There is a different way to present your proposal and you should consider it if you want to stop the hijacking.
We are educated to show off our analysis. Get it up front. Business plans begin with market assessments. Research reports begin with the methodology. Board proposals begin with current performance. This is the ‘deductive approach’ – deriving your conclusion from reasoned analysis. Its supposed to be impressive.
But it’s dangerous. The risks include your audience – or reader – drawing their own conclusions before they get to your proposal, jumping in before you get to the point, asking questions about irrelevancies.
So try the ‘inductive approach’. Start with the answer, the proposal, the point of it all. Then explain the argument – why this is the answer. Then present the evidence that supports the argument on which your proposal stands.
The advice is not to switch to the inductive approach for evermore. Instead, be more discerning.
Insead’s Erin Meyer explains that the national culture of your audience should determine whether to go ‘applications-first’ or ‘principles-first’. With typical British audiences she advocates getting right to the point. Stick to concrete examples, tools and next steps. With typical teams in France, she says spend relatively more time building up the theory and concept behind your arguments. You'll need less time for conceptual debate.
So, think about the audience. Do they like to get to the point? Or do they want to see your ‘workings’, how you developed your answer? Do you want to appear decisive? Will you be given time to develop your analysis if you lead with that? Is there a risk of presentation hijacking?
Make a choice about which way round to present the proposal. It may make a difference to whether it is bought.