Proposals live beyond formal meetings, thriving in hallway chats and pre-meeting conversations. These casual exchanges often determine a proposal's fate before it reaches the conference table. Most decisions are shaped through dozens of informal interactions you weren't part of.

The Informal Decision Network

Technical excellence doesn't guarantee approval. I've witnessed brilliant proposals fail because their creators ignored informal influence networks. Meanwhile, simpler ideas succeed when their champions invest time in coffee chats with key players, addressing concerns proactively.

Champions vs. Technical Merit

The real decision-makers aren't always who you expect. Sometimes it's the executive assistant with everyone's ear or the quiet engineer whose technical opinion carries special weight. Mapping these informal influencers is crucial before presenting any significant proposal.

The Hidden Influencers

Success comes from intentionally cultivating support in informal spaces. Grabbing coffee with stakeholders, sending thoughtful messages addressing concerns, or brief post-meeting chats create allies who advocate for you when you're not present. These moments build momentum before formal evaluation.

Planting Seeds of Support

People who contribute to shaping an idea become naturally invested in its success. By involving key stakeholders early in informal settings, you create a sense of collective ownership. This psychological buy-in transforms potential critics into advocates who feel personally connected to your proposal's outcome.

The Shared Ownership Effect

Many proposals disappear into what I call the "organizational black hole"—no rejection, no approval, just silence. This limbo is often more frustrating than outright rejection because it provides no closure or feedback path. Recognizing when your proposal has entered this state is the first step toward rescuing it.

The Organizational Black Hole

Stalled discussions typically stem from three sources: timing conflicts with undisclosed priorities, concerns people won't express directly, or simple organizational inertia. Identifying which factor is blocking your proposal determines your revival strategy.

The Three Causes of Stalled Proposals

When facing resistance, consider repositioning your proposal to align with current leadership priorities. I've seen identical proposals transform from ignored to urgent simply through strategic reframing. This approach doesn't change the substance but shifts how stakeholders perceive its relevance.

The Strategic Reframing Technique

Breaking your big idea into a low-risk test creates a path of least resistance. Stakeholders find it much harder to reject a small experiment than a major initiative. This foot-in-the-door technique allows you to demonstrate value while minimizing perceived risk.

The Pilot Approach Advantage

Bringing uninvolved but respected colleagues into the conversation can reignite momentum for stalled proposals. Their fresh perspective often creates a ripple effect, re-engaging stakeholders who had mentally moved on. This approach works particularly well when the new voice comes from a different functional area.

Fresh Voices Spark New Interest

When facing ambiguous resistance, specific questions cut through uncertainty: "What specifically would need to change for this to move forward?" These direct inquiries force concrete feedback rather than vague concerns, giving you actionable intelligence to address real obstacles.

The Power of Direct Questions

The most dangerous opponents aren't those who challenge you openly but those who nod along while privately undermining your initiative. Watch for subtle signals: conspicuous silence, sudden inclusion of unnecessary approvers, or concerns that keep shifting as you address them.

Recognizing Shadow Resistance

Transform potential blockers into advocates by inviting them to help shape your proposal. When someone contributes directly to an idea, psychological ownership makes them more likely to defend rather than attack it. This approach works even with the most stubborn resistors.

The Co-Creation Strategy

Identify who your hidden opponents respect, then focus on winning those people's support first. This creates powerful social proof that can shift the entire dynamic. I've seen previously resistant stakeholders quickly change position once respected colleagues endorsed an initiative.

Strategic Alliance Building

Sometimes the most effective approach is acknowledging unspoken concerns directly: "I sense you might have reservations we haven't discussed yet." This non-confrontational opening often leads to surprisingly candid conversations that clear the air and address the real issues blocking progress.

The Elephant Acknowledgment

Think of your proposal as a product needing strategic internal marketing. Develop compelling narratives tailored to different stakeholders—ROI for finance, technical elegance for engineering, efficiency gains for operations. Your messaging should speak to each audience's specific priorities and concerns.

Proposal as Product

Create simple, memorable phrases that others can easily repeat when discussing your proposal. These "sound bites" spread through the organization, building momentum even when you're not actively selling the idea. What's your proposal's equivalent of "Just do it" or "Think different"?

