Gaining Buy-in Commitment in Organization

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Not whether, but Yes: Gaining
Buy-in Commitment in
Organization
Abstract: Companies realize without emotional
commitment, even the most brilliant strategies will fail.
To attain any change, people must not only accept
and agree with the strategy, they must buy into it. In
this paper, Browne & Mohan consultant share a six
stage empirical model of commitment buy-in.
Ashwini K S
Images courtesy of original copyright owners

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Introduction
Buying commitment is a challenge companies face at several fronts. Management persuading a
capable yet reluctant associate for a larger role or cajoling group of dissidents to adopt much
required change program or an independent board member pushing the case of younger and
competent daughter for succession against elder son in family business or an ethics committee
asking an errant senior employee recalcitrant to consider an honourable exit are some examples
wherein parties have to debate, negotiate and reach a considered outcomes. Buy in commitment
is a multi-stage process where in doubts, apprehensions, fear and resistance of a party has to be
rightly addressed and replaced by desirable, applicable and practical solutions. Here we are not
talking about the Meyer and Allen (1991) models of organizational commitment of the individual
and its major components (affective, continuous and normative). What we are addressing is the
process of emotional commitment an employee undergoes in listening, considering and adopting
to implement a new strategy. To attain this dramatic change of attitude to occur, people must not
only accept and agree with the strategy, they must buy into it. Without emotional commitment,
even the most brilliant strategies will fail. Once an employee is assessed as a the probable
candidate to dawn the new role, what is the best approach to gain acceptance, support and
commitment of an associate? Based on our experience we propose a six stage model for
employee commitment buying process. The process includes Goal Enumeration, Assessment,
Alignment, Reiteration, and Formalization.
Goal Enumeration
Once the employee is identified, his/her manager may provide bird eye view of the organization’s
goals, and immediate concerns, and different team members strengths that are required to reach
the goals. The objective of the session is to enumerate the immediate future, how the individual
can contribute to the cause and what would be the impact on organizational, team and individual
level. The employee is involved in ideation of the goal, the impact it would create at different
levels in the organization and the individual’s personal life and what resources may be required at
each level.
The dynamics of this stage are similar to “broaden & build theory” and “positivity resonance
theory” of Fredrickson. Here manager follows a positive approach to broaden the associate’s
awareness and also to help him to build useful resources like skills, knowledge and productive
relationships needed to achieve the desired goal. These resources in turn encourage associate’s
creative potential and enhance resilience. By following the positive resonance theory, a manager
can be successful in eliciting a positive response and mutual care in-between the manager and
the associate. The interpersonal exchange of positivity combined with bio-behavioural synchrony

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(imitation of body language) in-between the manager and the associate elicits a tinge of
commitment in the associate.
Before initiating the conversation, manager should simulate the discussion and rephrase the
communication. Manager’s only focus should be on strength, latent potential and how to fuel it.
Communication is selective; articulation is directed laden with vibrant imagery. Positive emotion
and sense of excitation changes the individual’s conscious and unconscious drives for better long-
term outcomes. The whole process of this stage should be handled by the manager where
assessment is carried out by manager himself and is not shared with the associate. He also should
selectively ignore the weaknesses of the associate in this stage. Manager should also deliberately
plant the ideas, goals and desires in the associates mind in this early stage in order to achieve the
desired target.
In contrast, associate, at first may be resistant to the new windows of responsibility and
opportunity. Associate may traverse initially through a ground of suspicion uncertain and unsure
about the conversation. Later the associate may be grasped by flight or fight tendency. Once the
ruffled suspicions are smoothened by positively directed information transfer from the superior,
he/she may feel pride of his/her recognition and open to reassesses the significance and impact
of the conversation around him/her. Hence, it is important for the manager to lace the
conversation with positivity, after which, associate starts to listen and agrees to participate in the
conversation. At this stage, manager may have to prepare to elicit a sense of excitement, direct
the associate towards the goal using a positive approach and grasp associate’s attention, thaw any
apprehension, reduce uncertainty and set towards acceptance and open to consideration.
Assessment
Next stage is role visualization and capability assessment. The manager and the associate dwell
deeper into the roles. The manager innocuously steers the discussions towards individual’s
assessment of his strengths, capabilities and gaps. The dynamics of this stage are parallel to
“Framing in Negotiation” and Framing theory” where the manager directs the flow based on a
certain frame that of allows for self-evaluation without the burden of guilt and incapability.
Communications are deliberate; “frame” based thus allowing ruminations in a collaborative,
unconstrained environment, devoid of third party influence, bias and fear. Evaluations are
deliberated towards role rather than a person. Also, manager influences subsequent judgment
where he organizes and tailors information to fit into the situation. He not only contains the
information the associate receives, he will constraint it as well. The main intention of this stage is to
alter the preconceived notion of the associate where manager and associate collaborate for an
agreement of roles, activities, responsibilities and also assess the available resources. Manager and
associate confer and jointly take decisions.
Associate, in this stage tends to develop adaptive behaviour which is predominantly based on the
“super-ordinate co-ordination theory of positivity” where, emotions are high level of cognitive

