A Masters in Collaboration

Another approach - my general strategy, in fact - is to sound out my idea first with people who advise the person I'm trying to influence. I find out who the decision-makers talk to when making decisions. That's difficult with one or two of my colleagues because they don't talk to anyone; I just hav... Full description

Another approach - my general strategy, in fact - is to sound out my idea first with people who advise the person I'm trying to influence. I find out who the decision-makers talk to when making decisions. That's difficult with one or two of my colleagues because they don't talk to anyone; I just have to go pitch to them But most people, when you pitch them something pretty big, will have a couple of people they talk to about it. So my first pitch is to those "sounding board" people. I don't ask them to bring my idea up with the decision-maker themselves; I say "What do you think so and so would think about an idea like this." I'll listen to how they poke at it, and from those conversations I'll determine whether I'm good to go. Or I might glean that I need to tweak this, or not be as strong on that. Or just maybe I'll think, "Crikey, this is dead on arrival; I'm not even going to present it." If I'm really jammed, I use my silver bullet approach. I'll say to the decision-makers, "I've got to make this happen; it's really important to the University and so it's important to me. This is a big one, and I won't be back next week with another request." I will already have sounded out the people around them, and if necessary applied pressure from underneath and sometimes from above them. I want them to interpret that as "I'm going to do everything in my power to make this happen, so don't be surprised if you get a call from your boss on this." Through all of this, I keep in the forefront of my mind that collaboration is a two-way street. People want to influence us, and we have to let ourselves be open to that. That can be emotionally wearing. When we're tired our attitude can be "To heck with it, what we've got is good enough." But we've got to maintain a high energy level and enthusiasm because we're in a service provision business - people don't knock on our door and say "I just wanted to let you know that you guys are doing a great job." They are silent until something goes wrong, and then they're on our doorstep to tell us we're screwing up.