Getting buy-in is one of the toughest parts of driving change in any organization.Too often, leaders confuse compliance or endorsement with real commitment. But true buy-in has two parts:
- Evaluation: People believe your initiative is a good and legitimate thing for the organization to do.
- Participation: People are willing actively advocate for the initiative to others and contribute to making it succeed
If you only have one of these and not the other, you don’t have buy-in. If a stakeholder is positive on both dimensions they are a champion. If a stakeholder is negative on both dimensions they are a saboteur. And somewhere in between are bystanders, supporters and conformers.
It is important to understand the nuance of where your stakeholders really stand. That way you can choose the right people to champion your initiative.