Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down

John P. Kotter (Goodreads Author)

3.77 · Rating details · 658 ratings · 67 reviews

You've got a good idea. You know it could make a crucial difference for you, your organization, your community. You present it to the group, but get confounding questions, inane comments, and verbal bullets in return. Before you know what's happened, your idea is dead, shot down. You're furious. Everyone has lost: Those who would have benefited from your proposal. You. You ...more

Get A Copy

Hardcover, 208 pages

Published October 6th 2010 by Harvard Business Review Press (first published August 17th 2010)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about Buy-In, please sign up.

Be the first to ask a question about Buy-In

Lists with This Book

A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell

The ones with the smart

49 books — 2 voters

What Color is Your Parachute? 2018 by Richard Nelson Bolles

Blueprint for Revolution by Srdja Popovic

Internal Change Agents

10 books — 1 voter

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 3.77 ·

Rating details

· 658 ratings · 67 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down

Nov 29, 2010 Ben rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

This did not need to be a whole book. The simplification of the types of obstacles new ideas encounter is helpful for quick reference, and some of the stories are good examples, but it seemed too full of fluff for its less-than-200-page length.

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 13, 2015 Ilya Mrz rated it it was ok

Shelves: 2015, ms

Take-Aways

Every good idea or new approach is vulnerable to undeserved, unexpected attacks.
Those using them often play somewhat predictable roles, such as “Pompus Meani,”
“Allis Welli” and “Bendi Windi.”
You must respond effectively in order to gain the widespread support required for
your idea to succeed.
There are “four ways to kill a good idea: confusion, delay, ridicule and fear
mongering.” The most powerful attacks may combine two or three of these
strategies.
You can counter all four strategies, o ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 17, 2016 Steve Whiting rated it liked it

The book is titled Buy-In with subtitle of "saving your good idea from getting shot down", and immediately this illustrates the main problem with the book - those are not the same thing at all.

The book presents a scenario (complete with cringe-inducing character stereotypes) and then shows various ways that a presentation of an idea could be attacked or derailed, and how to defend against them. Which is all well and good, and if you've ever listened to a skilled politican deflect and avoid ad h ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

May 01, 2011 Mazen Abualnassr rated it really liked it

It was my first Business book in English . . . and even though the book has written by 2 authors,it was very coherent . an exceptionally realistic and helpful .

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Dec 03, 2013 C rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. 24 Attacks and 24 Responses
Here is a list and discussion of the 24 attacks that have been used quite commonly. As you will see, they all draw on one or more strategies based on confusion, fear mongering, death-by-delay, or ridicule and character assassination. There are many more slight variations on these 24, but these two dozen seem to be the most basic and confounding. There is also a response to each of the attacks which will not silence valid criticism, but will help stop verbal bullets fro ...more

flag Like · see review

Dec 29, 2017 stinaz rated it it was amazing

Shelves: socio-cultural, psychology, marketing, communication

Kotter’s writing style is so easy to read. Peppered with narrative, informative and prescriptive.

With some large concepts to remember, and then piece by piece prescriptive steps. This is one I will return to regularly as building buy in is definitely one of the skills I need to develop further.

flag Like · see review

Feb 26, 2018 Marianne Mullen rated it liked it

Shelves: personal-development, business

I had a hard time getting through the first part of the book--usually a storyline helps me grasp the concept but this one was more than what I needed and I had to slog through it. Once the book began to get into the 24 ways people shoot down good ideas and how to address them, the book became interesting and practical to me.

flag Like · see review

Jun 28, 2018 Powerofthehero rated it really liked it

Informative ensemble of ways (24 in this book) how people are going to attack verbally against you when you are giving them a presentation of a theme of your own choice, and how you can turn those "attacks" against you to your own favour.
+Easy to read
+Other worthy small things too you can learn from this book
+Stories that keep you involved and not bored.
...more

flag Like · see review

Dec 31, 2018 Savio Sebastian rated it did not like it

Shelves: business, sales, 2018

I'm not a fan of story book format. Key idea - you can't just run a project with only barely crossing over the half-way mark. If it's an important project and you need to run it well, you need to get as many people on board. You do that by inviting everyone to conversations, listening to everyone and not just the critics - but not silencing your critics. Respectful humble engagement. ...more

flag Like · see review

Feb 25, 2019 Luke Smith rated it it was amazing

What do you do when your rock-solid idea seems to have feet of clay? You pitch it to a group of people only for it to be pulled apart? This book tells you what to do without being rude, evasive or duplicitous. Its hard to think of a single aspect of your life that wouldn't benefit from this ...more

flag Like · see review

Jun 28, 2017 lilian Zack rated it liked it

Well written but may not be that helpful

flag Like · see review

Jun 30, 2017 Charissa Ty rated it really liked it

It takes great skill to explain complex situations in such a layman, and organized way.

