Organizational Change: 4 Ways to Get Buy-in

It’s in our nature as humans to resist change. Historically, change has often meant hardship. The dropping temperature that signalled winter meant things were about to get extremely difficult for you and your tribe.

So what’s changed?

The answer, of course, is that we’ve adapted. We don’t anticipate winter with as much fear and apprehension as we used to (although many of us still drag our feet at the idea of having to defrost windshields for the next three months). We’ve learned how to manage the change.

This idea — the idea of being able to manage change in our lives — has made life a lot easier for us in many respects

But it begs the question: how much would our ancestors have benefitted from knowing ahead of time what impacts the snows of winter would have on their families? Or, asked a different way: how much would your employees have benefitted from knowing ahead of time how change within your organization would affect them?

As we consider how to unpack this idea, it becomes clear that preparing for change is as important as managing the change itself.

With this in mind, here are four ways to get your employees to buy-in to a change before the change has even occurred:

1. Don’t minimize the magnitude of the change

As leaders of organizations, it’s easy to lose sight of the daily experience of your employees. Causes and effects that may seem trivial at the highest levels may have significant repercussions on how an employee does their job. As leaders, it’s not your job to ensure that these causes and effects don’t exist, but rather that you communicate to your employees that you’re aware of them. This simple awareness puts you at eye-level with your staff. It shows them that you haven’t forgotten about the rigors of their jobs. It says we’re in this together.

2. Be realistic about both sides of the impact

I have a theory: if you get to a point in a conversation when the person you’re communicating with says “What’s the catch?”, you’ve already lost them. The exception, of course, is if the quid pro quo of your offer is so favourable for them that they can’t refuse. But when you’re expecting someone to buy-in to a proposition — one that challenges them as much as it benefits them — then it’s important to be up-front and realistic about each of the challenges and benefits they can expect to face. Challenges aren’t a bad thing. In fact, they’re incredibly constructive, and they often lead to stronger teams. But when someone is faced with a challenge they didn’t anticipate because it wasn’t transparently communicated to them, it works in the reverse. This is why honesty reigns supreme, and transparency cannot be overvalued — especially when we’re talking about change.

3. Test pilot, when possible

I mentioned work processes in point number one. It’s never easy to change the way we do things, especially when we’ve been doing them a certain way for months or years. If you anticipate a change in your organization that will affect the way your employees do their jobs in one or more meaningful ways, consider incubating the change in a pilot group. Not only will this give you a representative sample of how the change will be received, but it gives you early insights into what challenges your employees might run into. And since this is a pilot, you have time to identify solutions, or work-arounds, for these challenges. A slightly more subtle benefit of pilot testing is that you create early favorability in the pilot group. Since they were involved in the early stages of implementing the change, they will be more invested in the change when it takes effect, and more likely to be early adopters of the change.

4. Allow your leaders to lead

This is all about ensuring your teams at the various levels of leadership are well-informed about the change before it takes effect. This means keeping in mind the first three points as you prepare your leaders for the time when they’ll inevitably be faced with questions and pressed for solutions by their staff. Allowing your leaders to lead means giving them the tools and knowledge they need to most effectively manage their teams. It means fostering confidence in them, and providing them with the opportunity to build that same confidence in their teams.

By being thoughtful about how you can best position a new change, or set of changes, with your employees, and about why it’s important to take this best position, you give your organization a key advantage. That is, as I outline in my book — Shine: Communicating Your Way to a Brighter Career — you eliminate roadblocks to achieving your “Desired State Outcomes for Change”. It’s very simple: following due process in preparing your teams for change helps you better assess their response to the change and sets you on the path towards attaining your desired outcomes across the organization.

Change can be a beautiful thing. It’s the reason why we have insulated walls in our homes and automatic braking systems in our cars. It can be powerful enough to save lives, or it can simply make our lives a little easier. But affecting positive change, whether in our personal lives or in our organizations, requires tact, and a strategic approach. It requires an understanding of your proposition from multiple angles. It requires some empathy for your employees and belief in the structure of your teams.

It took us decades to get to a point where winter was a mere inconvenience and not a threat to our safety. It may take some time for change in your organization to yield the results you want, but following these four steps for preparing your teams for what lies ahead will go a long way toward ensuring they’re on-board throughout the process.