How to Get “Buy-In” for Your Ideas

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For 15 years, I was the producer of a sketch comedy TV show in Seattle. Each week we would have a “pitch meeting,” where we would sit around a table and read our new material, hoping to get it onto the show. Although the ultimate decision was mine, it was actually a pretty democratic process: if we laughed at something, it had a good chance; if we didn’t, it was out. Some pieces were clear winners or losers, but most fell in the middle. And, after 15 years of seeing this process, I can tell you that, of those pieces that fell in the middle (the majority, remember), the ones that were most likely to succeed were the ones that got “buy-in” from the rest of the team. Here’s what it looked like:

One of our writers, let’s say Nancy, would pitch a piece. The piece would be pretty good, but not a “shoe-in.” I’d be debating it in my mind, when out of the blue I’d hear Tracey say, “Nancy, I could see your character wearing that long blonde wig.” Then Pat would say, “I can do a pretty good Irish accent; it might be funny if the uncle was Irish.” Ralph, our cameraman, would then say, “I could shoot the middle part with a wide-angle lens to get a bit of distortion.” And all of a sudden the entire table would be engaged, each person adding their own thoughts on how to make Nancy’s sketch better. That’s what “buy-in” looks like. Each person is starting to take a little bit of ownership in the final product. Notice—it’s still Nancy’s sketch, but the other members of the team now feel that they have an investment in the process. This is a very good thing.

Unfortunately, some people—and some leaders—feel threatened by this. They feel that by giving up some of the ownership, they’re giving up control. They’d rather say, “No, I’m not wearing the blonde wig, the uncle is not Irish, and we’re not using the wide-angle lens. We’re doing the sketch exactly as I wrote it or we’re not doing it at all.” And what do you think the result would be? Either:

  1. We’d do the sketch, but half-heartedly because nobody really cares and besides, we now hate the writer, or
  2. We wouldn’t do the sketch.

Paul McCartney was once playing a new song to fellow Beatles George Harrison and Ringo Starr (John Lennon was late and hadn’t shown up yet). The song was Getting Better, which would eventually wind up on the Sgt. Pepper album. He had just sung the line, “I have to admit it’s getting better, a little better all the time,” when John Lennon walked in the door and, without missing a beat, added, as a counter melody, the line, “Can’t get no worse!” Paul could have said, “Shut up, John, that’s not how the song goes,” but he knew “buy-in” when he heard it. Soon Ringo was talking about what he might do on the drums and George was playing around with possible guitar parts. That’s what it looks like when a team works together.

Part of your job as a leader is to have a vision. But in order to make that vision a successful reality, you have to get “buy-in” from your team. And the way to do that is to put your ego aside and share the ownership; let each member of your team feel a personal investment in the outcome. Yes, it means giving up a bit of control. But the tradeoff is that you get ideas and perspectives that wouldn’t have occurred to you. And in order to feel okay about giving up a bit of control, you have to truly trust your team. But if you don’t trust your team, I respectfully suggest that getting “buy-in” isn’t your biggest problem.

My TV show, Almost Live!, was on the air 15 years and was number one in its time slot every single week for the final ten years. And I don’t have to point out how successful the Beatles were (please tell me I don’t have to point that out!). That’s what happens when you put your ego aside, trust the team, and get real “buy-in.”

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About the Author:

29-time Emmy Award winner and Hall of Fame keynote speaker Bill Stainton, CSP is an expert on Innovation, Creativity, and Breakthrough Thinking. He helps leaders and their teams come up with innovative solutions — on demand — to their most challenging problems.
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