The Sound Bite Strategy

For more inspiration, visit my blog at Caterpillar Garden | SubstackThis post in free version can be found here:<a href="https://blog.caterpillar.garden/p/rbm-i-what-people-are-saying-about">https://blog.caterpillar.garden/p/rbm-i-what-people-are-saying-about</a>Paid extended version also available here:<a href="https://blog.caterpillar.garden/p/rbme-i-what-people-are-saying-about">https://blog.caterpillar.garden/p/rbme-i-what-people-are-saying-about</a>

Caterpillar Garden

My new blog post from RAPID-based Modernization series is about looking for hidden discussion that can kill your proposal. Link here: https://blog.caterpillar.garden/p/rbm-i-what-people-are-saying-about

As we move forward with our work, I've noticed something interesting happens with proposals - people talk.

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Strategy

[RBM] “I” - What people are saying about your proposal behind the scenes.

Vendors bring a unique perspective that's nearly impossible to replicate in-house. While your team focuses on specific business challenges, vendors are solving diverse problems across multiple industries. This cross-pollination of ideas often leads to innovative solutions you wouldn't discover internally.

Cross-Industry Perspective

Vendor expertise can transcend industry boundaries and provide fresh perspectives to seemingly unique challenges. Their experience solving similar problems across different sectors gives them insights that can be applied to your specific situation.

Boundary-Transcending Expertise

Vendors have often seen your problem dozens of times before. This experience creates a sixth sense for potential pitfalls that internal teams might miss. When you've implemented similar solutions across different companies, you develop pattern recognition that's invaluable for avoiding common mistakes.

Pattern Recognition

Strategic use of Requests for Information (RFIs) can be powerful intelligence-gathering tools, not just procurement steps. They're low-commitment, structured ways to compare approaches across multiple vendors, and they teach you which criteria actually matter in your decision-making. Some organizations maintain "perpetual RFIs" in fast-moving technology areas to stay current without immediate purchase intent.

Strategic RFIs

When crafting intelligence-gathering RFIs, focus on concrete examples of how vendors have addressed challenges similar to yours. Ask about their workflows, technology stack, and implementation timelines. This specificity forces vendors to move beyond marketing materials.

Concrete Examples

The Scenario-Based Approach yields high-quality vendor intelligence by presenting specific business situations rather than asking generic capability questions. For example, ask "How would you approach integrating legacy system X with cloud platform Y while maintaining compliance with regulation Z?" This reveals how vendors think through complex, real-world problems.

Scenario-Based Approach

Vendor Roundtables create a fascinating dynamic where multiple vendors build upon each other's ideas while highlighting their unique perspectives. The competitive environment often leads to more candid sharing than one-on-one engagements. This approach helps organizations identify innovative solutions while understanding the different philosophical approaches vendors take.

Vendor Roundtables

"Day in the Life" shadowing allows your team members to observe vendor experts in action. This approach reveals practical insights that never emerge during sales presentations. It's particularly valuable for understanding operational realities versus theoretical capabilities.

Day-in-the-Life Shadowing

When evaluating vendors, look beyond the initial price tag to understand the complete economic picture. Consider ongoing maintenance expenses, required internal resources, and frequency of upgrades.

Complete Economic Picture

Cultural fit between your organization and potential vendors is crucial for successful partnerships. Some vendors operate with highly collaborative models, others with more rigid structures. Some prioritize innovation, others stability. These differences can make or break a vendor relationship, regardless of technical merit.

Cultural Alignment

Vendors often have visibility into emerging trends long before they hit the mainstream. Because they work with early adopters across industries, they can provide previews of technology shifts that won't become common knowledge for another 18–24 months. This foresight can be invaluable for strategic planning and staying ahead of competitors.

Trend Foresight

The Comparative Analysis Request reveals how vendors position themselves against alternatives. Ask questions like "How does your implementation methodology differ from the industry-standard approach?" This uncovers innovative approaches you hadn't considered and helps you understand the fundamental differences in how vendors approach problems.

Comparative Analysis

Community Intelligence Mining through vendor user communities, forums, and knowledge bases provides unfiltered information about real-world implementation challenges. These resources contain honest discussions about product limitations and workarounds that sales teams rarely volunteer. Assign team members to regularly monitor these communities, even for products you don't currently use.

Community Intelligence

The Future-Proofing Assessment helps identify scalability limitations and hidden costs by probing how vendor solutions adapt to changing conditions. Ask questions like "How would your solution accommodate a 300% increase in transaction volume?" or "What architectural changes would be needed for expansion into new regulatory jurisdictions?"

Future-Proofing Assessment

Solution Philosophy Mapping identifies vendors' core assumptions and approaches. Some prioritize flexibility over ease-of-use, others emphasize security over performance. These foundational differences often explain why seemingly similar solutions perform differently in your specific context, and help predict which vendor will best align with your organizational values.