flag Like · see review

Nov 09, 2017 hemlet kiai rated it liked it

Shelves: mylibrary

great reading on how to protect good ideas from being shot down.

flag Like · see review

Mar 15, 2018 Justin rated it liked it

It didn't seem relevant to me in my line of work. It seemed to be more about defending your ideas from baseless attacks. I was hoping to to learn how to communicate better,etc. not respond to attacks ...more

flag Like · see review

May 17, 2018 CawfeeDrinker rated it really liked it

Easy to understand, practical info. Highly recommended read on this one.

flag Like · see review

Sep 25, 2018 MU rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Very useful

Very powerful advice about saving good ideas from being taken down, especially when a lot is at stake, like change efforts in organizations.

flag Like · see review

Feb 24, 2019 Willem rated it it was amazing

Really recognizable business book that can help you get your ideas into practice.

flag Like · see review

Nov 28, 2010 Gregory Peterson rated it really liked it

Shelves: consulting, communications, presentations, persuasion, leadership

Good ideas -- even terrific ideas -- often fail to get adopted when an advocate lacks the verbal communication skills to make persuasive presentations. As every public speaker knows, no two presentations are exactly alike -- but for the most part, the reasons a verbal communication fails to persuade are both predictable and preventable.

What's exciting about this book on effective advocacy is the sheer practicality of its prescribed approach t0 develop the power of persuasion. It's approach to ad Good ideas -- even terrific ideas -- often fail to get adopted when an advocate lacks the verbal communication skills to make persuasive presentations. As every public speaker knows, no two presentations are exactly alike -- but for the most part, the reasons a verbal communication fails to persuade are both predictable and preventable.

What's exciting about this book on effective advocacy is the sheer practicality of its prescribed approach t0 develop the power of persuasion. It's approach to advocacy is simple and memorable -- yet often overlooked by public speakers, despite their desire to deliver more persuasive, more effective presentations.

In essence, the book proposes a kind of "aikido" -- a direct (but non-confrontational) approach to persuasion that anticipates verbal communication attacks and deflects an opponent's challenges. Armed with this knowledge, your good idea can have a "fighting chance" -- but without the fighting.

The authors' insightful theory and practical public speaking tips are reason enough to invest your time and treasure in this book. It provides something more, however: an excellent example of targeting individual character types for more persuasive presentations. We call these personality types "public personas." These are the people who are crucial to your success -- whether your current "role" reflects commercial, civic or personal matters. Depending on the issues at hand, these personas may be members of your community, elected officials, corporate directors or any other group with influence over a certain aspect of your affairs. You need their cooperation and you value their goodwill. So think long and hard about who these people really are -- and see what happens when you approach communications strategy with "relational" goals, not just "transactional" aims. In a social media environment, this relationship-oriented communications approach can make a significant difference.)

"Buy-In" uses a story-based format to bring these personas to life, and to demonstrate the threats they pose to persuasive presentations. The book's narrative thread pulls the reader into a persuasion scenario, as each of these "idea-killers" takes center stage and threatens to short-circuit the hero's journey towards a successful performance. This storyline bringing the characters to life highlights a crucial point: An audience's challenges to a public presentation often are not mean-spirited or deeply oppositional. Rather, the personas are simply archetypal characters acting in predictably human ways -- sometimes exhibiting an aversion to risk, other times being critical in an attempt to demonstrate their intelligence, and still other times just not welcoming another change in their lives. The personas need your reassurance, recognition and respect -- even when they're behaving disrespectfully. By steeping ourselves in the "Buy-In" story narrative, we learn how to accommodate these personas' questions (whether well-meaning or destructive) and to respond in ways that move us towards our persuasion goals. We learn to welcome the audience challenges, and to use these attacks to generate emotional engagement that furthers our advocacy goals.

In describing their method for persuasive communication and effective advocacy, the authors list eight steps for achieving effective large-scale change. Although each of these elements is important, it is the fourth of these steps (Communicate For Buy-In) that they consider most important in overcoming obstacles to persuasion.

The single biggest mistake that people make when trying to communicate a new vision of change, and strategies for achieving that vision, is under-communicating by a great deal. What seems like a lot of communication to those driving a change effort can, in fact, be woefully little...

