Buy in

Dec 1, 2022 | Community, Customer Service, Marketing, Retention

“Debate, decide, get onboard” – Kevin Eastman, former assistant coach of the LA Clippers

Such a simple concept. As all effective strategies should be.

It’s easy to overcomplicate managing your team. And we’ll be honest, it’s not an easy job, especially when we’re trying to earn their buy-in on a new system policy or protocol.

Here’s our favorite strategy to get everyone “on board” as quickly as possible.

Kevin said it best, so let’s break it down by his simple strategy –

  1. Debate – (The hardest part) One of the biggest problems when introducing ANYTHING new to a company team is that new things often require training, personal adjustments, breaking habits, creating new ones, and dealing with the fallout of making mistakes as implementations are made. If we allow our team to have input on what to implement, how to implement it, and when to implement it, they’re more likely to take personal responsibility for ensuring things go smoothly.
  1. Decide – (The easiest part) Give THEM the credit for making the right decision on whatever new process etc. you are working to introduce. Giving them ownership is an extremely powerful tool that leads to easy implementation, self-correction, and maximum effort.
  1. Get Onboard – (The fun part) Once you have buy-in the best way to keep it going is to positively reinforce effort in the new system. Mistakes are opportunities to commend self-awareness, and successes are the perfect time to GIVE credit for a job well done. Let them own it and they’ll take pride in it.
  1. BONUS – Reevaluate – (The important part) Set up a deadline to reevaluate. This will allow your team to let go of the anxiety that the new change might not work. Encourage your team to bring pros and cons to the table and go through the cycle again. Debate, decide, and get on board.

Sure, not everything requires the entire team’s input. Do we really need to debate over 2-ply or 1-ply TP? (HINT: Splurge on the 2-ply) However, the more we include the team in decision making the more likely we’re going to get and MAINTAIN, buy-in.

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