Be Less Zombie

31Dead on Arrival

Big bureaucracy kills bold ideas fast. Learn how to keep your ideas alive for long enough to know whether they really should scale.

Being a disruptive idea isn't easy. You're probably going to fail, and everyone wants to kill you. It's a tough gig.

But suppose you're one of those ideas that genuinely should make it out of the building alive? This chapter is about keeping ideas breathing long enough to find out whether they really were destined for greatness.

Helping Decision-Makers Make Great Decisions

So why are so many original ideas crushed prematurely? In the previous chapter we looked at how a better business case can help extend the life of an emerging idea.

But that's often only half the story. Literally.

In my experience many disruptive ideas are shut down too soon simply because they are either misunderstood or misrepresented.

I've been part of corporate Shark Tank and Dragon's Den events and watched executives nod and smile during idea presentations, and then shrug their shoulders to one another when the idea pitchers leave the room. They didn't get it, so the ideas got a straight ‘no’.

© Elvin Turner.

Either that or the ideas festered in a corner for months because managers didn't know on what basis to make a decision. Or, in more consensus-driven cultures, there's no decision because no one wants to upset the idea pitcher.

If your ideas have ...