Your employees are your biggest asset and they always will be because without them nothing happens. They greet your customers, ship your products, complete projects, and do all the other work that gets done. Because they are so valuable, you need their buy-in when making organizational change happen.
Three Questions To Ask For Buy-in
If your employees aren’t on board, they will eventually leave. So how do you get their buy-in? I have three suggestions to get them involved.
1. Ask for the employees’ point of view.
Find out what your employees think about the current situation. Ask whether or not they are satisfied with status quo. Let them explain how they work within the current framework and get their feedback. As you learn their thoughts, you will gain valuable insight into how they think.
The more you get their feedback, the more they will realize that you value their thoughts and opinions. They will gain trust in your actions and words once they realize you value them. Getting their feedback will also help you be better prepared to introduce changes in a way that won’t rub them wrong. Getting their feedback will also help gain their buy-in when the decisions are made in the future.
2. Explain the background and details of your reasoning.
I have seen a number of leaders that made a change and then ordered their employees to move forward on the change without any explanation. Those leaders struggled to get the buy-in from their employees. I have also seen leaders that explained all the background on why a change was happening, what factors led to the change, how the change would effect them, and when the change would take effect.
When changes happen people always want to know the “Why?” behind the change. They want to know why what they have done in the past is no longer acceptable. By explaining the background and details, the leader will get more buy-in. As you explain your reasoning to them, they will begin to see the full picture and the change will mean more to them.
3. Identify the importance of their role in implementation.
The final suggestion is to help your employees understand that they have a vital role in the implementation. If they buy-in quickly and assist in the implementation, they will individually benefit and the group as a whole will benefit because the change will go quicker. Help your employees know that without their help, the implementation will be a failure.
Over that last few years, I have learned these lessons the hard way both as a leader and as a follower. There have been times where I was slow to make a change that was for my own good. There have also been times where I didn’t the input from those I lead. It was very difficult to make the change and I faced a high level of resistance.
Have you used these steps to get buy-in from others? What other techniques have you used to get buy-in? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!
nice information, many thanks to the author. i agree with your thought. thank you for your sharing. great post! it’s very useful for me
Welcome Elina,
I am very glad that this post was so useful to you! Thanks for letting me know!
1. Brandon W. Jones
Dear Brandon W. Jones:
I perceive your three points as Motherhood: of course the leader has to learn opinions of his flock; of course he must explain his reasoning for changes; of course he has to clarify the importance of implementation.
However, one change the employer would be wise to implement before any other changes; and this is the change in his own perception of his workforce as a tool for implementing the changes FOR HIM ONLY.
Major problems at the workplace, as insufficient diligence and care for equipment, sabotage, latecoming and absenteeism, union restrictions and strikes, lack of ideas and innovation from the people, lack of desire to teach and learn from better workers, come from one source: the employer is depriving employees of the profit their labour generates. He does it because he is convinced that only those who take risks are entitled to profit, and the worker does not take any risk. This employer’s view is a fallacy. The employee risks his life and health on the way to and from work, as well as at the workplace. He cannot diversify his investment of labour: all his eggs are in one basket. He learned a job or a profession that may become obsolete. He is getting older each year and in case of losing this job may not find a comparable one in interest and remuneration, if at all. However, I suggest that those employees who want to receive the profit their labour generates should also agree to take responsibility for corporate losses with a proportional part of their wages.
Those that do, turn from employees to workers-entrepreneurs. They receive the profit their labour generates. As opposed to employees, they are not exploited. They will try their best to raise the profit on their wages, thereby increasing the employer’s profit on his means of production.
The worker-entrepreneur is not an owner of the enterprise — shareholders are. But he takes ownership of the production process. He becomes a symbiotic co-operator with other workers-entrepreneurs and with the employer (of means of production, not people) with the view to maximize profits.
Once that is done, the corporate structure gets simplified because the police function of management is eliminated. One foreman can easily handle some hundred people, not struggle handling ten. Unions loose their grip on the corporation. There are no strikes.
Now the corporation becomes more efficient, more flexible. Ideas flow and useful ones are readily implemented. Mood is top-notch. The workplace becomes a great place to come and self-actualize. Teams are created spontaneously around any problem that one worker cannot solve.
On a country scale, greater workforce earnings create demand. Demand creates jobs. Personal debts get paid out. Government gets higher revenues and will eventually reduce tax rates under public pressure. There will be no recessions.
Welcome Motty,
Thank you for sharing your insight on this post. The steps you mentioned really help to get buy-in from your employees. I have heard of many stories where a corporate culture was completely changed from a top-down police type environment to a team/flat level environment and the change was significant. Just as you mentioned, people went from working in a cutthroat environment to a teamwork environment. Thanks for sharing.