Piggyback

I was convinced that red meat was bad. No doubt about it, my family was going to eat tofu. They, on the other hand, were preparing for battle. “No way! That tofu stuff is slimy and yucky!” I could see the ordinary arguments about healthy eating were doomed. Then I found a recipe for tofu cheesecake. My friend Susan was the first to experiment. A group from our co-op had lunch one afternoon and, you know what, it was great!

I slyly presented it the next weekend and the family lapped it up. “Hey! This is great cheesecake! Is it a new recipe?”

I debated—yes, no, yes, no. Finally, I decided. “Yup, it’s a new recipe. If you like it, I can do a chocolate version next time!”

“Yeah, chocolate! Thanks, Mom!”

When faced with several obstacles in your strategy to introduce something new, look for a way to piggyback on a practice in your organization.

You are an Evangelist(144) or Dedicated Champion(129). There are some practices in place in your organization that relate to the new idea.

Several procedures or hurdles are required for the introduction of your new idea but you’re looking for an easier way.

We’re all being asked to do more with less these days. So when you have a new idea, it can be hard to find the time and energy to do all the things you know will help get the idea accepted by the organization.

All organizations have policies and procedures that are important for creating order and decreasing misunderstanding. It’s often necessary to follow some of these procedures to some degree in order to create a place for a new idea. This can take a lot of time and become frustrating because the idea can get caught in inertia.

But organizations also have established practices that, over time, have become well accepted and could be used to help bring in the new idea. If you can market a new idea as an add-on to one of these practices, you are likely to bypass some of the rules and procedures it would take to introduce the idea as something completely new and different.

After all, in many cases the new idea is just another way to help people do their current work. Promoting it as an entirely new initiative can generate a lot of hoopla and apprehension. It is likely to be introduced in a much calmer manner and be met with less resistance when it is viewed as an extension or small improvement to an established approach.

Therefore:

Piggyback the new idea on a well-accepted practice in the organization.

Introduce the new idea as an improvement rather than as an entirely new initiative. Leverage the environment, resources, and opportunities.

Ask for Help(104) from others who might be able to develop ways to take advantage of what’s already in place. Enlist the support of those who know the current solution.

When looking for opportunities to talk about your idea, Piggyback on events in the organization. Try to get on the agenda of a team meeting or on the program of an internal conference. Make a brief announcement when it is appropriate in any gathering.

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Using this pattern gets the new idea going in the organization with a minimal amount of red tape. By being associated with something that is well established, you show that the new idea is not some hair-brained scheme. It can also ease some of the effects that concern the people who are fearful of the new idea.

But your effort to help people see the new idea as an add-on can cause them to think it isn’t really anything special. This can limit the resources you need for continuing and building it. Stay in Touch(221) with your supporters even after the idea has been established.

Members of a university department wanted to introduce a new program—an MFA in software design, using fine arts teaching methods for software design. Creating a degree program is a complicated committee approval process, so they started with a certificate program, which would require only department approval. After a year of success with the certificate program, it will become an alternative for an MS in Computer Science, again requiring only department approval. By that time, the plan for a Master of Software Engineering (MSE) degree program would be underway. They would have enough success to propose the two-year MFA-style program as an alternative to the second year of the MSE degree work. Finally, they would propose that the two-year MFA-style program stand on its own, perhaps as a Master of Software Arts or Master of Software Engineering (Design).

Anne-Marie had been talking about the new idea in the organization, but didn’t seem to be sparking a great amount of interest. She needed to give a presentation. Her boss suggested getting on the agenda for the monthly Tech Talk series. All she had to do was sign up. The people responsible for the Tech Talk series did all the publicity and other work. That presentation turned out to be her first big break. It was well attended and allowed her to identify Innovators and a guru who were interested enough to help her spread the word about the new idea.