Solution Philosophy Mapping

Implementation Methodology Comparison often predicts success or failure more accurately than technical capabilities. Compare vendors' project governance structures, resource allocation models, and risk management approaches to find the best fit.

Implementation Methodology

Proof of Concept evaluations, even without commitment to purchase, can deliver valuable insights for a fraction of full implementation costs. Design these engagements to maximize learning rather than just testing functionality. Focus on understanding the vendor's approach and methodology as much as the solution itself.

Proof of Concept Learning

The most successful teams use vendor insights as a form of "intellectual insurance"—validating their thinking, expanding horizons, and avoiding reinventing wheels others have already perfected. The trick is extracting this intelligence without becoming dependent on it, maintaining your strategic direction while leveraging external expertise.

Intellectual Insurance

When using RFIs for intelligence gathering, be transparent about your intentions. Most vendors will participate even without guaranteed business outcomes if you're upfront about your objectives. This honesty often results in more candid, less sales-driven responses that provide greater value to your decision-making process.

Transparent Intentions

Vendor intelligence isn't about outsourcing your thinking—it's about expanding your perspective. Organizations that thrive in complex environments systematically harvest insights from multiple sources while maintaining their own strategic direction. This approach transforms decision-making, accelerates innovation, and prevents costly missteps.

Expanded Perspective

For more inspiration, visit my blog at Caterpillar Garden | SubstackThis post in free version can be found here:<a href="https://blog.caterpillar.garden/p/rbm-i-using-vendors-as-source-of">https://blog.caterpillar.garden/p/rbm-i-using-vendors-as-source-of</a>Paid extended version also available here:<a href="https://blog.caterpillar.garden/p/rbme-i-using-vendors-as-source-of">https://blog.caterpillar.garden/p/rbme-i-using-vendors-as-source-of</a>

My new blog post from RAPID-based Modernization series is about using Vendors as source of information and information gathering support. Link here: https://blog.caterpillar.garden/p/rbm-i-using-vendors-as-source-of

There is a belief among many, especially in large corporations, that everything should be handled internally.

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Business

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Human Resources

[RBM] "I" - Using Vendors as Source of Inspiration

Every department operates with distinct priorities and success metrics. Engineers value elegant solutions, security teams focus on vulnerabilities, while business stakeholders prioritize revenue. These differences aren't obstacles, but opportunities to create stronger solutions through collaboration.

Diverse Priorities

Most resistance to change isn't arbitrary—it's rooted in legitimate concerns. When we label others as "resistant," we miss understanding their perspective. Security teams aren't blocking progress; they're protecting against threats that could devastate the company.

Legitimate Resistance

Mapping what each team is measured on—both official metrics and unspoken expectations—is crucial for alignment. Understanding deeper concerns, including personal risks like mortgages and family responsibilities, helps create solutions that address everyone's needs.

Metric Mapping

Effective change doesn't require perfect alignment—just enough overlap to create mutual benefit. The best change agents excel at finding these intersection points, demonstrating how their approach helps everyone advance their objectives simultaneously.

Mutual Benefit

Building effective coalitions requires a "dream team" from various departments who'll benefit from your changes. Include influential early adopters, contributors who helped shape the solution, and communication networks to prevent great ideas from dying due to information gaps.

Coalition Building

Technical professionals often get uncomfortable with relationship-building, but it's essential. The most effective alliances include both frontline workers and leaders, representatives from all affected departments, and a balance of visionaries and pragmatists.

Relationship Essentials

One-on-one conversations before group meetings create space to understand individual concerns and address objections privately. This approach helps identify potential advocates and build a comprehensive stakeholder map for future reference.

Private Conversations

Organizations most welcoming to innovation typically share characteristics: recent failure experiences, leadership that creates psychological safety, successful previous implementations, key influencers expressing dissatisfaction with current approaches, and external pressure creating urgency.

Innovation Readiness

Timing dramatically impacts change initiatives. I've seen identical proposals fail and then succeed months later because organizational readiness had shifted. Pay attention to leadership changes, competitor moves, performance shortfalls, and new strategic initiatives.

Timing Impact

Implementation approaches often become battlegrounds even after securing goal alignment. Create decision matrices that evaluate each approach against shared criteria to move conversations from emotional debates to objective analysis.

Decision Matrices

Looking for hybrid solutions that incorporate elements from multiple teams can resolve seemingly incompatible ideas.

Hybrid Solutions

Shifting discussions from "which approach is better" to "what specific trade-offs are we making" changes everything. This subtle reframing focuses on features and configurations rather than competing team solutions.

