Getting Buy-in : How to ensure your organizational initiatives succeed
A Gurteen Knowledge Workshop with Jon Thorne
A one-day learning event presented by Gurteen Knowledge and Bizmedia 22nd February 2005, Novotel London West, Hammersmith, London, UK
It is the end of a hard meeting and you ask everyone to stay for another 5 minutes so that you can conduct an After Action Review ... you can get a series of funny looks as they all leave the room, or they stay and you get to explain and run an After Action Review.
So instead of saying "Can we all stay back for 5 minutes to do an After Action Review?" you might say "Can we spend 5 minutes developing an action list to make the next meeting better?"
Which question do you think stands the better chance of getting your desired result?
To be successful we need to get buy-in for our ideas; obtain the resources we need to implement them and persuade people to adopt new ways of working. This can be difficult enough in any circumstance but it is especially so when we are in competition with others and when our idea or initiative is intangible, complex or difficult to understand.
It is not just about obtaining a large multi-thousand pound budget for a new project. It's about much smaller practical requests for both tangible and intangible resources and actions that we face on an every-day almost minute by minute basis. Examples might include:
obtaining a few hundred pounds for a software product or tool
requesting an extra head for your new project
borrowing a new graduate for a month to do some research work for you
obtaining an invite to an important meeting
getting permission to attend a course
requesting a good word to be put in for you with the head of another department
obtaining a 15 minute meeting with a busy VP
persuading a team or a whole organization to adopt some new way of working
The list is endless, and nine times out of ten you are competing with other people for money, time,mind-share or some other resource.
This one-day workshop with Jon Thorne teaches you some simple yet powerful techniques that hugely increase your chances of getting buy-in for such initiatives; obtaining the resources you need to implement them and making the change you wish to see happen in your organization.
Outline of the Day
In trying to sell an idea; explain a new concept or request resource we tend to fall into several bad habits.
we talk about what we want rather than make the outcomes clear
we focus on what we need rather than the benefit to the resource holder
we talk in jargon rather then simple everyday language
The workshop explains how to overcome these habits by focusing on outcomes. An outcome is simply a measurable statement of what will be in place after you have completed a task. The separation of the what from the how allows you to focus initially on what will be achieved without the need to explain how it is done.
The learning event will be very interactive and participatory. You will work in small teams turning various different ideas, concepts, and business problems into outcomes. You will be encouraged to bring along your own things that you wish to make happen and working together you will develop and fine tune outcome based plans to turn those objectives into reality.
You will leave the event with:
lots of practical examples of turning all sorts of requests into outcomes
specific outcome plans for things that you personally wish to make happen
the ability to have conversations that stay focussed on achieving outcomes
The bottom line: you will be better equipped to persuade people in your organization to buy into your ideas; obtain the resource you need; implement those ideas and influence people to change the way they work.
The Facilitator
Jon Thorne
Jon Thorne will facilitate the day. Jon has spent many years as a business analyst getting hundreds of managers with different agenda’s, cultures, and objectives to agree what they should collectively do together.
He does this by facilitating workshops where he gets the managers to define and agree their outcomes.
His biggest achievement was getting 70 managers to agree a single outcome plan that covered 350 people in six weeks. Prior to Jon’s involvement they had failed to agree the plan.
Who should attend?
This Gurteen Learning Event is designed for absolutely anyone who needs to get buy-in from other people and compete for resource from resource managers to get their job done or influence people to change the way they work.
You could be a senior manager, a project manager, a team member or an individual contributor - in today's networked organization, everyone needs the ability to make things happen.
Registration
Attending this Event costs £595 + VAT (discounts are available - see booking form) and includes:
Attendance at the event
3 course lunch
Morning and afternoon refreshments
To register online - please click the button below. You can pay by credit card or request an invoice.
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