Archive for the ‘buy-in’ tag
Getting buy-in
I thought I was a master at that. But today we could not get buy-in for an internal project that we wanted to drive. We thought it was a great idea and people will jump off their seats. But that did not happen. Here’s some introspection on what we could have done better:
- The team selling the idea should have spoken the same language. There were three of us trying to sell an idea to a team of about 25 people and we were not on the same page. Probably because we were overconfident about the merit of the idea.
- Better planned. We came with a slide deck but we started using the whiteboard. It is a great idea to use the whiteboard but not when half the people have joined on the phone.
- Positioned it right. We did not position the idea correctly. It came across as too much work even though in reality it is not.
- Identified people who could have influenced. Typically in large groups there are a few people who can influence the rest. We did not make an effort to get a buy-in from them and then present to a larger group. Eventually the people who could have been influencers were actually the most vocal against the idea.
Not given up though. I’ll figure out what to do hopefully..
