How to sell a new idea to your cabal

Cabal management tips from the Harvard Business Review: LINK  and LINK to original articles here and Inc. LINK.

Sometimes you have a great idea. Maybe you let it sit a few days to ferment til it's "perfect"... and then you decide it's ready to launch.

If you are naive, you might think... "It's my cabal. I like them. They like me. I'll just tell 'em the idea and then we'll all go do it. It's be easy!"

Yeah, sometimes it's like that.
(From 9GAG.com)

And, really, it sometimes has a lot less to do with the idea itself than with how you sell it to your cabal. There are better (and worse) ways to sell a new idea to your cabal.  Here are a few things you might keep in mind.

Be Credible

Before you sell the idea, you have to sell yourself as someone people can trust. If you're a cabal manager* you may already have this credibility.  If you're new to a group, you'll have to build credibility.  Show you can get stuff done. Prove that you can deliver by meeting deadlines and doing what you promised. Do small things, like run dungeons reliably once a week for a month or so, or run low-impact RP events like a happy hour. Once you prove you can get stuff done, people are going to be more prepared to listen to you, and more importantly, people will be prepared to work with you.

Be Collaborative

The best way to sell an idea to someone, is to make it THEIR idea, and not YOUR idea.  You have to let go of your idea, give it to these people, let them make it their own.

Think about that.  It sounds almost like a Zen koan.

You must give your idea away in order to make it happen.

You need to get input from the people you're selling it the idea to. Seek their input and incorporate their ideas. The idea needs to grow, change, and adapt to suit the people you want to sell it to - after all, if you want them to buy into or execute this idea, they need to own it.  It needs to be their idea. Not only that, you need to make sure their perspectives and suggestions are notably apparent in your idea.  You should publicly thank the people who give their input and make sure their suggestions are very visible in the updated idea. Give up your ego, and instead make sure the spotlight is on the people who improved your original idea.

This is no longer "your" idea. It's "our" idea. If you can't come to grips with this, you are in trouble.

By collaborating with other people, "our" idea will have grown and changed, and likely improved. If nothing else, it should be better off by the simple fact that there are now a a lot more brain cells thinking about it (LINK, LINK, but also LINK).  Now you need to help harness all this thought and political will to get prepared.

Be Prepared

Think through your idea thoroughly. You need to know it inside and outside, and have a written list of pros and cons. Make sure there are no vague areas. This is one way that collaboration is going to be very helpful to you.  Ask your collaborators to help you come up with that list of pros and cons - they're going to think up things that you never did.  When working with collaborators, make your requests concrete. Gather data that's relevant for your idea, and don't shy away from looking into things that seem to work against your idea. Make sure you understand the downsides so you aren't blindsided by them when the skeptics weigh in.

Also, when you're talking to people about your idea, make sure to look at it from your audience's point of view.  This is also a good way to involve your collaborators. Have them help you customize the message for your audience.

One way to prepare to sell "our" idea is to make sure that the people who support the idea are well educated about it, and can speak to the good (and bad) points. You aren't (and shouldn't be) in this alone. Use your allies to speak where you can't. Once you're prepared, you need to talk to the people who are not enthused (yet!) about "our" idea.

New ideas take some getting used to!
(From Funcom's news articles)

Be Open (to criticism)

Your idea will (likely) have detractors. That's normal and to be expected. Your list of cons that you already prepared with your collaborators has (likely) already scoped out much of what the critics might say. Regardless, you need that opposition to make sure that you get an outside viewpoint. If you're only listening to people who support you, then you're insulating yourself from real feedback. You can get caught in an "echo chamber" where you're only hearing the people that agree with you and confirm your own beliefs without needed critical thought (see LINK, in politics as LINK, but also LINK).

You need to talk to those detractors.  Find the skeptics, and see them in private one-on-one meetings. It's up to you to find them, befriend them, and hear what they have to say and why they have reservations. The idea of a private, one-on-one conversation is critically important. This gives you a chance to focus in on this one person, and their concerns. You need to incorporate their caution, and it's easier to "hear" that in a one-on-one meeting. Listen to these people (LINK, LINK, LINK) - let the critics have their say, uninterrupted.  The point of this meeting is for you to listen to THEM so listen respectfully and make them the center of the show! Make sure they know that you have heard them, and understand them. Sometimes, all a person wants is to be listened to and taken seriously - do that and you may find yourself turning some critics into supporters.

Do not set yourself up where all your critics are in one place to discuss the idea with you. Groups can turn into mobs, and confirmation bias gets out of control (LINK, LINK, LINK).  A few noisy or charismatic critics can sway the opinions of many other people in a group event. Furthermore, this gives the opposition an excellent opportunity to network and share their common concerns. Also, if the meeting turns negative, it can lead you into an "us-versus-them" mentality that where you may be tempted react emotionally. Bad news all around.

This goes back to being credible. By meeting with people, by listening to them respectfully, by treating people who disagree with respect, you will gain credibility for being open to new ideas yourself.

* Cabal manager is an inclusive term that indicates a cabal leader, a cabal officer, or a cabal veteran that is widely looked up to even without a formal leadership title.