The 6 Secrets Leaders Use To Get Buy-In

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The research is clear – the main reason change fails is lack of buy-in.   So what can you do to overcome the odds and get real buy-in for important organizational changes?  I asked seasoned internal change leaders for their input and this is what they told me.

1. Options and Consequences  -  The biggest mistake leaders make is that they don’t explain the options and consequences to employees of their choices during change, says Mike Nestor, Head of Change at Bayer.   “So what I have started doing with project leaders is to explain,  ‘Here are your choices and here are the consequences to the organization, team and you for each choice’.  Knowing the impact of their choices increases buy-in.  Employees know what will happen depending on what they choose to do.”

2. Do the Right Thing  -  Erik Gillet, Global Head Operational Excellence & Quality, in the Accounting Divsion, Credit Suisse focuses on helping employees do the right thing, based on their job role.  He says “In my experience, we have driven change too much through carrots and sticks.  There is at least one more approach that perhaps can be labeled 'role identification.'    Let me illustrate with a personal example, as a father of three. When my baby daughter cries at night, I get of out of bed and take care of her. Not because of "carrots or sticks", but because it feels like the right thing to do for a father. I also find a similar motivation in people who work for an organization. They do something because it is "the right thing" to do. It is finding or triggering that feeling that creates a powerful attitude towards change.”

3. Analyze This! -  IT based change is a challenge for many reasons.  A top one is lack of right kind of stakeholder commitment, says Amy Solomon, IT Training Manager at Tenneco.  She explained that for every change implementation, she does a very specific buy-in analysis.  First, they examine the key stakeholders and determine if they are actively resisting, letting the change happen, helping it happen or making it happen.  Then, they use the same categories to assess where they need the stakeholder to be.  This provides the data for a buy-in plan, to ensure the right people are bought in at the right level to ensure success.

4. Wish Away Problems  -  India has the same buy-in problems as the US.  Abha  Mehta, Director   Business Operations at Nokia Mobile Payment Services says that the simplest way to generate buy-in is to create a shared vision of what the desired destination will look like.  “It begins by identifying pain points of today and showing how the future will take care of these pain points or better...remove them completely.  This is a sure shot way of gaining buy in as everyone wants to ‘wish away some of their current problems!’”

5. Listen Up - Doug Bush, Conflict Resolution & Performance Management expert at Con Edison in NYC says keeps it simple.  “Let employees know that they are valued members of the team by listening to and addressing their concerns, needs, and interests. Then, ask for their commitment to the hard work ahead, each step of the way.  This works much better than trying to sell  them on your ideas”

6. Employee Driven Change -  In their stores, Staples makes it “easy” like their easy buttons by focusing on employee ideas.  Ray Stevens, Director of Staples SellingXchange, explained their approach .  “We use an online method of identifying change, which creates a high level of buy-in.  We have a social media type forum where employees in stores can make suggestions on things to change and improve. The ideas with the most ‘likes’ get presented to the leadership.  Then, the leadership chooses if they want to implement ideas from this list.  This doesn’t guarantee that the ideas will be picked, but it does create a high level of buy-in, since the ideas were generated and ‘approved’ by employees.”

Using any or all of these 6 practical strategies will not only increase buy-in, but greatly increase your change success.

Contributor:   Lawrence Polsky

Lawrence helps executive teams, from mid-size and large multi-national firms, navigate change. He is Managing Partner of PeopleNRG, a Princeton, NJ based leadership consulting firm and has traveled the world training and advising leaders since 1999.

Lawrence is co-author of Perfect Phrases for Conflict Resolution (McGraw-Hill), Perfect Phrases for Communicating Change (McGraw-Hill), and Say YES! to Change: 27 Strategies for Motivating Yourself and Your Team.

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