First, sorry I haven’t posted in a week. I was on a speaking tour that permitted no time for blogging. I need to learn to sandbag….
First. I want to recommend a book: Syrup
Very good MKTG course. And, if you deal with office politics, it’s a ‘must read’.
Now here’s a thought spurred by a business buddy of mine.
When decisions or ideas are discussed at business meetings and a consensus is needed, should anyone with greater expertise be given greater say or greater weight to their vote? I’m not talking about position of authority, I’m talking about knowledge base. If we’re making a marketing decision and I know more about marketing, should my vote count for more than say, yours?
It’s an interesting thought but I am not sure…I would say it depends on the nature of the question at hand. If I’m trying to make my job easier and the result makes your job harder, maybe your vote should have greater weight?
So how do we settle this?
ALWAYS: What best serves the organization? Does this change contribute to profitability? If not, if it’s just change, then it has no real value. Kill it. But if the idea potentially has value greater than the disruption it will cause, give the ‘authority’ the opportunity to sell the idea. If he can’t get buy in, skip it.
An idea without buy-in will fail.
The burden of proof is on the proposer.
Chris Reich, Author of TeachU’s Business Talk Blog
Chris@TeachU.com