This article originally appeared in the June 2024 issue of Security Business magazine. Don’t forget to mention Security Business magazine on LinkedIn and @SecBusinessMag on Twitter if you share it.
Last week, I was sitting in a Teams meeting discussing a new idea with colleagues from several other departments. The idea itself isn’t all that important to this story – suffice it to say that it was new and ambitious, and it had clear benefits (aka potential profits) for all the stakeholders involved.
One person presented the idea and explained why they thought it would work and its benefits. Then another person took the floor and proceeded to explain in excruciating detail why it was an exercise in futility and that we had never done it that way before. They even asked what was actually “in it” for the person proposing the idea. It was the greatest hits of “no.”
While I won’t admit that “no person” is me, I am perfectly willing to admit that it once was me (and sometimes still is).
There is a book that changed my life when I read it for the first time three years ago. It had such a profound impact on me that I have attempted – unsuccessfully so far – to get both of my kids (ages 16 and 12) to read it. A beat-up, coffee-stained copy with about a thousand creases in the spine is always in the console of my car, just in case I am stuck waiting for an after-school event or a baseball game to end – or worse, stuck in a doctor’s office. That book is called The Art of Persuasion: Winning Without Intimidation. It was written in 1998 by Bob Burg. I only wish I had read it 20 years before I actually did (was that loud and clear enough for you, kids?).
Coincidentally, last week I was in the waiting room at urgent care (trade show cough...it’s the worst), thumbing through Chapter 7 for the umpteenth time, and I reread one of the many excerpts that affected me: “Be a ‘Yes Person.’”
Burg is quick to point out that he doesn’t mean the old stereotypical “Yes Man” – you know (I hope), like Smithers from The Simpsons – for lack of better, an ass-kisser.
“I’m talking about being the person who, when approached with a new idea, looks for the good in it – for the possibilities – rather than what’s wrong or won’t work,” Burg writes. “Most people look at the negative. When approached with an idea, they respond with ‘That’ll never work.’ While the approaches in these pages are designed to help overcome such attitudes in others, we also need to be aware of them within ourselves.”
Believe me, it is not so easy to quell the desire to sh*t all over someone’s idea. I used to do it all the time, and sometimes I still catch myself doing it.
Think about how much and how quickly our industry has changed in just the past few years. Perhaps an “old approach” doesn’t work as well as it used to. Be honest: How many times over those years have employees pitched ideas using some new technology or new go-to-business model that challenged the status quo? Did you immediately strike it down?
Think about what might be possible by simply considering a yes before defaulting to a no. It’s that easy to be a “yes person.”
