need to be unlocked as you champion the idea.
Happy locksmithing!
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Comments
This is a great analogy! Is there anything in the book about lacing John, Julie, and Matt's coffee with a laxative so they're not at the meeting at all? j/k :)
Posted by: Tracy | 07.03.09
Paul ... I know who that "John" guy is. And who "Julie" is. But who was Matt? The chap from Finance who worked with the category team?
The lesson I learned from being old school and knowing what worked and didn't work with past marketing programs was not to stop at saying something didn't work before. Instead, I learned to also offer up why it didn't work and what steps could taken to make it work if we were to do it again.
As "Lisa" used to tell us, "No yeah, buts allowed."
Which reminds me... Ideacide Prevention is Everybody's Business... http://brandautopsy.typepad.com/brandautopsy/2008/01/ideaicide-preve.html
Posted by: johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy) | 07.03.09
Did I say I love your blog?? If not, I am telling it today :)
Posted by: Jaky Astik | 07.03.09
Tracy... interesting approach... Have to think about that one!
Posted by: Paul (from Idea Sandbox) | 07.04.09
Jaky,
I'm not sure if you're talking about my blog (Idea Sandbox) or John's in the comment above you. Either way, Thank You for your comment!
Posted by: Paul (from Idea Sandbox) | 07.04.09
John,
Thank you for your thoughts. While I cannot respond directly to your comment I am prepared to say:
The characters featured in the content of this
article are completely fictional. Any resemblance
to any person living or dead is purely coincidental.
No similarity to any person either living or dead is
intended or should be inferred.
No marketers were harmed in the writing of this post.
Posted by: Paul (from Idea Sandbox) | 07.04.09
Welcome fellow Twitter'ers who have found this article via ReTweets!
Posted by: Paul (from Idea Sandbox) | 07.06.09
The biggest idea killer in our office is nicknamed "Eeyore."
He is an analytical type (CPA). So, in pitching ideas to him, I have to give all the facts and figures.
Point being... You know who the idea killers regularly are. You can also use their personality types to persuade.
Great post!
Posted by: Cyndee Woolley | 07.07.09
The biggest idea killer in our office is nicknamed "Eeyore."
He is an analytical type (CPA). So, in pitching ideas to him, I have to give all the facts and figures.
Point being... You know who the idea killers regularly are. You can also use their personality types to persuade.
Great post!
Posted by: Cyndee Woolley | 07.07.09
Your "how to apply" suggestions are hugely useful. Any credible business plan must answer these questions.
Posted by: Sunil Mehta | 07.10.09
Gentlemen: It would have been courteous to give a nod to Arthur Schopenhauer, who laid down the basics in his maxim,"All truths go through three stages: first they are ridiculed, then they are violently opposed, then they are accepted as self-evident."
Posted by: Porky Noh | 07.10.09
I agree, ideacide is rampant, usually in "brainstorming" sessions. But it's not always a bad thing...The other side is the person who throws out vague thought bubbles that go nowhere. The responses mentioned are often a defense mechanism against these. Kind of a mental spam filter.
Both can be corralled by the leader who says something like "interesting idea, let's figure out how it will work" and then tries to make it more real through development, ie. in a quick mind map. This gets everybody off the negativity track and into tasking. It also reveals empty ideas.
Posted by: Tony Wanless | 07.10.09
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Posted by: Eliluff | 10.21.09