Trade-off Framing

Different teams operate with different risk tolerances and incentive structures. Security teams face penalties for breaches but rarely receive recognition for enabling innovation, while development teams are measured on delivery speed but not long-term maintenance costs.

Incentive Structures

When your changes directly threaten someone's established goals, acknowledge the reality of the conflict rather than pretending it doesn't exist. Investigate how to redefine success for status quo defenders—can they become heroes of the transition rather than victims?

Conflict Reality

Consider phased approaches that allow for gradual adaptation rather than abrupt displacement. Identify potential new opportunities for those most affected, such as new roles in maintaining automated solutions they previously performed manually.

Gradual Adaptation

Not all conflicts can be resolved through better communication. Sometimes organizational change creates winners and losers. In these situations, transparency and empathy become even more crucial for acceptance.

Unavoidable Losses

Escalation to higher authorities rarely works long-term. Those who feel bypassed rather than included will find countless ways to undermine changes they don't support, and future initiatives will be dismissed faster as groups learn from others' mistakes.

Escalation Limits

When working with resistant teams, look for hidden undercurrents. A financial services company's compliance team that seemed resistant was actually under regulatory pressure to modernize—positioning our initiative as helping them meet modernization goals removed all barriers.

Hidden Undercurrents

Organizational change happens through people, not PowerPoints. The time invested in building genuine relationships with potential allies pays dividends throughout your entire change journey.

People-Centered Change

Empathy in organizational change isn't just nice to have—it's a strategic imperative. The most successful transformations balance bold vision with pragmatic coalition-building and genuine concern for all stakeholders.

Strategic Empathy

For more inspiration, visit my blog at Caterpillar Garden | SubstackThis post in free version can be found here: https://blog.caterpillar.garden/p/rbm-p-performers-status-quo-what?r=eo5tk Paid extended version also available here: https://blog.caterpillar.garden/p/rbme-p-performers-status-quo-what?r=eo5tk

My new blog post from RAPID-based Modernization series is about dealing with the status quo and performers group that usually should be our supporters, but it's not reality: https://blog.caterpillar.garden/p/rbm-p-performers-status-quo-what

As a Recommender, you're often connected to the Performer's group.

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Creativity

[RBM] "P"​ - Performers'​ status quo: what should be done?

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">The most successful modernization proposals balance innovation with practical implementation realities.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Show you've evaluated alternatives and selected an approach that delivers business value</li></ul>

Technical brilliance alone won't win boardroom approval

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Remain factual while emphasizing risks to drive action</li><li class="ql-align-justify">People rarely act on potential innovations until they become urgent problems.</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Focus on threats to competitive positioning or bottom-line impacts</li></ul>

Create urgency with your problem statement

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Limit your modernization proposal to under 6 pages</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Decision-makers are drowning in information</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Make their choice easy with a compelling, focused case</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Respect their limited time with clear, concise content</li></ul>

Keep your proposal concise and focused

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Instead of reporting "high database query times"</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Explain how this means "customer checkout times have increased by 30%, potentially costing us $10,000 in lost sales per day"</li></ul>

When quantifying problems, translate technical difficulties into business impacts

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">When business leaders see direct value for their teams</li><li class="ql-align-justify">They'll fight for your proposal in ways technical stakeholders rarely can</li></ul>

Your strongest modernization advocates almost always come from the business side, not IT

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Executives focus on competitive positioning</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Operations leaders on efficiency metrics</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Security teams prioritize compliance obligations</li></ul>

Different stakeholders connect with different aspects of the problem

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Secure early supporters by rebuilding your proposal with key stakeholder input</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Create the buy-in needed to move forward</li></ul>

The more innovative your solution, the more champions you'll need

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Balance optimism with realism</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Credibility comes from providing conservative estimates you're confident of exceeding</li></ul>

Effective ROI calculations transform your modernization proposal from a technical request into a compelling business investment

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Best case, Expected case, Worst case</li><li class="ql-align-justify">This approach shows thorough analysis and builds trust with financial decision-makers</li></ul>

Present multiple ROI scenarios to demonstrate confidence in positive returns

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Terms like "API latency" or "asynchronous processing" might be everyday language for you</li><li class="ql-align-justify">But sounds like a foreign language to executives</li></ul>

Avoid technical jargon that business stakeholders won't understand

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Even technically sound solutions can fail due to poor user adoption</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Stakeholder resistance can derail projects if people's aspects are neglected</li></ul>

