Make friends for your ideas

Socialize your ideas with people before you propose them formally

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to make friends for your ideas. Most of
the time, we are better off testing how other people

(00:23):
connect to our ideas before we share them broadly. It's
usually not the best approach to develop an idea completely
on our own and then make a grand reveal, So
people sometimes talk about socializing ideas. That is, informally talking
with people about an idea before presenting it. Formally, Socializing

(00:48):
an idea lets you gauge people's response to it, so
you can make an informed decision about whether or not
to pursue it. If nobody seems to connect with an idea,
you could perhaps drop it, But if an idea is
well received, you can refine it based on feedback you
get when you tell people about it. Socializing an idea

(01:09):
may also help you garner support for an idea. People
are sometimes more likely to support an idea that feels familiar.
You could see how this could play out. Maybe you
are leading the committee that is scheduling the conference for
your professional association. You could socialize your idea for the

(01:30):
conference theme. Do other people understand what you mean by
that catchy phrase you are thinking of using. Do other
people connect with the topic. If you ask around and
people seem to get the theme, you are more likely
to build support for it even before you propose it
to the larger group. If you are a nonprofit leader,
you could socialize the idea of a particular person becoming

(01:53):
chair of the board. When you chat with key leaders
about the possibility, you will hear what they are enthusiastic about.
You can address concerns. By the time there is a
vote on it, lots of people will already see her
as a natural choice. Or if you discover there is
no widespread support for this person, you could pivot away

(02:13):
without ever nominating her. Or suppose your team is feeling
stretched you are wondering whether you could reduce the time
spent in meetings. You could socializing the idea of going
from a weekly department meeting to a monthly one. In
talking with people about this, you might find out that
they think the weekly meeting creates accountability when they know

(02:36):
they are meeting the next day, creates momentum to reach milestones.
People may also mention appreciating that right after the team meeting.
When everyone is there together, they can ask any colleague
a quick question and don't need to resort to lengthy
email correspondence. You may decide that, in fact, you don't

(02:56):
want to go from meeting weekly to monthly instead, but
perhaps you socialize a new idea of putting some of
the meeting content into email and meeting for a shorter
amount of time. People who love planning may sometimes be
inclined to spend a lot of time in our heads
to work out compelling proposals, and that can be great.

(03:18):
But by informally socializing an idea making friends for it
early on, you can get a sense of whether or
not others will support it. If others support seems unlikely,
you can just let the idea go. If others do
seem supportive, you can develop the idea based on their feedback.
What's more, when some people hear about the ideas that's developing,

(03:40):
they may feel a sense of ownership. That way, you
can build buy in before you even offer a formal proposal.
Making friends for your ideas is really a good idea
all around. In the meantime, this is Laura, Thanks for listening.
Here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for

(04:09):
listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,
you can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or

(04:33):
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.