Last year, I worked with a company that wanted to accelerate the adoption of an internal AI tool. To make sure people used it, leadership introduced a simple rule; every employee had to ask three or four questions through the AI tool each month. Compliance with this rule was linked to bonus calculations.
From a leadership perspective, the initiative was a success. Adoption quickly reached 100 percent. But when I joined them to run a workshop I wasn’t convinced. What the company had created was compliance, not buy-in.
Adoption Is Not The Same As Buy-In
People were using the system because they were required to. The more interesting question was whether they would continue using it, if the bonus related mandate disappeared tomorrow. For many employees, the answer was probably no.
This is the compliance trap that many transformation leaders fall into. They assume that because people are participating, they are committed. But participation can be driven by incentives, pressure or fear of consequences.
In contrast, buy-in exists when people believe an initiative is valuable and willingly contribute to its success.
Look Beyond The Minimum
Instead of focusing on the people doing the minimum, I suggested that leaders look at a small number of employees that were asking 50-100 questions every month. These employees were interesting because they were going beyond the minimum requirement to get a bonus.
This shows that they had discovered value. Nobody was forcing them to ask additional questions. They were using the tool because it was helping them solve problems. They weren’t simply complying with the transformation, they were benefiting from it.
Using Champions To Inspire Change
These people were the hidden asset of the transformation effort. Working with them to learn about the value they were getting and sharing those stories within the company, would likely create more buy-in. And this is what I suggested the leaders do to move the transformation forward.
I strongly believe that the goal of transformation is not to push people to change their behaviour. The goal is to create enough momentum that the change begins to sustain itself.