Beyond the business case: How to make your idea a reality.

Ever have a great idea? If you do and you want to translate that idea into reality, you’re inevitably going to have to convince someone else to support that idea. Maybe you work in a hospital and you need the support of a manager or someone more senior in your organization. Maybe you need someone to give you the resources to support your initiative. In either case, a good idea rarely ‘sells itself’. You typically have to present a business case or a convincing argument that gives the decision maker the information they need to make an informed choice... but even that is rarely enough. Every decision maker has their own range of factors to consider when reviewing your proposal, and understanding those factors will ultimately help you to build a better business case. It may even help you to address some of those considerations beforehand, making it easier for the decision maker to say ‘yes’. But you are not done yet. Even if your proposal is supported, you will still have to successfully implement your idea... and most decision makers will want to know how you intend to do that before they lend their support. So while there is obviously much to consider when building your argument, you can approach it systematically. The model that follows breaks down the overall process into three steps: building the business case; paving the way; and winning the decision (Figure 1). The goal is to use all three to identify and address everything that could affect the success of your idea... and you can use this for tackling any decision, big or small. The steps intentionally overlap with one another – you will be discovering new information all the time, so be prepared to go back and revise. Figure 1) Three key steps for moving your argument forward