If you want to kill innovation, new ideas and breakthrough thinking, you have a master stroke in saying:

“There is no guarantee that this will work”

What will you do when you have to convince someone and they come back with a response like the one above?

Your first temptation

Your first temptation is to prove that you are right. In most cases, this won’t work because there is a good possibility that the other person thinks that you being right means the other person has to be wrong. Nobody wants to be wrong.

If the other person is totally open AND does not have a big ego, this approach may be worth the try – bring about all the proof and logic to show that you are right. But that would be a super small percentage of people.

Who are you to the other person

A better approach is to elevate “who you are to the other person.” The other person is open to your ideas if he or she has a certain level of trust and respect for who you are to them. If there is a lack in that department, your best rational argument still won’t count because those rational arguments won’t even get past their emotional gates.

A better buy-in

Provided you are someone that the other person trusts and respects, the question comes to that of buy-in. Here is the twist – rather than trying to get buy-in for your idea, try to get their buy-in to help you shape the idea. There is a big difference between the two. In the former case, it is your idea that you are getting their buy-in to. In the latter, you are asking them to help shape the idea to such a shape so that you have their support.

All the best!