What’s up Buttercup? Or should I say . . . suck it up, Buttercup!
Last week, I had an eye-opening conversation with a colleague who’s had incredible success with her solutions in the market. But here’s the twist: she’s struggling to get teams at her own organization to adopt these very same solutions.
Whaaaaa? She’s helped huge organizations overcome tough challenges and achieve real results through an innovation framework she developed, but she can’t get the folks inside to buy-in?
It happens more often than you’d think.
Imagine this: you've created a solution that's driving success for your clients, helping them streamline processes and boost performance. But then, dammit, when it comes to implementing this proven solution internally, you hit a wall of resistance. It's frustrating and perplexing.
During our conversation, we unpacked some reasons why this happens:
- Familiarity Breeds Contempt: Isn’t it funny how people tend to underestimate the value of internal expertise?
- Fear of Change: If it ain’t broken (beyond repair), don’t fix it. Change is daunting, even for those who ask for ‘out of the box’ ideas.
- Lack of Urgency: External clients often face pressing issues that drive immediate adoption. Internally, the absence of an urgent crisis means there’s no inertia to change. In other words, they aren’t problem-aware.
- Vested Interests: Sometimes, stakeholders have a personal stake in maintaining the status quo, whether it’s comfort or fear of sticking their necks out.
Here’s the bumper sticker: Getting internal buy-in is a real pain in the tuckus.
This conversation struck a chord with me because I’ve been in similar shoes. When I was at NBC, there was one part of my day that I absolutely loathed. Every day, I had to manually schedule our promos onto the day’s ‘log’ (basically, the timeline of everything you would see on the air, including programming, commercials, and promos). It was outrageously tedious and prone to errors.
So, smartypants me decided to develop a system that auto-scheduled the promos onto the log based on all sorts of factors that my brain had figured out over years but took months for some smart whippersnappers to extract from my brain and turn into an algorithm. It saved hours each day, created a unified logic to scheduling, and eliminated frequent errors.
In today’s terms, some might have labeled it AI. If I’d been an outside vendor, I probably could have sold it to NBC for millions. 🤑
But I had a hard time getting people in other parts of the enterprise to adopt it. Curses!!
Why? Because besides me and a few others, nobody thought there was a problem to solve. Also, it was ‘invented inside.’
Here’s what I didn’t know then. I probably could have solved the problem with good old-fashioned storytelling.
I was selling logic when I should have been selling emotion. Also, I was selling a solution to people who weren’t aware of the problem. 😭
Storytelling’s Changes Minds - Literally
Stories help people visualize outcomes, empathize with others’ experiences, and see the tangible benefits of change. By sharing stories, you can create a compelling narrative that makes the case for internal adoption clear and relatable. This approach not only informs but also inspires and motivates your team to embrace new solutions.
There’s all sorts of brain science behind this that I won’t bore you with. But it’s true. (Search Paul Zak’s work if you’re nerdy).
Here’s another truth though.
When you use stories, you’re able to turn the tables on the problem and help others see what you see—and, importantly, why it matters to THEM (creating vested interest).
Getting buy-in internally is a son-of-a biscuit. Here’s how to do it better:
- Create a vivid vision of the problem and its negative impacts on them: Use storytelling to make the problem tangible and relatable.
- Highlight the costs of inaction: Illustrate the long-term consequences of not adopting the solution.
- Show the journey to a solution: Paint a picture of what life could look like after adopting the solution.
- Address fears and resistance: Use stories to empathize with the audience’s concerns and show positive outcomes.
- Build internal champions through relatable narratives: Share stories of individuals within the organization who have embraced the solution and thrived.
Sooo, next time you’re facing a wall of indifference, whip up your storytelling skills my friend!
And if you want to bring better storytelling skills into your business, well then check out our storytelling workshop. Story is Destiny.
Thanks for reading to the (almost) end. And as always, hit reply and say hey, and I’ll respond. 🙂
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In Other News....
Catch my latest conversation with Mike Smith of Huddle Advisory on harnessing leadership, culture, and brand identity for peak performance.
Ginger, CEO at Motive3.com
