One of the most common conversations I have about planned change is around the topic of how leaders can best create the right environment for people to positively engage and support whatever the shift might be.
Often, the phrase ‘buy-in’ is used: “How do we get people’s buy-in to this?” or, “How do we get them on board?”. I’m not a big fan of phrases like these; when you consider it, ‘buy-in’ implies that you need to persuade or convince someone else to come along with your way of thinking.
It suggests that you’ve already done the hard work and created the plan and they need to come along on the journey. For most of us, that isn’t a particularly inspiring or motivating thought. It means that people are less inspired to get on board with your plan so you’ll have to work even harder. Then we’ll inevitably start talking about that old chestnut, ‘resistance to change’ where people can object and undermine what you’re trying to achieve.
From my own experience, if you go down the ‘buy-in’ route, it can also potentially have longer-term implications, where the change that’s happened is remembered and referred to negatively by those on the receiving end. That can mean that not all the benefits of the change are realised – you just don’t get the best outcomes.
But there’s a different approach to ‘getting people on-board’ and it involves helping people invest in change.
Mark Jaben
The first step in doing this, is to start earlier. When you’re just beginning to think about doing something differently in your organisation – even if it’s really early days in your planning and thinking – make sure you have ‘people’ and ‘ownership’ high on your list of things to consider.
Just start by being curious about what others might think. Here are three questions you could ask yourself to get started:
“How do we help people own this?”
“Who can we ask to get their insights into what would help this move forward positively?”
“What time do we need to factor in so we can have the right conversations?”
By getting curious and asking some straightforward questions, listening, and giving people the opportunity to share their ideas and thinking, you’ll save yourself time and angst further down the line when you’ll get that inevitable push-back.
One final thought on this… if you think you don’t have time to do this upfront work, I can guarantee you’ll have to invest more time later down the line, trying to ‘persuade’ people to come along with your way of thinking. And that won’t be much fun either.
If you’d like to explore how to build investment rather than buy-in to the change you’re planning in your organisation, get in touch.