Getting Buy-In For HR Ideas - The Secret

To succeed in HR, you’ve got be able to sell your ideas to the key decision makers your organization. HR leaders unable to do this will stall their careers at the starting gate. It’s that important. To stand a chance, you must have a good idea…but to ensure your success there is one ingredient that is crucial. Failure to do this one simple thing lowers your chances by 80% that your idea will get supported.

It doesn’t matter how great your idea is. It doesn’t matter how much P&L impact the idea has. It doesn’t matter how aligned it is to the corporate mission. You will have an uphill battle it you don’t follow this one step. And that step is to…

Ensure that there are no shocking revelations or surprises for these decision makers when the time comes for them to say “yes”.

And there’s only one way for you to ensure this.

And you should inscribe this in your heart….here it is: you must pre-wire these decision-makers!

Pre-wiring means taking your decision-makers through your ideas before you gather them together for your dog and pony show. Often resistance to your ideas occurs not because they aren’t good. But because your audience was surprised.

In business, as much as key decision makers preach the need for change to be relevant in the marketplace, their actions indicate otherwise. They don’t like surprises — especially ones that force them to change their plans.

And also, some decision makers need time for new ideas to settle in their minds before they are prepared to accept them. And often a 30 – 45 minute presentation is not enough time for this “settling process” to take place. And to protect themselves, they’ll just either politely request additional information, say that this isn’t the right time, or flat out reject your idea.

So, before you do your formal pitch to get buy-in, here’s what you do. Send out a summary of your recommendations for feedback and comment from key decision makers first. Even better, if you can arrange a brief face-to-face with a few of the key influencers in the group beforehand, your chances for success elevate dramatically. Doing this has 3 benefits:

• It will keep you from getting blindsided by major objections when you finally present your ideas to the entire group.

• It will also help you build a consensus in favor of your ideas among those who have to approve or implement them.

• And, it will also give you a chance to adjust your ideas to incorporate some of their input or suggestions which can help fit your idea to the political realities of your organization.
  

Pre-wiring is critical. However, it takes time. But taking the time to do this beforehand, will greatly improve the chances that your presentation is a succeed and your HR ideas is sold.