Organisations confuse positive sentiment with successful sense-making, and treat "buy-in" as the objective

Written By Frances Lawrence

I think many organisations confuse positive sentiment with successful sense-making, and treat "buy-in" as the objective.

But wanting buy-in is often just a polite way of saying: "I want people to feel positive about this." The event gets designed to excite people, the messaging gets designed to reassure (rather than educate, inform or invite) people, and the measures of success become things like:

  • Energy in the room

  • Positive feedback forms

  • Enthusiasm and visible optimism

  • Statements of support

The problem is that none of those things tell you whether people understand the change. After a town hall or away day, leaders ask:

  • Did people like it?

  • Are they engaged?

  • Are they excited?

  • Have we got buy-in?

I almost never ask those questions. The question I care about is:

Do people understand more than they did before?

 
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