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programmes which activates the most useful mental and physical state needed at any situation
resulting in the adaptive behaviour of the individual which influences the individual’s decision
making ability. Hence, manager should ensure that he elicits the right kind of excitement and
emotion in the associate. A manager in this stage is required to create a curative collaborated
platform where he can direct the discussion and he should majorly emphasize on positive aspects
of the goal, role and the individual. He should provide the associate with the broad visualization of
objects and options. He should appreciate the inputs provided by the associate, should fill the
gaps, rate the options available and lead towards approval. Another main objective of this stage is
to deliberately shift internal assessment to the associate from the manager. Here, associate
understands his own weaknesses and the needs for improvement. In order to do so, associate
pushes himself to offer creative solutions and enhances his ability to provide free flow of
suggestions which elicits a sense of importance intrinsically within the associate.
At this juncture, associate follows an “upward spiral theory” of Fredrickson, where he, at first is
reluctant towards the idea or the goal. Then he carries an evaluation of self and requirements of
the role. Self evaluation is followed by recognition of strengths where the associate recognizes his
strengths and areas of expertise. This in turn is followed by preparedness where the associate
invests his time and energy to not only assess his weaknesses and areas of improvement but also
on grooming himself for the role. And finally, the associate accepts the role and inculcates the
“Can Do” attitude towards the role. Hence, by the end of this stage, associates, conform to
manager’s viewpoints, exhibits slight desire towards reaching the goal, and accepts the veracity
and moves on to the next stage.
Alignment
Subsequent stage after assessment is alignment, wherein the manager discusses how the
individual can contribute to the organizational goal, fitment of the job, role requirements and
capabilities. Manager emphasizes the latent capabilities of the employee, reposes confidence in
the ability to catch up and expands the role horizon of the employee. The discussion would be
open, and transparent to discuss the role expectations, how the role dimensions would impact the
short term and medium term, what may be the training and skills sets and sharing of
apprehension and experiences. Manager proposes a deliberate break of days to allow the
employee to do introspection in-order to help him/her in decision making and avoid confusion or
error, carry out minor changes towards the goals and receive internal and external validation of
the transformation. External validation and internal acceptance by the associate is the main
purpose of this stage. Associate not only self-assesses, he also collates the available information
and consolidates them to achieve the required objective. Here associate tends to exhibit
obedience behaviour where he/she follows the orders given by the manager.
The dynamics of this stage is chiefly based on the Self-Other Overlap concept where the associate
understands another person’s perspective and empathizes with them through the following steps,

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where, at first he evaluates himself and then he carries an evaluation of others as well, which is
then, followed by a process of triangulation where he collates the perspectives of not only his but
another person’s perspectives and the organizational expectations. Then he reconfirms his
decisions and reaches the final stage of affirmation where the associate move towards declaring
his/her commitment towards the role. This stage concludes when associate expresses obedient
behaviour, follows orders and carries self-assessment.
Reiteration
Once the associate declares his/her commitment towards the role, manager and the associate
meet up to recapture the goals, the activities that may be required at organizational, and team
level to drive the performance and the individual contributions. Manager digs deeper into the
change attempts made by the associate, and appreciates all achievements, however minor they
may be. Manager’s focus would be to emphasize the value, the associate can bring to the goals
and what would be the changes the role mandates. He also makes the employee reassess
oneself to own possibilities of attaining the desired goals and activities. He repaints employee’s
motivation to own and drive the desired goal. Once the associate is convinced, the duo needs to
revisit the drawing board to evaluate the fitment of schemata, assets, resources, roles and acts. In
this stage, manager refines and repaints organizational, team and individual goals and describes
the best suitable approach for the individual.
The main intention of this stage is to move towards formalization of the process model. This is a
stage of reconfiguration of schemata, assets, resources, roles, actions and activities of an individual
and the organization. In order to reach the final objective of reconfiguration, manager follows a
process which involves visualization, configuration, evaluation of fitment and finally
reconfiguration. Initially, manager revisits the goal with the associate and together they visualize.
Once the goal has been visualized, associate and the manager constitute their process and
together evaluate the best strategies and activities to be followed in order to fulfill the preferred
ambition. In this stage, again, manager deliberately plants ideas and desires in the associate’s
mind. And finally, together they reconfigure their strategies and activities right from individual
roles, organizational roles and schemata. Also, contextual assessment is carried out by the
manager in this stage. Associate in this stage possess the suitable skills, capabilities and roadmap
to achieve the desired goal. He also exhibits self-motivated and superfluous behavior to progress
towards the ambition. He then displays commitment towards the goal and organization at large.
Formalization
The final stage is commitment formalization stage where, goals at various levels are tied, action
plans are discussed and detailed, training and support are documented, platforms for information
sharing and support are detailed and review mechanisms are accepted. Formalization stage must
ensure while the outcomes are important, the pace and tactics are owned by the associate, there

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is plenty of room for failures and learn without stigma so that continuity commitment is not
affected. Formalization stage must also detail informal self-review mechanisms where the
individual can elicit the feedback, discuss, digest and push the agenda of improvement by
themselves.
Manager in this stage formalizes normative activities and behaviour where he highlights an
individual’s ownership and outcomes, while, an associate highlights individual roles, activities and
paths. Manager should also help to codify the approach, investment, activities and actions
whereas associate controls and reviews time-wise investments and action plans to attain the goal.
Associate in this stage is compelled and displays persistence in attaining the desired goal as well
as he strengthens his commitment towards the goal and organization at large. Table 1 presents
the dynamics of each side, expectations and desired outcomes from organizational point of view.
Table 1: Dynamics and desired outcomes at various stages
Conclusion
Buy-in commitment is an integrative process. Organizations should invest sufficient time and effort
to address biases and perceptions so that buy-in is complete. Managers need to plan and prepare
themselves to align their communication and influence strategy with underlying dynamics at each
stage. Dry runs, prior to planning sessions help in sharpening the engagement process. Finally, the
managers must realize the whole process has to be fair, inclusive and outcome driven

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Browne & Mohan insights are general in nature and are not
refereed papers. These are knowledge sharing documents based on
cumulative experience of consultants.
© Browne & Mohan 2016. All rights reserved Printed in India

Gaining Buy-in Commitment in Organization

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