UPDATED MARCH 2023
Once you’ve created a strategic plan for your business, the next step is to roll out that plan throughout your organization. One of the most important aspects of executing your strategic plan successfully is getting buy-in from your team.
If you're looking for a strategic planning facilitator to generate alignment and buy-in, SME Strategy can help. Contact us today and check out our facilitation services:
Getting buy-in from your team is easier when the process of creating your plan was at least somewhat inclusive. This means that as a leader, you didn’t just impose your strategic plan on your team. You created your strategic plan with input from other members of your team.
If you didn't involve your team in the creation of your strategic plan, then this is a great place to start. Have a strategic planning facilitation offsite day with your team. This will allow you to get their perspectives and contributions to the plan.
Increase your buy-in conducting early stakeholder engagement and anybody else that may be affected by or benefiting from what you are proposing. Your offsite meeting can include surveys or stakeholder interviews to get everyone engaged.
Now that you have your strategic plan, here are 5 steps you can follow to get buy-in from your team members and roll it out across your organization:
Share the vision of what success looks like. Make it clear and vivid so everybody sees something for themselves in that future.
What you are after is alignment between you, your team and the place where you're going. If they don't want to go there, then they shouldn't be part of your organization. Instead of being neutral to the decision, they are going to resist. Creating a clear vision is vital so that everybody knows how they can contribute to it.
What we always say is: “Don't push the plan on people; pull them into it”. Ask them questions like: "How do you see where you can contribute? How do you want to move this forward? What can you do to help us accomplish our goals?"
Soliciting feedback after the fact will help your team buy-in. Say: "What do you see in this plan? Do you have any questions or concerns? Are there any gaps?"
I can guarantee you number one, your people are going to wonder how this plan is going to impact their lives. What does it mean for them? To get buy-in, be sure to communicate and explain to people what it means for them and what the impact is going to be.
Rolling out your plan from the highest levels of the organization requires understanding. Varying levels of leadership brings different contributions and actions to move it forward. Like we say with sports, whether playing offence or defence, everybody plays a particular role, with one common vision as the goal.
So, create a common vision. Cascade the plan to the rest of your team, and allow them to contribute in whatever way makes sense.
Always be sharing the vision, and always be sharing the strategic priorities. Allow people to contribute and make a difference in the strategy. It's one thing to create a vision, and it's another thing to keep that vision sustainable and alive. I don't know if you have ever been to an inspirational speaker before. After listening you're all hyped up for a couple of days, and then everything goes back to normal. The same thing happens with the strategic plan. It's exciting for the first couple of days, and then the business goes back to normal.
Therefore, what you want to do is have weekly, monthly, or quarterly meetings, with each one focused towards achieving your strategic goals(ones that will keep the strategy and the vision top of mind, while allowing people many opportunities to buy-in and engage with the plan). This will ultimately help you with the execution, which is what you want at the end of the day.
We can help you align your team around a clear vision, mission, values, goals and action plans,
so you can lead your organization more effectively and get better results.
Cascade the plan, share the plan, and allow people to buy-in. Make it continuous, and create a vision that's clear enough for everybody to buy into.
I hope that helps you get more buy-in for your strategic plan. I hope it helps you follow the strategic planning process from beginning to end. If you'd like more guidance or best practices on strategic planning facilitation, be sure to subscribe to our channel.