Stack the deck to influence positive outcomes

I had a few free minutes to listen to a U.S. Supreme Court hearing the other day. Impressed, I thought to myself, “Wow – those attorneys were really well prepared to answer the justices’ questions. They stacked the deck.”

When you hear “stacked the deck,” you might think of Tony Soprano and his cronies playing poker at Bada Bing! or maybe the old classic The Sting starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford comes to mind. Allow me to provide a different angle.

I use this term when coaching teams to prepare for a difficult presentation – like asking for additional head count or funding for a project. You know the one – where you get “hijacked” two minutes in by a leader who has 2 million questions. These never end well. Your request dies on the vine. Solution: Stack the deck.

The step-by-step process:

1. Prepare your presentation for every scenario and question imaginable.

2. Bring the most discriminating colleague along to practice with you. Turn over every stone.

3. Confidently head to your presentation and walk out with results.

Let me illustrate: Four years ago, my team desperately needed to add headcount. The challenge was that we would need to get this request approved by a C-suite leader who was notoriously successful in squashing any funding for anything and could discredit you by proving your numbers didn’t add up. If you were off by $1.08, you might as well head home. Everyone “needs” extra staff – so how were we going to be the rare team who actually succeeded in getting it? We followed the process. We prepared for days. We pulled together the numbers, and then we double-triple checked them. We anticipated every question we would receive (e.g., How many employees, how many calls, YOY statistical comparisons, salary requirements, industry benchmarking, etc.) the day of the presentation.

Game day arrives

And then … after hours and hours of preparation, it was game day.

It took only 10 minutes to present our request. The notoriously inquisitive leader thanked us for our time and said she enjoyed working with our team because we were always prepared. No questions. The request was approved. Victory lap!

The truth is, in order to create change, you’ve got to stack the deck. For yourself, for your team, and ultimately for the customers who will benefit from the transformation. 

Please share a time when you stacked the deck to ensure your success and had a positive outcome.