Never overlook organizational change management requirements in your proposal

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">The CFO scans for financial returns</li><li class="ql-align-justify">The COO wants operational improvements</li><li class="ql-align-justify">The CEO might focus on strategic positioning or competitive advantage</li></ul>

Tailor benefit messages to different stakeholder perspectives

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">This pragmatic approach often accelerates approval</li><li class="ql-align-justify">It reduces perceived risk</li></ul>

When developing solution architecture, deliberately scale back initial approaches to focus on critical systems first

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Teams facing workflow disruptions</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Staff requiring significant retraining</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Addressing concerns proactively prevents being blind sided during approval</li></ul>

Identify potential resistance from groups that may perceive disadvantages from proposed changes

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">This positions your initiative as an investment rather than an expense</li><li class="ql-align-justify">It aligns with the organization's future direction</li></ul>

Connect short-term improvements to long-term strategic objectives in your proposal

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Your document should serve as a starting point for productive conversations</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Not an inflexible blueprint</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Willingness to incorporate feedback determines success</li></ul>

Remember that proposal development is ultimately collaborative

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">Subjects like: Change management, Training, Temporary productivity dips</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Realistic cost modeling builds credibility and prevents painful budget conversations later</li></ul>

Don't underestimate implementation costs by omitting

<ul><li class="ql-align-justify">This approach reduces perceived risk</li><li class="ql-align-justify">Creates natural checkpoints to demonstrate value before proceeding</li></ul>

For complex modernization initiatives, break down the solution into logical, manageable phases

For more inspiration, visit my blog at Caterpillar Garden | SubstackThis post in free version can be found here: https://blog.caterpillar.garden/p/rbm-r-how-to-prepare-the-right-modernizationPaid extended version also available here: https://blog.caterpillar.garden/p/rbme-r-how-to-prepare-the-right-modernization

My new blog post from RAPID-based Modernization series is about how to write a proper proposal document to make sure it sells our idea: https://blog.caterpillar.garden/p/rbm-r-how-to-prepare-the-right-modernization

How to stay MVP and cover all the requirements

Discover the world of business and economics.

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[RBM] "R"​ - How to prepare the right modernization proposal?

Finding the right promoters is critical to initiative success. These stakeholders champion your cause, advocate for resources, and navigate organizational politics. Seek individuals at the intersection of authority and pain—those who feel the problem acutely and have the organizational capital to drive change.

Promote

Implementation resistance regularly stems from IT teams viewing new initiatives as threats to job security. The fear manifests in subtle ways: delayed responses, excessive focus on edge cases, or raising theoretical concerns without offering solutions.

Implementation Resistance

To overcome implementation resistance, reframe the conversation from replacement to evolution. Show IT teams how the initiative creates opportunities for higher-value work, like deployment engineers transitioning from manual releases to designing sophisticated deployment architectures.

Taking Resistance

Information overload kills initiative momentum faster than almost anything else. Strategic transparency means delivering the right information to the right people at the right time, not broadcasting every detail to everyone involved.

Information Overload

Create tiered information packages: executive summaries for leadership, impact assessments for affected teams, and detailed technical documentation only for those who need it. Most stakeholders don't need to understand how the engine works—just where the car is going.

Packaging Information

External "Informs" like vendors and industry analysts provide critical perspectives that strengthen your initiative. When a respected analyst confirms that 70% of competitors have moved to cloud-based solutions, it creates urgency that internal voices alone cannot generate.

Vendors

Every organization has hidden gatekeepers—stakeholders who don't appear on project plans but can halt initiatives with a single email. In one financial services firm, a DevOps transformation stalled because security compliance officers weren't consulted early enough.

Gatekeepers

The next post from my Caterpillar Garden (https://blog.caterpillar.garden) blog from RAPID-based Modernization series, this time going deeper into details of who should be engaged into your proposal to increase success chance. 

How to find the right people to make sure that we are proposing something valuable.

[RBM] “I” - What people are saying about your proposal behind the scenes.

[RBM] "I" - Using Vendors as Source of Inspiration

[RBM] "P" - Performers' status quo: what should be done?

[RBM] "R" - How to prepare the right modernization proposal?

[RBM] Whom to engage on examples.

Marcin Karkocha

[RBM] “I” - What people are saying about your proposal behind the scenes.

[RBM] "I" - Using Vendors as Source of Inspiration

[RBM] "P"​ - Performers'​ status quo: what should be done?

[RBM] "R"​ - How to prepare the right modernization proposal?

[RBM] Whom to engage on examples.

Marcin Karkocha

[RBM] "P" - Performers' status quo: what should be done?

[RBM] "R" - How to prepare the right modernization proposal?