Here’s another way to get people on board. I said in the last Rule that people will always buy into their own ideas, so you need to take that and run with it. If you break that down a bit further, you could say that people will always buy into ideas that they believe are their own. So logically you should be able to get someone on board with almost any idea, if you can get them to believe that it’s theirs.

When this works, everyone wins. You’re happy because your idea is the one being taken up. They’re happy because as far as they’re concerned their idea is the one being taken up. What’s not to like?

I should point out that this strategy is a subtle one, and it works best in the early stages of planning. It’s no good thinking that you can fall out big time with someone over a clash of ideas, and then suddenly convince them that your idea was really theirs. This is more about identifying people early on who could be dissenting voices, and getting them on side right from the start. Which is always the happiest way to go about things.

I know a chair of school governors who finds this approach invaluable. In a non-executive role, her job is all about trying to find consensus and agreement between a disparate group of people. It doesn’t help the school’s senior management if the board of governors is disunited. So she brings this strategy into play when there’s a strategic decision coming up which she knows one of the governors is likely to resist.

So how’s it done? It’s all about credit. Once you give someone credit for an idea, preferably in front of other people, it’s very hard for them to say, ‘That wasn’t my idea’. Especially if they’re not entirely sure that it wasn’t. You can’t be heavy-handed about this – you need them to believe it was their idea. So listen out for anything they say that you can pick up on and turn around. Suppose the school is considering expanding, and one governor who is maybe naturally averse to change says, ‘Taking on more pupils is going to make the place feel less like a school family and more like a university’. You can respond by saying, ‘I quite agree, and actually as our students get older they need to expand their horizons and prepare for university. That’s a really good point, thank you.’

Another way of doing this is to tell someone, ‘Funnily enough, it was that point you made last week that made me realise what a good idea this was … ’ Or, ‘That’s a really good idea, and what if we also … ’ You can’t put words in someone’s mouth, but you can take something they say and develop it into what you’d like them to believe.

Be careful, be subtle, and remember that it only works if they come out of it feeling good about themselves.