No opponents. Go find them. Seriously!
When I am showing people how to use my stakeholder mapping tool, one of the things I alert them to is the problem of having no critics or opponents. If you look at the four boxes, we’re talking about the dimensions of agreement and of relationship. The opponents or critics sit in the good relationship disagreeing quadrant.
And this is a problem because if you haven’t got anybody in that box, there’s two things that could be happening.
Either, you are deluding yourself and can’t recognise the opposition that is out there, waiting to unseat you, trip you up or throw roadblocks in the way. Which means you will not be taking the appropriate steps to mitigate those risk.
Or, you are not trying hard enough. What I mean by this, is that if you’re talented, you’re and ambitious, you will want to make great things happen. You’re changing the world. Which means that you’ve got to have opposition. If everybody’s agreeing, you’re not pushing yourself hard enough.
So, what I would encourage you to think about it hard. Don’t actively go out and encourage people to oppose you, but look really, really hard. Talk to people. Listen to people. Try and find out exactly what they think about your proposal and all the ways people lose out.
The thing is, with these people, who’ve got a good relationship with you, you can have an open and honest conversation, which is then really helpful when it comes to managing the risk that your enemies pose.
So, don’t encouraging opposition. Just go and find it. It will be there – or push yourself harder and stretch your targets.