"Respect" is a key word for achieving genuine persuasion and buy-in -- and it goes without saying that this quality is sorely lacking in most public discourse today. One of the most attractive aspects of the authors' approach is that is goes beyond the transactional, "win-at-all-costs" approach that often leaves bad decisions and broken relationships in its wake. Rather, the book counsels the use of persuasive communication skills that preserve relationships. Why is this so important? Both for its own sake, and also because a proposed idea that wins acceptance requires the goodwill and support of former-opponents once you seek to actually implement it. ...more

flag Like · see review

Sep 03, 2016 Bob Selden rated it really liked it

“Buy-in” by John P. Kotter and Lorne A. Whitehead, is a much needed resource. Originally a financial term, getting people’s buy-in is today taken to mean “getting someone’s commitment” to a new idea or proposal. Getting others to commit to a new idea, whether it be family, friends or in business, is an essential skill-set that everyone should have. It’s surprising that this topic has not been covered before.

The authors set out to provide a method for building support for a good idea. As they say “Buy-in” by John P. Kotter and Lorne A. Whitehead, is a much needed resource. Originally a financial term, getting people’s buy-in is today taken to mean “getting someone’s commitment” to a new idea or proposal. Getting others to commit to a new idea, whether it be family, friends or in business, is an essential skill-set that everyone should have. It’s surprising that this topic has not been covered before.

The authors set out to provide a method for building support for a good idea. As they say, the method is counterintuitive in a number of ways. Firstly, it suggests getting the biggest naysayers into the room, not keeping them out – for me this is the biggest plus of their method. The others, “not using a power base or powerful personality”, “treating people with respect” and not responding to attacks with “logical lists of reasons, reasons, reasons”, are common sense.

Part One of the book describes a situation where you as the reader, are responding to attacks in a public meeting. It’s a nice case study, well written easy to follow and gives good examples of how the method is used. It’s also a good way of introducing us to the four categories the authors use to describe these attacks – confusion, death by delay, fear mongering, ridicule and character assassination. They also suggest that within these four categories, there are at least 24 attacks that people can make.

Part Two explains the method, why it works and how to respond to each of the 24 types of attack.

I found this a difficult book to review. It has some great ideas and concepts, yet at times I found it a little confusing and at least to me, in places contradictory.

The simple five-part method for responding to attacks on your idea, is sound and easy to follow. I would have found it easier to remember the five points if they had been explained in the same words whenever they were described. In fact they are described in a number of different ways. For example in one chapter in Part Two, they are first described in the negative and in the summary to that chapter, in the positive (this is the description that I feel should have been used throughout the book).

Of the five points in their method, the most striking (and most counterintuitive) is getting the naysayers in, not keeping them out. Reading the authors’ examples, this makes a lot of sense. Most of the examples given, show ways of dealing with the naysayers as they present their attack during meetings – very useful when faced with such attacks. An important point, that is merely mentioned in passing, is that it would be ideal to get to the naysayers first before presenting your idea to others – have them shoot some holes in it, so that you overcome their objections first, and in the process, gain them as allies rather than antagonists. I feel this is a point that could have been reinforced more, as it has a major impact on the way one plans for a meeting or situation that is likely to involve conflict.

I could not find any discussion of handling emotional attacks as opposed to attacks purely using logic. This may have been a useful addition to the method.

Where I found some contradictions in the book, are the examples given of how to use the method to handle each of the 24 types of attack. For example, in Attack No. 5 in response to the attack the authors suggest “Surely you are not suggesting that (highly respected) Barry is lying to us about his motives.” The authors go on to say “Served lightly and with no disrespect, an honestly sceptical person will think ‘good point,’ and back away.” If this were said to me I would take it as countermanding their “Win their hearts by, most of all showing respect.”

Similarly in response to Attack No. 9 the authors suggest “Look, you know it isn’t like that” and “Let’s be sensible” (inferring perhaps that the attacker is not).

Despite these criticisms, the book is a useful resource for all of us who have to face attackers who regularly put down our ideas. My suggestion as you read this book, is to write out the five parts of the method in your own words (page 102). Then, keep this handy as you read and decide how you would apply each of these in your own situation. Keep checking to see that your responses are in line with the method (at times they may be quite different to the examples given).
...more

flag Like · see review

Jan 20, 2011 Graeme Roberts rated it it was amazing

In the preface to Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down, John Kotter and Lorne Whitehead say:

It would be wonderful if the good ideas you champion, on or off the job, could simply stand on their own. But far too often, this is not the case. Whether it’s a big bill before Congress, an innovative corporate strategy, or tonight’s plan for dinner and the movies, sensible ideas can be ignored, shot down, or, more often, wounded so badly that they produce little gain.

We have all experien ...more

flag Like · see review

Feb 22, 2017 Alberto Lopez rated it did not like it

Throw the first half of this book to the garbage; that is, at less that you feel to be a moron. In any case, I stuck through the demeaning start.
The fact is that Fear, Delay, Confusion and Character Assassination are types of attacks that could had been addressed in a single magazine article; not a book.
This was a painful book to read.

flag Like · see review

May 26, 2015 Sam Huish rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Students, Committees, Graduates, Engineers, Business Professionals

Recommended to Sam by: Audible

Although this book repeats a lot of common themes, which could be summarised more succinctly, this is still a very useful book. It explains the key arguments typically used to put down a good idea, and why they succeed, and how to deal with these situations.

