I was reading a Seth Godin post today and it reminded me of something a friend of mine says, “It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.”  If you work in a company that is lost in a fear-based mentality or bureaucracy, this is especially good advice.  If you spend your whole life trying to get buy-in for a concept, you’ll be far less productive than if you just take a chance and give people something real to buy into.

It’s not always easy.  It takes passion and conviction in your idea and the bravery to do it.  If you’re not passionate enough about the idea to take a chance on it, then why should someone who lacks your vision be interested?  If you don’t have a great relationship with the person you report directly to, this can be an additional hurdle (but not a roadblock).

In the spirit of learning from our mistakes, I’ll share a personal story.  Once many years ago, I wanted to make a minor change at the company I was working for.  I asked for permission from the person I reported to, she said no, so I did as I was told.  A week later, someone from corporate came in, made the change I had wanted, and sales spiked dramatically in that department by the time sales figures came out a few weeks later.  My boss called me to the carpet immediately after the change was made, thinking I was behind it, and when I said no, she seemed disappointed (we didn’t get along), but when the sales results came in, it was obvious it was the right thing to do, even though it was outside standard operating procedure.  If I’d been brave enough, I would have just made the change, which would likely have gone unnoticed initially, and looked like the hero.  Instead, I hesitated and someone else got the glory.  But fortunately, the company won in the end.

My lesson learned was to take a chance.  I wasn’t asking for a budget for anything.  I just wanted to make a minor change, but instead asked for permission and let someone else control my success.  Today, I would have taken ownership, made the change, and then explained why I did it, and then my manager and I would both have looked good to corporate.  More importantly, the sales increase would have come from our distribution level, and not from the top, and that’s always better.

–Sonya