Our jobs as sellers, change agents, coaches, and managers is to motivate change. Whether it involves a purchase, a new idea, a different set of behaviors, or a team project, all successful change requires buy-in. As outsiders we are, after all, requiring a shift in the underlying status quo – the system – that we are not a formal part of, and pose the probability of some sort of disruption to whatever has been working until now.

The problems (resistance, delays) we face when we begin a change implementation of any kind (and make no mistake: a purchase is a change management issue before it’s a solution choice issue) are a result of us attempting to push our agendas in to a system that has functioned well-enough without us and will resist anything that will bring unknown consequences. Hence, the need for buy-in to enable everyone who will touch the solution to not only agree to any change, but have an opportunity to manage the change before it is out-of-control. Our problem as outsiders is that we can’t fully comprehend the levels of disruption our solutions and ideas might create, nor can we know all of the people and policies that will be effected. We must facilitate our clients through all of their own change management issues and assist them in enlisting the right folks to gain consensus and address the disruption before it occurs and enable easy change.

Listen to the podcast on this topic; Making Change Work: Why is Buy-in Necessary and How to Achieve It, with me being interviewed by Nathan Ives, the publisher of StrategyDriven Magazine. And if you seek consulting on the subject, or other articles visit  www.sharondrewmorgen.com and www.buyingfacilitation.com