At various times we’ve all wanted other people’s buy-in. We want to get stakeholders to buy into our agenda, staff to buy into our strategy, and our boss to buy into our ideas (at least according to Harvard Business Review).
The need to get buy-in is a widely accepted truth in organisations. In a complex environment full of different agendas competing for people’s limited attention, getting buy-in from the right people is seen as a necessity to get anything done.
But getting buy-in may no longer be enough.
The evolution Buy-In
The etymology of ‘buy-in’ is rooted in the stock market. Up until the 1960s (or thereabouts) its meaning was to ‘purchase a commission or stock’ and it has only relatively recently been co-opted to mean ‘the act of obtaining an interest in’. So when we say we want ‘buy-in’ from people we’re really saying we want them to show an interest in and support our work.
When so much work in organisations has become so complex and now requires the contribution of so many, getting people’s interest and support is a necessity. But in an attention economy full of distractions interest can be fleeting. One moment you might get their buy in, the next minute they’ve already cashed back out again.
Just like in the stock market, ‘buying in’ is now rarely a long term commitment. Day traders and automated algorithms may buy in and cash out of a stock multiple times a day. To purchase a stock no longer means you believe in the long term fundamentals and vision of a business, it just means you see a short term opportunity, and if that opportunity doesn’t come to fruition quickly then you move onto the next thing.
The power of Earn-In
If you want real commitment to something it’s no longer enough to get buy in, you need people to earn-in.
Earning in, or ‘sweat equity’ is another way for people to obtain stocks in a company. Common amongst start-ups who lack working capital, earning in means employees take shares in the business in lieu of a wage. If the start-up is a success then their success grows with it. More than just owning a share in the company, sweat equity means they have skin in the game. They are part of the company and the company is part of them.
To get real commitment we need more than people’s interest, we need their effort. In an attention economy interest is the pennies and effort is the pounds. Getting people to commit effort to something, creates commitment that is orders of magnitude higher than interest.
The Long-Term Benefits of Earn-in
When doing scenarios and strategy work with clients I encourage them to get broad participation from across the organisation. Not only does this mean more diverse perspectives and better outcomes, it means we also get more people earning into to the process, which in turn leads to greater ownership and commitment to the strategy that’s developed.
This is not always easy to do. It takes effort to convince people to turn up and participate. For many leaders, it can also be challenging to loosen control and let others shape the outcome of the strategy. But if you look back on your last strategy and have questions about how well it was implemented, or even, how well it was understood then it might just be that you didn’t have enough earn in.
If you step back a little, it’s also fairly self-evident that getting this short-term effort has long term benefits. It means the strategy will be more focused, work will be better aligned, and resources (including people’s time) will be more effectively deployed. Getting people to ‘earn in’ and commit a little effort up front has the opportunity to save significant wasted effort later on.
So next time you’re looking to get people’s buy-in, think about whether their fleeting interest is really enough (especially if it relates to future-shaping strategic endeavours). If not, consider how you might get people to earn-in rather than buy-in to what you’re working on.
Simon
