I’ve spent quite a bit of time over the last few months considering interdependence. Whether it’s as a species, community, company or family, we must interact with others to affect outcomes, drive change, or accomplish our goals.
In the work environment, interdependencies are everywhere. The stakeholder sponsoring our project. The team member delivering a task. The peer whose team will consume the end product.
Interdependence in companies is the intersection of accountability and collaboration. It is represented by the ability to make decisions, while engaging others to ensure needs and concerns are understood and accounted for. Ultimately achieving support and buy-in for those decisions.
In some organizations, buy-in and support may come easily. There may be high trust and transparency. However, even in companies where that is the case, prolonged stress and strain can make even the best relationships rocky. And we are certainly in a time that feels rocky.
When we assume a strong foundation for collaboration, the outcomes we want come to us by chance. But accidents are rarely repeatable.
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Rather than hope for a happy accident, we can plan ahead for collaboration on decisions to get the buy-in we need, integrating five steps into our overall approach.
1. Know the opportunity
The scientific method is the basis for all problem solving, no matter the particular approach we use. To get to any outcome we seek, the best place to start is knowing the problem or opportunity.
The first outcome to consider is what we’re attempting to accomplish. We can ask ourselves “What does success look like? Why does it matter?” Knowing our WHAT and our WHY establishes a goal that others can rally around.
Next, consider what we’re attempting to accomplish in collaborating with others. What is the value of engaging others in our decisions? Why is it important to obtain their buy-in?
When we know the value of others’ contributions, we engage them in a genuine way. If it’s cursory – just checking the box – they’ll know. Such interactions fuel resentment, not engagement.
2. Recommend a course of action
Knowing our WHAT and our WHY establishes a goal that others can rally around. The steps to get there are our HOW.
Starting with the end in mind makes it easier to map out the steps from where we are. That map is our plan, and would include the approach we want to take to achieve the desired outcome.
In the plan, consider opportunities for key decisions. Even the completion of the plan is an opportunity to get buy-in, as the plan is a course of action to achieve the overall outcome.
Within the plan, there are likely other opportunities to make recommendations that would benefit from buy-in. Examples include major investments that require stakeholder approval or technical decisions requiring business and IT agreement.
Each major decision is an opportunity to demonstrate healthy interdependence, versus silos and swirls.
3. Engage advocates and challengers
When building a plan, consider not only what needs to be done, but who would be doing or receiving the work necessary to get to the end goal. Each time there’s a new WHO, there’s an opportunity to engage.
At the point of decision-making, we have an opportunity to go beyond direct contributors and beneficiaries to the end result.
For example, who might be influencers to key stakeholders? Influencers are not just for social media. Many leaders are influenced by voices that are not in the room, but have a very real presence and impact on outcomes.
When we are selecting who to engage for buy-in and support, consider both advocates and challengers.
It may be tempting to only pursue advocates for feedback and input. Advocates are those with positive intent, who are often like-minded. If we just want validation to our approach, advocates are often the way to go.
However, if we want to find gaps and blind-spots, challengers are worth engaging to create the best approach. They are more “challenging” to get buy-in from, but ultimately help us get to the most successful outcome.
4. Avoid Pitfalls
We have a planned course of action and we’ve engaged others to get buy-in and support. What could go wrong?
In our collaboration with advocates and challengers, we will hear concerns they have with the approach. Worries they have about their teams, the technology, rollout strategy…the list can go on.
It’s time to update our plan to account for their feedback. What is standing in the way of them supporting the recommended course of action? What would make their support easier to offer?
In the case of challengers, they are key to those blind spots and gaps that those closest to the work often can’t see. Accounting for their input, even if they are not key collaborators, can help achieve the outcomes we desire.
While the approach may not be exactly as we intended at the start, accounting for the concerns of our customers, peers, and stakeholders is critical to buy-in and support.
5. Attract Benefits
Often, we consider what can go wrong. How often do we think about what could go right?
Yes, it’s important to understand, and account for, the issues and concerns that may hold someone back from supporting a decision. Yet it’s a missed opportunity if we don’t also ask them what benefits could come out of a course of action.
Our brains react differently to pursuing something positive than avoiding something negative. We tend to remember the bad and hold on to it. Require many more positive experiences to offset the bad ones.
So we need to actively seek out the good, as it is unlikely it will be top of mind like the bad experiences from prior efforts. By ensuring the positives are considered, we can bring them back to the collective conscience of the group to further offset concerns.
We can also build such positive risks into our plan, making it more likely we are on the lookout to realize benefits.
Bonus: The confirmation
We’ve figured out our plan, engaged others for support and buy-in where we need it, and adjusted course to account for both issues and opportunities. Sounds like we are all done.
Not quite. While we can move forward at this point, the scientific method includes a final step that is often forgotten. Confirming our solution met the needs.
There are multiple opportunities for confirmation when engaging others.
The first is to confirm buy-in to the adjusted approach, which accounts for any concerns and benefits. By asking collaborators to confirm their support, it creates shared responsibility in achieving outcomes.
Second, the plan is just a plan. Reality is often different. As anticipated issues or benefits occur, they may be different than what was anticipated. Circling back with collaborators to evaluate measures that may have been agreed to, thresholds, etc builds continued advocacy. It also reinforces the sense of shared responsibility.
Finally, once we’ve achieved our outcomes, we can look back on our interactions. Was decision-making timely with healthy engagement? What was positive in the process, and what could be better next time?
Next time
This is the third in a series on healthy interdependence. Next time, we’ll share suggestions on how to get out of the spin. Particularly if we’re stuck on getting that final confirmation of support.
What other challenges do you and your teams experience when balancing accountability and collaboration? Please share your suggestions if you have techniques that are working for your team, or hot buttons you’d like to see addressed in a future article.
