Why getting buy-in for transformation needs to start earlier than you think

Major transformation projects depend on more than a compelling vision. Over the years and through the countless transformation projects we’ve helped deliver, we know that for people to commit to a new direction, they need to feel involved in shaping it. And fostering the resolve and commitment needed to make change happen ultimately comes down to enrolment.

If you’ve spent any time in leadership circles, you’ll realise that most people understand the need to sell their vision to their teams. But this is also where many go down the wrong track.

Leaders often try to sell their vision by treating employees like potential customers. They rely on familiar marketing techniques, from storytelling to communications campaigns. These have a place, but alone, they rarely win people’s hearts and minds. Real buy-in comes from making people part of the idea, rather than simply trying to make the idea attractive to them.

Why persuasion isn’t enough

When was the last time you were persuaded to do something? How committed did you feel? Did you really want to do it? And if something went wrong, where would you place the blame?

Leaders can’t manipulate people into embracing transformation. The tools of persuasion and inspiration can play an important role, but they won’t create the genuine commitment needed to get people moving in the first place. Nor does it matter how much budget you throw at the launch. An impressive launch won’t disguise the fact that some people may not feel like celebrating a new direction.

So if persuasion isn’t enough, what’s missing?

Rather than keeping plans under wraps until they are fully formed, leaders can enrol people early. Persuasion asks people to get behind a plan that has already been decided. Enrolment invites them to contribute their own thinking, so their perspectives help shape the solution.

This goes beyond running a focus group or testing ideas with a small selection of employees. Enrolment takes the idea beyond the echo chamber of the boardroom and welcomes input from all directions. It gives the vision life early, while allowing people to identify potential problems and pain points before they become harder to address.

Turning complaints into opportunities

Unless you have the perfect idea (and often even if you do), people will have concerns and complaints about your vision.

The first step is to commit to understanding their perspective. That means learning the art of listening. Sometimes a complaint will be based on a misunderstanding or false assumption. Listening without judgement helps people feel heard, while creating an opportunity to explore their thinking and consider a different perspective.

At other times, someone will identify a genuine problem, but may not be able to articulate exactly what it is. People often speak in general terms when raising concerns. The challenge for leaders is to help them get more specific, so that the underlying issue can be understood and addressed.

Creating commitment through enrolment

Enrolment works by helping people recognise a need for change and giving them a stake in shaping what happens next. As Dwight Eisenhower famously said, “The job of getting people really wanting to do something is the essence of leadership.”

Once that sense of commitment starts to develop, leaders can explore whether people are aligned around the need for change, what might be missing and what’s essential to move forward. This is when people become genuinely invested in making the transformation succeed.

We saw this play out in a law firm looking to change the way it conducted performance reviews. In the legal industry, these conversations were typically held once a year and directly linked to pay rises. The firm wanted to break that connection, encouraging more honest conversations and shifting the focus towards development and upskilling.

The response from employees was immediate. Although the leadership team had good intentions, people saw the proposed change as a way of reducing their pay over time. For them, the financial element was an essential part of the annual review process.

Because the firm had enrolled people from the beginning, its leaders were able to listen and adapt their plans. Rather than simply borrowing a performance review model from another industry, they drew on the insights of their own people to develop a solution that worked for them.

The result was a radical new model that compromised neither performance nor pay, and one that could inspire other law firms to rethink their own approach.

The lesson is that transformation is far more likely to succeed when people have a genuine stake in shaping it. Enrolment gives leaders the opportunity to build that commitment from the outset.

If you’re looking to enrol your people and inspire transformation, get in touch.