Influencing ChangeGetting Stakeholder Buy-In When They Have the Power
Liz Fraley
I have an idea!
You’ve thought it throughThe conclusions are obvious
The benefits are clear
You’re full of enthusiasm
You race to share it with
others—your boss, your
peers, your subordinates
What will their reaction be?
Which response do you get?
How many of you get this? How many of you get this?
The typical reaction
The typical reaction:
• Resistance
• Disinterest
• Sabotage
It’s human nature
Internal instinct for the majority
of people is to protect the status
quo
Today we’re talking strategies
to gain support and cooperation
…and avoid sabotage
What’s the first thing that happens?
What’s in it for Me?
Example: Coming to the conference today
• This was the first question you had, even if it was phrased
differently
• How will attending advance my career?
• Improve my skills?
• Improve my understanding?
• Make me a stronger contributor for my company?
• Any number of motivating factors
Key #1: What’s in it for me?
This is the “First Primal Question”
“We don’t do nothing unless we’re going to get something”
- Dr. Phil
We all share the same primal drive
Doesn’t matter if it is negative or positive: There is
always some kind of reward
= ACTION!
RISK
________
REWARD
What we have so far…
1. We know and understand the answer to the first
primal question:
So…what comes next?
What’s in it for me?
Stakeholder buy-in
People are people
• Role power isn’t enough
• Your company doesn’t exist without others (employees,
customers, home life)
• Decision authority doesn’t buy you freedom from madness,
mayhem, and mutiny
• No one exists without interdependence on others of
some form at some point
No man is an island
Ideally you want to get
support from all sides
Advice from Catherine Lymon, NetApp (DITA NA 2012)
• I did not go to business and engineering leaders early
enough.
• They couldn’t see any short-term benefits for their team.
• Look at potential problems in your organization..
• Identify ahead of time where you have business leaders that
tend to be micro-managers and get to the root of the concern
• Are writers of questionable skill or subversive inclination
fomenting mistrust? Fix that first
“If Only We Had Known: Snares and Pitfalls of Managing in a DITA Environment”
Catherine Lyman & Martha Morgan, NetApp @ CMS DITA NA 2010
Everyone rowing the same way
Key #2: Identify Stakeholders
• People are People
• No one exists without some
interdependence on others of
some form at some point
• Role power isn’t enough
• Decision authority doesn’t buy
you freedom from madness,
mayhem, and mutiny
• Ideally you want support from
all sidesNo man is an island
What we have so far…
1. We know and understand the answer to the first
primal question:
2. We’ve identified stakeholders
What’s next?
What’s in it for me?
How does this benefit others?
How do I get others to agree?
How do I get my way?
Although both of these are
what it turns out to be for
the novices…
…or these are what many
people think this step really
is all about…
in truth, to be successful,
it’s not.
Back to our conference example…
• You figured out the benefits for you
• You had to go get someone to take action on
something that would benefit you
• Approval for time off
• Budget reimbursement
• Someone to cover for you…
• How do you do this?
What response would you have gotten?
What if you’d said:
“I want to attend this conference because they have a session that
will help me get my way and I want to learn how to get what I
want?”
What response would you have gotten?
What if you’d said:
“I really think you should approve my trip because I will get more
professional contacts and build a stronger network?”
What response would you have gotten?
What if you’d said:
“I’ll get more advanced skills so I can advance my career?”
Bosses: How would you have responded?
If an employee had said…
• I want to attend this conference because they have a session that will help me get my way and I want to learn how to get what I want.
• I really think you should approve my trip because I will get more professional connections and build a stronger network.
• I’ll get more advanced skills so I can advance my career
If this is what we have so far…
1. We know and understand the answer to the first
primal question:
2. We’ve identified stakeholders
…what comes next?
What’s in it for me?
Here’s a hint (by way of a short demonstration)
When I say…
Orange
You say what?
Orange
Did you think of the fruit?
Did you think of juice?
Pretty sure only I thought of
my favorite orange shoes…
What if I had said…
The most popular,
fresh-squeezed,
breakfast drink
We all would haverelated to orange juice
Speak their language
Make your idea relatable to your audience
It’s your responsibility
• To answer the first primal question for them
• And to put it in to words they can relate to
Let’s try an example
“Switching to DITA will allow us to maximize reuse”
We all understand this
• We understand DITA
• We understand reuse
• We understand what the statement implies
How about this one...
“We’re thinking of redesigning how we
create content to make it easier to rebrand”
Or this one...
“We’re considering redesigning how we
create content so the customers get the
most accurate product information on
demand”
For the executive...
“We’re proposing a change in how we
document in order to maximize efficiencies”
“and we’ve calculated the ROI and the cost
can be fully recovered in 3 years”
That will get you some attention!
It’s all in how you say it
• Nowhere did we say “DITA” or “reuse”
• Talk in terms that are critical to what’s in it for
them
• Changing the way you say what you intend to do
makes it easier and more relatable to the receiver
Key #3: Speak their language
• Make your idea relatable
to your audience
• It’s your responsibility:
• Answer the first primal
question for them
• Put it in words they can
relate to
It’s all in how you say it
We’re thinking of redesigning how we create content to make it easier
to rebrand ~ for marketing
We're considering redesigning how we create content so the customers
get the most accurate product information on demand
~ for support
We’re proposing a change in how we document in order to maximize
efficiencies… and we’ve calculated the ROI and the cost can be fully
recovered in 3 years ~ for the executive
Changing the way you say what you intend to do makes it easier and
more relatable to the receiver.
If this is what we have so far…
1. We know and understand the answer to the first
primal question:
2. We’ve identified stakeholders
3. We’ve put it in language that’s relatable to them
What’s next?
What’s in it for me?
What’s in it for them?
What’s in it for them?
• This is a step that is often missed
• We talk about features and benefits
• We show our reasoning
• We show our enthusiasm
• All of this is What’s In It For Us (not them)
• You haven’t told them why should they spend time/energy
supporting you in this (much less figuring it out for
themselves)?
What’s your angle?
Two final stories
• Team lead went to every
touchpoint
• People are waiting in line to
jump in with just as much
enthusiasm
• Teams from other divisions
want to follow suit
• Collaborative, cooperative!
• Boss dictated
• Team sabotaged when he wasn’t
around
• They’ll get there, but all the pain
and anguish that could have been
avoided
• Not to mention the delayed ROI
Team TwoTeam One
Key #4 - What’s in it for them?
This step is often missed.We talk about features and benefits
We talk about reasoning
We show our enthusiasm
All of this is What’s In It For Us (not them)
You haven’t told them why they should spend
time/energy supporting you in this (much less why
they should spend time figuring it out for themselves)
Change your perspective
All 4 keys will open the door
• Enthusiastic support from
others for an initiative you
are interested in
• Motivated help in executing
a plan
• Attentive listeners when
you are presenting an idea
What’s in it for you?
• Increased adoption
• Higher degree of success rolling out new initiatives
• Strategies to facilitate and encourage new skill
acquisition
• Enthusiastic transition to new content authoring
processes
• Effortless rolling out to distributed teams
Single-Sourcing Solutions• Over a decade of experience in dynamic product information creation,
publication, and delivery
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• Advisory Line
• Blogs
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Need help getting off the island?
Contact us at:
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email [email protected]
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