3 Ways to Create Buy-In in Your Organization

The following is adapted from Move Fast. Break Shit. Burn Out.

As a Catalyst, you are the visionary within your organization, which means you can see the future out on the horizon and the path that will take you there. You’re so fired up to move in that direction that you can hardly stand it—but it takes a team to get there. Do they see the future you see? Can you lead them into it?

You may see the vision so clearly that it feels like you’re there already. But then you get jolted back to reality when people don’t understand your vision. It can be frustrating, but it’s your job to help them see the path and point them toward the goal. Only when they see it can they share in your excitement, at which point you can start to achieve buy-in and orchestrate each moving piece into coherent action.

If you’re wondering how to clearly communicate your vision and achieve that buy-in, we’ve found three tools to be highly effective. Let’s look at each one in more detail.

#1: Start and End with Empathy

As Catalysts, we are constantly sensing for new and better ways to do things. New products to create. New ways to optimize processes. Even new ways to design organizations. We naturally leverage our empathy and emotional intelligence skills when we are in this sensing stage. It’s how we know things need to change. It’s how we come to understand so deeply the needs of the customer or stakeholders. It’s often at the core of where our new vision came from. There’s a reason that it’s the first step in design thinking.

But as soon as we move into the implementation phase, we can move so fast to make that vision a reality, that we can forget to flex our empathy skills for the next important phases of actually creating the vision. We can leave our co-workers behind. And what’s worse, our speed and our certainty that we are on the right path, can rub people the wrong way. Moving us further away from the buy-in we need to be successful.

By leveraging empathy as we engage our stakeholders, we can not only increase the refinement and applicability of our vision, we can significantly reduce friction of implementation, thereby increasing the likelihood of successful delivery. Once you have the initial formations and broad strokes of your vision, go on a listening tour. Speak to as many relevant individuals as possible (and maybe some outliers) to take in as much information, opinion, and concern as you can before creating a unified vision that will serve the new purpose. Bring your empathy and active listening skills to these conversations. What’s behind the normal narrative? How do people really feel about it? Have they experienced something like this before and are they reticent to try and fail again? Is the change so big it makes them afraid for their job? Are they afraid they won’t have the skills to support you?

As you go through successive rounds of engaging stakeholders, maybe with a co-creation tour and finally a feedback tour, leverage your empathy! What are the hidden agendas in the room? What are people leaning into and where are they skeptical? Bring your curiosity too. There is probably some wisdom in the room that could make you more successful in the end. Let go of your ego and leverage your empathy to ensure that your vision, and your process of getting there, aren’t leaving people behind, making them afraid or pissing them off along the way. 

If you’ve listened deeply to the concerns of people around you, then brought the right people on board at the right time, the vision will be a reflection of the group. When you move into action, it will be with their concerns and impact in mind. You will minimize resistance and increase buy-in. Everyone will feel a sense of ownership of the vision. 

#2: Visualize It

The vision may be totally clear in your mind, along with all the steps about how to get from here to there. But there’s a high likelihood that it won’t be that clear for everyone else, no matter how excited they are about the idea. 

Creating an Action Map or other visual model that both outlines the ultimate goal and the concrete steps to get there helps everyone internalize the process and visualize their role in the journey. The Action Map can iterate, from broad brushstrokes for your first listening tour to a high fidelity, perhaps even professionally designed version closer to the end of the feedback tour. In fact, in early days, as you’re engaging people in the listening and co-creation tours, you can even invite them to modify the Action Map to help increase success. As they put their fingerprints on the project, they are developing a sense of ownership and sponsorship, increasing buy-in along the way. The further along in the process you are, the less you’re asking for active input, and the more you’re using it as a way to reduce resistance by helping people understand the process. 

Of course, if there are big blindspots or blockers, it’s always better to know that as early as possible, even if it only emerges in the feedback tour. And having a visual model can help identify those pitfalls while creating buy-in as you go through the process.

#3: Overcommunicate

When you first bring an idea to someone, they go through four stages before they can accept it. It’s not unlike the stages of grief, because change isn’t easy to accept:

1. Pre-contemplation (“No”)
2. Contemplation (“Maybe…”)
3. Preparation (“What’s the plan?”)
4. Action (“Let’s go!”)

The friction between your vision and the acceptance of your vision should be expected. New ideas tend to cause discomfort, so naturally it can take time for individuals to truly think them through and understand what that new reality may look like. Your team members aren’t necessarily ignoring you or dismissing your idea when they hear it for the first time. They’re simply working through the first phase of this journey. 

If you’re fired up and ready to go, this resistance can be demoralizing at times. But don’t skip ahead to the end! This important work must be done here because true buy-in is earned—not forced.

One key tool to help team members work through these phases is overcommunicating at every step. It’s said that marketing messages have to be heard seven times before we remember the details and the product name. The same is true with your vision. Remind them of the end goal and the steps needed to accomplish that goal, and listen to their feedback. You’ll earn their trust and respect, and they’ll know that their input is valuable.

One of the worst outcomes is everyone nodding and saying that they understand and have bought into the vision, only to walk out of the room unclear or resistant. During your final stages of over communication, to ensure that the team understands and are bought-in, ask them how they will individually be contributing to the vision. Discuss the tactical steps they will be doing differently tomorrow than they were before. Make it as specific and actionable as possible. Set them up for success.

Go Slow to Go Fast

These three ideas aren’t difficult to implement—just sometimes frustrating to us as Catalysts.. But your team, and the greater organization, needs to be up to speed and united in order to reach the vision you’ve created together. Remember, not everyone thinks like you think and sees what you see. They may not be able to see the vision far into the future, and need some help making that vision a reality.

Buy-in tools help them see not only the vision but the path toward it. When they see what you see, they can share in your excitement, get motivated, and know exactly what needs to be done to get the job completed. When you slow down and work on these steps early on, you are more likely to move fast later. 

Leveraging empathy every step of the way, creating Action Maps to visualize the path toward change, and constantly overcommunicating to gain alignment and understanding will make your change initiative run smoothly and make the process of change go faster—without running so quickly into the brick wall of resistance.

For more advice on creating buy-in, you can find Move Fast. Break Shit. Burn Out. on Amazon.

Shannon has been Executive Vice President at Ericsson, a Senior Innovation Architect at Cisco, and a Director of Innovation at Vodafone. A practitioner and global thought leader on intrapreneurship, she founded the Global Intrapreneur Salon and is passionate about transforming corporations into sustainable change engines. Tracey is an anthropologist and the research engine for Catalyst Constellations. She spent twelve years at Microsoft leading teams of changemakers and co-founded the Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference. Tracey thrives when she can use her intuition and relentless optimism to coach Catalysts and amplify their changemaking power.