Re: Personal Initiatives at the Workplace
you need buy-in from management. I'd suggest doing a proof-of-concept, or some kind of detailed plan (depending on your line of work), prior to beginning what would otherwise be seen as a black ops project on company time.
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If they are good managers, then what they want to see begin is a collaborative process on a certain area of interest.
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Excellent advice picoico…
A draft of the idea simply created to stimulate management interest is a good first step in creating buy-in. I typically do this through a Request-for-Comments but the thing to remember here is that the RFC shouldn’t be circulated to your colleagues and superiors through you directly but through your boss or somebody else with more authority than you. At the very least, this will give your boss a sense of being important in the context of your plans. Also, having your boss as your first point of contact will improve the chances of your ideas being taken seriously by others in your organization.
A proof-of-concept would be the next logical thing to do, and this doesn’t have to be anything fancy… just a basic illustration of your ideas in action.
There’s really no substitute for formalism – whether it is a formal Request-for-Comments, a Proof-of-Concept, a survey of your colleagues and their feedback etc.