Podcast – Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders – Adam Grant ( Originals Book)
When you are new to the organization and want to challenge the status quo do not do it immediately. Learn from the environment. Take your ideas to your supervisor or someone who has agreed to mentor you and ask for their advice. This will help them support you on your path to bring about a change. List the ideas and ask if these are good and if they can be implemented.
Middle managers tend to kill an idea or innovation by default. They have worked their ass off to reach the position they have. The opportunity cost of not backing a good idea is less. Whereas the cost of backing a new idea and failing is high. They wouldn't want to jeopardize their hard-earned position. They prefer to play it safe.
To curb your anxiety the usual practice is to try and calm down. Instead, we should try and get excited about the act/event. Tell yourself that you are excited and it will help decrease the anxiety. Both worrying and excitement have the element of uncertainty. But they tend to have opposite effects on the psyche.
To explain the unfamiliar use of a familiar concept/idea. Example SpringRope is a LinkedIn of verified professionals. When you pitch a new idea to someone they tend to think based on what they already know. If they have never heard about this new concept they will reject the idea. If you instead explain it using a familiar concept the receptiveness increases.
Growing startups that hire people based on culture fit tend to be more successful. As compared to those startups who hire based on skills and star performers. Although, this culture fit hiring doesn't help beyond the IPO. They need to then radicalize their approach and have people who can disrupt. They have to bring in people who help disrupt their thinking. This they have to rethink periodically.
We get rid of people who give us critical feedback. When instead you should ask them for advice. This will help you learn faster. We should shun our ego and ask such people for more details and the act upon the data.
The counter-intuitive approach to let the decision maker know our flaws helps. Not always. Rufus Griscom pitches to venture capitalists to raise money for his start-up Babble. However, Griscom does the opposite of most entrepreneurs and presented a slide of Top 5 reasons not to invest in his startup. As Grant notes, it should have killed his pitch but the counter-intuitive approach worked and Babble raised $3.3 million in funding that year.