MODERN LEADERSHIP
need to ‘go slow to go fast’ may
be counterintuitive, as buy-in can
take time and patience. Leaders
who get this right demonstrate a
genuine respect for the impact of
their ideas on key stakeholders,
listening to all feedback with an
open mind.
in particular, whether managers,
staff and other key stakeholders
are willing to get on board and
support the idea. Leaders and
senior leadership teams that fail
to spend time fostering that kind
of meaningful buy-in jeopardise
their ability to generate positive
performance.
This also helps to explain a
commonly cited statistic from
leading change management
expert and Harvard professor
Dr John Kotter – namely, that
70% of change initiatives fail. A
contributor to this kind of failure
rate is because big initiatives,
hatched at the executive
boardroom table, are then launched
without the buy-in of key people
across the organisation. This
leads to apathy or, worse, outright
resistance that can make it hard if
not impossible for any initiative to
gain traction.
In 2005 Qantas learned this the
hard way when its then leadership
team announced it was introducing
a new parts management system
called Jetsmart. Things did not go
smoothly for the senior leaders,
who were heavily criticised for
failing to engage with engineers,
operational staff and unions. The
chief financial officer of Qantas at
the time, Peter Gregg, is on record
as having said, “We wouldn’t ask
the engineers what their views
on our software systems were.
We’ll put in place what we think
is appropriate for us.” As a result
of taking this stance, Jetsmart
(nicknamed ‘Dumbjet’ by Qantas
engineers at the time) became
mired in endless disputes and
problems, all of which took place
in the public spotlight. Three
years and $40 million later, Qantas
announced that it would retire
Jetmart and start over.
The Jetsmart case and the
Economist Intelligence Unit report
serve as a reminder to leaders of
their role in bringing others on the
journey – something they must
balance with their desire to drive
outcomes. For some leaders, the
For this reason, organisations need
to be carful not to treat the need
for buy-in as an afterthought. Any
leadership team getting together
to work on their next big strategy
or idea should also be asking:
whose buy-in do we need for this
to succeed? Why? And how do
we get them involved? Asking
these questions early creates
an opportunity to invite key
stakeholders to the table sooner
rather than later.
The payoff is clear. By focusing
on the need to create buy-in to
key ideas and initiatives across all
levels of an organisation, leaders
have an opportunity to give their
organisation a clear performance
edge.
Simon Dowling is a collaborative
leadership specialist and author of Work
with Me: How to get people to buy into
your ideas (Wiley) www.simondowling.
com.au.
September 2016
ModernBusiness
37