Title: Why Great Ideas Get Rejected
Context: Having a good idea is easy. Getting people to buy into your good idea? That’s the tricky part.
Synopsis: Everyone loves a creative idea right? Not so fast there da Vinci. Good ideas often seem brilliant in hindsight but they may receive a counter-intuitive reception when they are first proposed. This has nothing to do with the quality of the idea itself, but rather with the receiver’s level of uncertainty surrounding the usefulness of the idea. One would hope that the suitability of a groundbreaking idea would be apparent on the face of it but people can have a hard time accepting the obvious when they are preoccupied with selfish considerations. In other words, unless it is clear what is in it for them, do not expect a rousing ovation at the end of your pitch. So the next time a bolt of inspiration hits, before you start telling everyone who will listen about your great idea, spend a little extra time thinking about how you are going to present it to folks who may not be so receptive to the change that often accompanies the adoption of groundbreaking propositions. The lesson here is: great ideas usually don’t sell themselves.
Best Bit: “[W]hen you’re pitching your creative idea, it may not be the idea itself that is being rejected. The more likely culprit could be the uncertainty your audience is feeling, which in turn is overriding their ability to recognize the idea as truly novel and useful.”
via 99u.com
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