This is not a book of retorts, nor a way of influencing people to do what you want through manipulation. It explains simply how to stop your ideas falling at hurdles at all stages of a proposal.

Would particularly recommend for students who a ...more

flag Like · see review

Aug 22, 2011 David rated it liked it

I "read" this as an audiobook (CDs), and though I was driving while listening, I don't think I missed much because the book is rather simply laid out and just goes from one thing to another.

I will write more when I have time, but the reason I gave this 3stars was because it was interesting and I did like it, but it didn't really set me on fire, intellectually, emotionally, or spiritually. It was good, logical, and well presented, but rather like an uninspired lecture, or perhaps I should say, an ...more

flag Like · see review

Feb 22, 2013 Frank Calberg rated it it was amazing

Reading the book, I learned, for example, about types of expressions that people, who resist change, may make. Examples are expressions that
- expressions that create fear,
- expressions that create delay,
- expressions that create confusion,
- expressions that ridicule people.

In the book, I also found useful advice on on how to handle resistance to change. Examples:
- Focus on the fact that we are living in times of tremendous change, for example technological change.
- In a changing environment, i ...more

flag Like · see review

Mar 27, 2017 Robert Bogue rated it liked it · review of another edition

John Kotter’s work on organizational change has been substantial and in reading Leading Change and The Heart of Change I became a fan of his work. Compared to those other works, the book Buy-In is a radical departure in approach. The first half of the book is a story (like Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team). The second half of the book are 24 objections that can be raised against your idea – and what to do about it.

Click here to read the full review ...more

flag Like · see review

Mar 23, 2012 Cathy Allen rated it really liked it

Shelves: summary-available, organizational-life

This is a good one... a fable followed by easily digested tidbits of practical advice for handling the most commonly-used methods of resisting new ideas (delay, confusion, character attacks, etc.) Now that I've read it, it will make a good reference manual for down the line whenever I am preparing a presentation for others on something I would like to try. Change management is always a leadership issue, and John Kotter is one of the best guides we have. Check out www.WhatisCathyReading.com to pi ...more

flag Like · see review

Sep 02, 2013 Thomas Burky rated it liked it

This book uncovers a completely different side of presenting good idea than I have seen before. It does not instruct you in the ways to build a good, persuasive argument about how to pitch an idea, instead it addresses the attacks that you will inevitably face while making the pitch. In this concise and clever book, Kotter describes four main themes that people use to attack new ideas and then walks through the 24 most likely attacks and how to deflect them. Practically everyone has to pitch som ...more

flag Like · see review

Feb 01, 2011 Jeremy rated it it was ok

Shelves: business

I'm generally a fan of the One Minute Manager style of teaching through story telling, but I thought that the story taking up most of the first half of this book was fairly worthless. I would recommend anyone wanting to read this book to skip the narrative, read the section describing the basic forms of response to criticism, and then keep the book handy to refer to the 24 types of common arguments when preparing for a proposal to a group. ...more

flag Like · see review

May 17, 2012 Bart-Jan rated it liked it

An interesting book around a checklist to use when you need buy-in on your idea(s). The first half is written as a business fable and the second half explains the theory behind it all. It reminds me of a book I read in Dutch ('De 50 manieren om dwars te liggen', translated: 50 ways to block a plan) which was very insightful too. Always be respectful and be prepared is one of the main themes. From the author of 'Our iceberg is melting' and 'a sense of urgency' ...more

flag Like · see review

Jan 27, 2013 Oscia Wilson rated it really liked it

When you're pitching an idea to coworkers, bosses, clients--any time there is a group of people involved--the book posits that there are a limited number of objections that will come up. They are predictable, and if you're prepared to answer them correctly you have a much higher chance of adoption. Very useful info, but only if you're going to actually practice the stuff. It's not a "site back and read" kind of book. It's almost like a workbook. ...more

flag Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend It | Stats | Recent Status Updates

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Business

36 users

Nonfiction

17 users

Leadership

16 users

Language > Communication

7 users

Business > Management

6 users

Buisness

4 users

Self Help > Personal Development

4 users

Design

2 users

Self Help

2 users

Education

2 users

See top shelves…

About John P. Kotter

John P. Kotter

317 followers

John P. Kotter, world-renowned expert on leadership, is the author of many books, including Leading Change, Our Iceberg is Melting, The Heart of Change, and his latest book, That's Not How We Do It Here!. He is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus at the Harvard Business School, and a graduate of MIT and Harvard. He is co-founder of Kotter International, a change management an ...more