Communicating for Buy-In Kurt Crake. 2 Why Should You Care About This? Leadership in the 21st...

Communicating for Communicating for Buy-InBuy-In

Kurt Crake

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Why Should You Care About This?

• “Leadership in the 21st century is about buy-in” – Mark Walton

• The key to your success as a Navy leader (or civilian executive) will be your ability to move others to action.

• Credibility doesn’t come with a job title anymore.

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Objective For This Session

• Provide you with “state of the art” knowledge and an experiential opportunity to develop a Strategic Story that will help you get “buy-in” from a target audience

• Get feedback from a group of your peers

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Preview

• What do we really mean by “buy-in”?• How do you get “buy-in”?• Elements of a “Presentation for Buy-In”• A Step by Step Approach• Some Examples• Some Helpful Hints• About Your Presentations . . . .

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How Do You Get What You Want?

• You have to know three things:• What you want

• Who can give it to you

• How to get it

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What Is “Buy-In”?

• For the purposes of this discussion, buy-in consists of both• A positive emotional state

• Approval• Support• Sense of Commitment

• Active Participation• Something the target audience will do in

support of your agenda

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How do you get Buy-In?• The key to buy-in from others is a story of a

positive future outcome…for them!

• Appeal to higher purpose or greater common good

• The tool to get your target audience to that state of commitment and action is a Strategic Story.

• In crafting your story, try to align with your target audience’s agenda, and make your points in the order they consider them. Back up each point with evidence.

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The Elements of a “Presentation for Buy-In”

• Buy-In Objective• Vision of a Positive Future

• Supporting Message #1

• Supporting Message #2

• Supporting Message #3

• Call to Action

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The Elements

• Buy-In Objective• What is it that you want…exactly?

• A clear-cut single objective

• Foundation for the rest of the presentation

• Who is your target audience?• What action do you want them to take, and in

what time frame do you need them to act?

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The Elements

• Vision of a Positive Future• To take the actions you want, what’s the story

of a positive future your audience would need to hear? How will the future you want give them the future they want?

• It’s not about anyone else but your target audience. Know their perspective and agendas.

• Don’t talk about yourself. Use the words “you”, “us”, or “we”, but never “I”.

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The Elements

• Buy-In Objective• Vision of a Positive Future

• Supporting Message #1

• Supporting Message #2

• Supporting Message #3

• Call to Action

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Your Supporting Messages

• Develop three supporting messages or concepts that fulfill your audience’s agenda

• What are their needs, wants and goals for the future? What are the elements of a positive future from their point of view?• Examples: ROI, cost reduction, improved efficiency,

better quality, etc.

• Back up each point with evidence or a rational argument.

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Why Three?

• Recurring pattern used by master communicators through time

• Backed up by modern psychological research

• Three is enough to be persuasive, not too much to remember

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The Elements

• Buy-In Objective• Vision of a Positive Future

• Supporting Message #1

• Supporting Message #2

• Supporting Message #3

• Call to Action

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The Elements

• Call to Action• You are much more likely to get what you want if

you actually ask for it! • Don’t stop short of the goal by implying, or letting the

audience infer what you want. • State it clearly and simply.• Make it easy to act.• Immediate or near term action is best.

• Ask for a commitment or first step toward the action you need.

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The Elements

• Buy-In Objective• Vision of a Positive Future

• Supporting Message #1

• Supporting Message #2

• Supporting Message #3

• Call to Action

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Step by Step• Preparation

• Define Your Buy-In Objective

• Step #1• Envision and Articulate a Positive Future for your

Target Audience

• Step #2• Develop Three Supporting Messages That Fulfill

Your Audience’s Agenda

• Step #3• Call Your Audience to Action

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Outline Form

• #1 Strategic Message• Evidence to support

• #2 Strategic Message• Evidence to support

• #3 Strategic Message• Evidence to support

Vision of Positive Future

Call to Action

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An Example

• Prevail Over Soviet Union

• Reduce the Size of Government

• Reduce Taxes

“Morning in America”

Vote For Reagan

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Another Example

• Leadership is about Buy-In

• Success depends on ability to motivate

• Credibility doesn’t come with job

“Successful Naval Leader”

Engage & Learn

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Helpful Hints• Use Stories

• We’ve all been trained to think in “story”• Having a good story automatically improves

your ability to tell it.• You feel better about it

• Your audience gets wrapped up in the story, and are less critical of your “story-telling”

Performance ConfidenceAudienceReceptiveness

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Other Helpful Hints

• Make your time count!• We live in the age of sound bites• Nobody has extra time or “attention time.”• You need to be able to sell your story quickly

• Anticipate questions• What is the upside/downside?• What do the “nay-sayers” say? Why?• What if we do nothing?

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Action Learning• Scenario: The key decision-maker(s) for the issue

identified in your point paper will be available for a short period on Monday.

• Develop a 2 minute presentation using the format presented here.

• Rehearse! Practice doing it in two minutes.• Each of you will give your presentation Monday

• You will receive direct feedback from five of your peers• You will provide feedback to five others• You will be able to observe 18 others, and learn from them

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Process for Presentations

• Class split into four groups of six• Presentations will “rotate” through each

group. • Two minute time limit.• Group members provide feedback to each

other• Written• During breakout after all presentations

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Peer Feedback Groups• Group A

ArataDunlapJordanReedSchaeferStancy

• Group BBaumannHaysKinnunenReimerSityarStein

• Group CBrittainHekmanMaloneRiceSmithStone

• Group DBurnhamHymasNovakRoseSpawtonUrbon

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Each Person will…

• Provide a short “scene setting” explaining• Who the target audience is• What the buy-in objective is

. . . before beginning the presentation.• You have 2 minutes from the point you

begin your presentation.• Next person begins immediately

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One More Example

• New ED’s are important to us

• Community values healthy lifestyle

• We “walk the talk”

“Better ED’s, Better Recruiters”

Yes to Organized PT

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If you are not the presenter…

• Keep track of who is in your group. For each of these people• Fill out one of the feedback forms• Plan to give verbal feedback (and the form) to this

person during the breakout session following the presentations

• It will be best to:• Write immediately after the presentation• Save the form for after the verbal feedback

• Feedback w/ CAPT Camelio at the end.

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Timeline for Next Week

• Presentations: 100 minutes• Breaks (2): 20 minutes• Breakout Sessions: 40 minutes• Feedback w/ CO: 20 minutes

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Questions?

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Peer Feedback Groups• Group A

ArataDunlapJordanReedSchaeferStancy

• Group BBaumannHaysKinnunenReimerSityarStein

• Group CBrittainHekmanMaloneRiceSmithStone

• Group DBurnhamHymasNovakRoseSpawtonUrbon

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Recommended Reading

You Are the Message – Roger Ailes

Talking to the Top – Anthony Ray

The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking – Dale Carnegie

You’ve Got to be Believed to be Heard – Bert Decker

Leading Out Loud – Terry Pearce

The Articulate Executive – Granville Toogood

Getting to Yes – William Ury

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion – Robert Cialdini

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Process for Today

• LCDR Crake will track order of presentations• Two minute time limit!• Each person comes to lectern

• Describe buy-in objective: Who? What? When?

• About 30 seconds….

• Go to middle of room – make us “buy in”• Group members write feedback immediately• Presentations continue

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Peer Feedback Groups• Group A

ArataDunlapJordanReedSchaeferStancy

• Group BBaumannHaysKinnunenReimerSityarStein

• Group CBrittainHekmanMaloneRiceSmithStone

• Group DBurnhamHymasNovakRoseSpawtonUrbon