Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down Audio CD – CD, April 16, 2013

Author John Kotter, Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at Harvard has been studying transformational change for decades and his research has shown that "people, even experienced executives, are not very good at transformational change, or change of any significance." While much attention has been given to creating ideas warranting change, little has been given to gaining the buy-in required for change implementation. "Whether it's a big bill before Congress, an innovative corporate strategy, or tonight's plan for dinner, sensible ideas can be ignored, shot down or wounded so badly that they produce little gain."Kotter has now collaborated with Lorne Whitehead, Leader of Education Innovation, University of British Columbia, in "Buy*In: *saving your good idea from being shot down" to provide a book focused on how to keep those really good ideas from being shot down.The book begins with a story highlighting how good ideas get shot down and how "attacks" can be used to gain buy-in. The book continues with the four common attack strategies - fear mongering, delay, confusion, and ridicule - with an explanation of each, and then, the twenty-four generic attack tactics people most often use with advice on how to response to each.Example:Attack - "We've never done this in the past, and things have always been okay."Response - "True. But surely we have all seen that those who fail to adapt eventually become extinct.""Buy*In" also includes plenty of advice on how to use the material presented, "A quick reference guide for saving good ideas" and "The biggest challenges to buy-in."There are generic behaviors we all see in our daily lives that are difficult to deal with because they appear to be sincere, reasonable, or logical; but, it is these behaviors that contribute to our failure to secure buy-in for worthy ideas. "Buy*In" provides us with a counterintuitive method of turning attacks into an advantage to get buy-in. This is a "must have" book for all who are in roles requiring transformative change.

Anyone who has ever dealt with a board meeting or a staff meeting or any change initiative will wistfully smile and recognize all the characters in this book. The title of this review is kind of a joke regarding the fact that the book describes the different ways people can use to derail an idea.

People resist change because it requires moving out of their comfort zone. You can have a terrific idea, but the people you hope will accept it may be reluctant to "get on board" for a wide range of reasons, some of them rationale, some of them wholly emotional. In any event, sometimes a good idea just isn't good enough to move people to action.John Kotter has a clear track record in understanding change and all the nuances that can make or break a change initiative (see  Leading Change  and  A Sense of Urgency ). In this fine book he addresses the issue of "buy in," the common vernacular for engagement. Trouble is, as any would-be change advocate quickly discovers, a lot of people aren't even willing to "rent" change, not to mention buying in. Kotter shows the way. In his typical simple language (proving that not all university professors try to dazzle you with their vocabulary) he provides a framework for ushering a good idea from inception through implementation. Particularly useful is his chapter on twenty-four attacks and twenty-four responses. Here he helps you deal with many of the most common grenades that people lob over the wall when you have a good idea: "We've been successful; why change?" "What about this, and that, and this, and that ...?" "Your proposal goes too far/doesn't go far enough." "Sounds like [something most people dislike] to me."While this book is not, and doesn't claim to be, a comprehensive guide for change efforts, it does provide some very tasty seasoning for the stew.

He estudiado muchos textos de manejo del cambio, de persuasión, ventas y negociación.En raras ocasiones el autor presenta una revisión ordenada y efectiva de qué hacer, qué decir y cómo decirlo, cuando te enfrentas a astutas personas que se niegan a los cambios, muchas veces por propia conveniencia o simplemente por amor al estatus quo, y que usan una argumentación que puede ridiculizar o puede infundir desaliento o temor en los involucrados en la decisión.Kotter tiene muchas experiencias y, aparte de su sólido modelo de cambio, ya afamado, aquí nos da consejos concretos para superar la oposición y, además, de una manera elegante, cortés y positiva.Texto muy necesario.Lo incorporare a mis talleres de inmediato.Gracias maestro por otro sólido texto¡¡¡

The authors categorize the four types of attacks as confusion, fear mongering, death by delay, or ridicule and character assassination, and usually is just the 5% to 10% of the general audience. The book also list the 24 attacks and responses usually encountered when presenting a new idea or proposal.The book is broken down into sections starting with a story and how the presenter along with his brother-in-law helped address the attacks from a handful of audience. The book then jumps into specific examples of the most frequently attacks people use to kill an idea and what to respond to addres the attack.I went ahead and purchased the hardcopy version as the audio version was too hard to carry with me if I needed to refer to it.

I highly recommend the audio version of this book, for anyone who either on a daily or occasional need to give presentations to teams or different groups to get their buy in on a proposed plan or opportunity. It is well worth listening to more than once, and you should make it a periodic treat for your ears and mind, to remind yourself of the pit falls of negativism by certain factions in your organization, who do not want change but only want to protect their own turf without regard to growing your organization.A good book on how to conquering negativism and foot draggers in meetings; and how to gain allies to get that needed buy in so your organization can move forward.

This book is perfect for everyone who had improvement opportunities shut down because of the weight of bureaucracy or chain of command in a company!

A must for anyone, in whatever role they have .Interesting, well written and difficult to put down.A no nonsense approach.

Very powerful advice about saving good ideas from being taken down, especially when a lot is at stake, like change efforts in organizations.

Excellent book, easy to read, and super useful. Not blah blah

Very valuable book.Vendor was perfect: fast delivery and expected quality.