Smell of Success

It is both invisible and intangible, and yet it invokes such powerful human reactions that people are swayed to affection or revulsion because of it. It is that most subtle and subjective of senses—the sense of smell.

When your efforts result in some visible positive result, people will come out of the woodwork to talk to you. Treat this opportunity as a teaching moment.

You are an Evangelist(144) or Dedicated Champion(129) trying to introduce a new idea. You’ve had at least limited success.

When you start to have some success, newcomers will ask you about the innovation.

Some people, especially the Early Majority(141) and the skeptics, are drawn to a new idea when there is visible success. Unlike the Innovators(170), who love the excitement of being part of the latest and greatest, most others wait until the early bugs are worked out and there is some evidence that a new idea is useful. This evidence can be provided by the successes others are having. When people who have not yet adopted a new idea smell success, they are likely to become interested enough to ask you about it.

Therefore:

When people comment on the success they see with the innovation, treat their inquiry as a teaching moment.

Use Just Enough(180) to spark some interest and Personal Touch(198) to match the innovation to the inquirer’s needs. If you think it is appropriate, Ask for Help(104)—identify a small task and ask the inquirer to complete it. This is the “Yes, that’s a difficult problem; would you volunteer to tackle it?” ploy!

Manage the expectations of people who smell success and then look forward to a silver bullet. Give them a realistic view of what has been accomplished and what still needs to be done.

Learn what you can from these inquiries. Even as you experience success and become convinced of the value in the new idea, remain open and listen to comments from everyone.

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This pattern creates the opportunity for you to use your success to create more successes. It draws people to the new idea, giving you the opportunity to answer their questions and encourage them to be active supporters.

But a smell of success can also draw people who have been negatively impacted by the new idea. If they are looking for a way to neutralize that effect, listen to their story and use Fear Less(151) to find a win-win solution.

After a project was completed on schedule and received high acclaim from the users, someone from another team dropped by to talk about some issues that concerned her in our project’s technology. She seemed interested in knowing how our techniques, which were quite different from the “standard” practices, allowed us to be productive and successful—despite our having an inexperienced team. It was the perfect opportunity to enlighten her about our new approaches.

My work with patterns attracted the interest of someone who was well known and well respected in the patterns community. When he offered to come to my organization to give a presentation, people were impressed. As a result, inquiries about patterns increased. I made sure I addressed each one, often by suggesting that we take a coffee break or have lunch to discuss their questions.