How often do you or people you work with use the term ‘buy-in’? It’s a term that I hear used a lot, particularly when people are trying to figure out how to get others to conform to something that they don’t want to. When I hear the term ‘buy-in’, I’m already pretty sure that whatever change is being planned, probably isn’t going to occur as easily as people think. And the reason is that if we’re thinking in terms of ‘buy-in’, we are actually still thinking in terms of opposition, of two sides, of ‘convincing’ someone that they want to do something that probably wasn’t their idea, and that they don’t naturally want to do. So, even if we convince someone to ‘buy-in’, because they’re still someone on an opposite side, we can’t be guaranteed that they won’t at some later point, decide to ‘buy-out’. I find that instead of spending time figuring out how to get people to ‘buy-in’ a better way to proceed is to develop ways for people to create solutions together. That way, while working together to solve problems and satisfy customers, they’ll be united instead of divided. Then there won’t be any need for ‘buy-in’ at all!
