It’s at this interval where many stumble – striving for consensus where, really, buy-in is the goal.
For any Marketing or Communications professional, the art of selling a dream or pitching an idea is second nature. However, that art is so often forgotten when trying to get things like new technology, new processes, new approaches, or even new ways of looking at data across the line.
We typically default to aiming for consensus, which by our very nature as people (and roles within organisations) is the wrong metric. Differing perspectives foster innovation, inspiration and fresh thinking – which is great for business, but not great for decision making. By aiming for consensus, we fail to create action. Instead, we create unnecessary stress, and push timelines to the point where we start to see decisions as rare shooting stars – beautiful, yet unattainable.
What we really need to strive for is buy-in. As a concept, buy-in is nothing new – but it’s something that we blur with consensus. It’s not about 100% agreement, it’s about getting enough people to believe in your argument.
Not to sound cliché, but it’s a little like story-telling. Not everyone will read to the end and it may not be their favourite story, but they can certainly see the path, recognize the markers, and believe the characters. The key here is to reach a majority buy-in to keep decisions moving forward.
When you fail to make decisions, the price paid is to the bottom line. Focus on quality, focus on getting the systems you need to free up time for more important things, and focus on putting your best case forward.
To combat the threat of the pandemic, social distancing and lockdown measures were implemented all over the world. As an unintended consequence, netizens in many countries are starting to observe clearer skies and see nature return to once crowded urban areas. Fill up the form below to download the whitepaper and read more.
In the second of our Communicating through Change webinar series, we chat to Bec Brown from The Comms Department about working from home during this time. We also chat to Isentia’s ANZ Head of Insights, Ngaire Crawford about the traditional and social media conversations around the largest working from home experiment.
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are being felt far and wide. During these times of crises, choosing the right brand messaging and behaviour plus executing it at the right time can instil greater meaning to your brand and strengthen customer relationships.
Unfortunate events occur throughout the life of an organisation and in our ever-changing environment, no two crises are the same. This makes effective crisis management a more dynamic and demanding process than many organisations expect.
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