Ever come up with a good idea, told a few people about it but the excitement waned, nothing happened? This has been me on many occasions. The key to getting your plans actioned is articulating value, expressed in dollars.

The idea needs to be structured like an investment proposal with the costs and returns outlined in dollars. The people in positions that approve expenditure typically have no spare time. They will quickly approve a proposal that makes more money than it costs so long as it doesn’t use up much of their time. Do up a simple high level one page summary of the investment proposal, make it quick and easy to read. Talk about time and money and don’t get caught up in the details of how it works. Put in only just enough detail so that the approver knows that you know how to make it work.  If the one pager looks good, the approver will want to flick it on to others to show off the capability of their team. Bingo – approved.