So … you have an awesome idea … .you know it can move the needle … but you need other people to be on-board to make it happen.
This is the challenge of building “buy-in” … which is really about building relevance and prioritisation for your idea in their world.
This video is by Jono Bacon and covers his Buy-In Flow, a 5-step process for approaching and building buy-in.
Everyone needs to know how to do this!
The video is 13 minutes, and covers:
What buy-in is, and why building alignment is key in a business or organization.
The importance of testing your ideas as opposed to binary decision-making.
The 3 key mistakes people make when building buy-in.
The 5 step Buy-In Flow where we define clear metrics for success, build an elevator pitch, create clear value, build a path to success, and bake in personal wins.
Ultimately we are all selling something at least some of the time. Sometimes it’s ourselves (at a job interview, for example), sometimes it’s a product or service, and much of the time it’s an idea - a proposal for doing something differently, a new project or whatever.
Knowing how to win people over to your way of thinking is immensely useful, especially when you realise that the default answer is (nearly) always “no”. “No” is the simple answer, it nearly always involves no risk, no extra work and saves time.
Over 40 years ago (1981) Roger Fisher and William Ury wrote Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In which sets out the process of “non-adversarial bargaining” to achieve what you want. The book is not without its critics (of course) but is a good read if you can find a copy in your library.
