Commentary by Lynda Curtin

Conference Musings: Sell Your Ideas

From Passion to Prosperity: How to build your business, sell your ideas and change the world...

I believe innovation is a people process; that it requires individual leadership. This professional development conference, sponsored by the Los Angeles chapter of the National Speakers Association, reinforced my belief, fed my mind and left me with lots to think about. Below are three ideas that captured my attention.

1. "Emotions are 24 times more powerful than logic." Scott Baily of the Sandler Sales Institute made this statement during his presentation. I don’t know if there is a study that supports this provocative statement. It does make me think about the selling step in the innovation process. We can have all the facts lined up; the logic is solid and still experience resistance to a useful new innovation. Who hasn’t run up against this challenge? It’s very frustrating. Emotions, hunches, gut instincts, feelings play a part in selling.

Emotions are often messy. They don’t fit neatly on a graph or chart. They can be unique to the individual. They can appear illogical. Perhaps some good questions to ask each person on the team once the data is established..."What’s your hunch right now about how successful this innovation will be?"..."What’s your gut instinct tell you about how people will embrace this?"..."What’s your feeling right now about what we need to do next to advance this idea?". These questions can help get below the surface of the data to help guide what to do.

2. NO MORE EXCUSES. Sam Silverstein, our luncheon speaker, trademarked this phrase. It’s his innovation. I share this with you because I think the phrase "No more excuses" partly answers the question posted by Praveen Gupta - how does one find not-so innovative companies in his article "Least Innovative Companies" posted on July 16, 2007. Look for companies where too many people are failing.

Here is Sam’s list - Ten Reasons People Fail

1. Make and accept excuses
2. No space to try new things and grow
3. Surrounded with weak people
4. Abdication of responsibility
5. Don’t think strategically
6. Low expectations
7. Ego or emotion
8. Impatience
9. Stupidity
10. Fear

Companies are not innovative. People are. People make a company innovative, or not. Think about the items on this list and how they could be impacting your ability to bring valuable innovations to life. What are you going to do about that?

3. Glenna Salsbury closed the conference with her powerful presentation, "Leaving A Lasting Legacy". She shared this thought, "A legacy worth leaving is founded upon our standard of life, not our standard of living. A legacy worth leaving is founded upon our measure of giving, not our measure of getting...and upon our simple goodness...not our climb to greatness." Doesn’t this strike you as a meaningful screen to help determine new idea power?

It’s with pleasure I share my musings with you.

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