GUEST ACADEMIC


‘Remember it’s not the person who is attacking your idea that you need to win over, it’s the broader group whose support you need’


Making great ideas A REALITY


Harvard’s Professor John Kotter is widely regarded as a world-leading authority on leadership and change. He talks to us about some of the thinking behind his latest book Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down


J


OHN P Kotter is Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus at Harvard Business School, and con- sidered by many to be the world’s leading authority on leader- ship and change. We could not pass up a chance to meet him


when he was on a rare visit to this side of the Atlantic last month. Kotter has just co-authored his latest book with Lorne A Whitehead – Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down. Its appar- ent simplicity belies an extremely thoughtful treatise on how leaders can gain buy-in for that great idea or innovation. The genesis of the book was the ‘buy-in’ challenge Kotter saw peo- ple encounter over and again in his work with leading companies. “It was that question of ‘I’ve got an idea and the evidence is overwhelm- ing that it’s solid – that it’s going to be useful to my group, to my entire organisation – but I’m having problems getting sufficient sup- port to make it move forward. How do I get that, Professor Kotter?’. After somebody raises that for the 500th time, I think ‘this must be important. Let’s dig in, let’s do some solid research and then let’s


UCD BUSINESS CONNECTIONS 11


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