Stakeholder buy-in: what to get right first

It is rarely the thing that gets a project approved, and often the thing that decides how it goes. If you only fix one thing about stakeholder buy-in this quarter, make it the first item below.

Strategy work is mostly deciding what not to do, and writing it down so it stays decided. Write the reasoning down alongside the decision, because the reasoning is what changes first.

Start here

Late objections cost the most. The reasoning matters more than the rule, because the rule has exceptions. Doing this properly once is usually cheaper than doing it approximately three times.

Then this

Involve the sceptics early rather than presenting to them. The teams that handle this well are rarely the ones with the biggest budgets. It is the sort of thing that looks like polish right up until it costs you an enquiry.

Eventually

Frame decisions in their terms, not in design terms. That sounds obvious written down. It is still the thing most often skipped. It is worth deciding this deliberately rather than inheriting whatever the last person set up.

What this looks like day to day

The projects that go badly are rarely the ones with the hardest technical problems. Three things worth confirming about stakeholder buy-in before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Late objections cost the most — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If any of that sounds like a description of your current setup, it is fixable.