Keep Them on Your Side : Leading and Managing for Momentum

It goes like this: An employee gets initial support for a great idea. Budgets are made. Resources are allocated. Committees and task forces are assigned. But soon the momentum for the project begins to dissipate. People are disengaged and unenthusiastic. Resources are cut or dwindle by attrition. The product/project is deferred, put on the back burner, or cancelled altogether. The employee rushes around trying to recapture that critical mass of mindshare--to regain momentum--but can't do it. He or she looks like a corporate Don Quixote, charging at windmills as the "great idea" becomes another organizational casualty--taking with it the future support and respect of colleagues and supervisors. Many employees spend time getting people on their side--only to drop the ball by failing to "keep them on their side." The key to long-term success in any organization is maintaining momentum for ideas and initiatives. While many books focus on initiating or managing change in the short term, Keep Them on Your Side is the first book to address maintaining organizational momentum for projects and agendas to ensure that initial goals will actually be achieved over the long haul.