# Developing Ideas People Won't Like By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2024-10-08 If one is engaged in strategy development, there is a good chance that one will spend a great deal of time developing ideas people won’t like. The fact that people won’t like them does not mean these weren’t good ideas (whatever that means). Rather, it means that the ideas were unpopular. The popularity of an idea has very little to do with its merits. It has a great deal to do with how consistent the idea is with how people think. An idea that is like what is generally accepted is typically well received. People “get it.” An idea that is unlike what is generally accepted is typically rejected. People don’t get it. It is a flaw in human cognition that people will generally select to sustain an undesirable situation with which they are familiar over something new but unfamiliar. This can be filed under “The Devil One Knows.” Strategy is about redefining the situation. There will be a multitude of things people don’t like about it. A central question is to what degree people need to like it. If the organization is a democracy, people must like it to “vote” for it. If the organization is authoritarian, it doesn’t matter whether people like the idea. Most organizations operate between these two extremes. Executives could implement an unpopular strategy but are unlikely to do so for various reasons. In a quote attributed to Victor Hugo, “nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” Some strategic ideas arrive too soon. If the “right” strategic idea is unpopular, simply wait a while and reintroduce it. It will be more popular the second time and potentially adopted the third. People are quirky; organizations are predictable. #### Related Items [[Ideas]] [[Strategy]] [[Popular]] [[Cognitive Biases]] [[Organization]] [[Decision-making]]