Today’s Morning Buzz is brought to you by Jennifer Casey, Public Information Officer for the Town of Collierville, TN. Connect with Jennifer on LinkedIn.
What I’m Listening to: Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A memoir by Matthew Perry
A Hobby I Enjoy: DIY projects in my home. I’m repainting my kitchen cabinets right now!
Who My Pets Are: Charlie Brown, the cutest little brown mutt who makes sure nothing lives in our backyard
First, I want to say thank you to ELGL for the opportunity to rejoin the Morning Buzz Team. Life got busy, as it does, and I needed to step back from a few things. Now, I am happy to step back into this one!
Second, I really wanted to wow everyone with something prolific for my returning piece, but instead of trying to impress you, I’m going to commiserate with you.
Let’s talk about executive buy-in.
Whether we are reporting to elected officials or management, I feel like we encounter similar challenges when presenting new ideas and ultimately gaining stakeholder support. No matter the size or cost of the project, having executive buy-in contributes to our success by giving our idea credibility and validation.
So how do we win our executives over?
Well, we win some and we lose some, but we can at least do all that’s in our control to give it our best shot!
- Develop a detailed project plan. This will not only help guide us throughout our implementation process but it should be able to answer questions that your stakeholders will likely have.
- Define the goal(s) of the project. Bonus points if it aligns with the strategic goals of our organizations! Include how these goals will be measured.
- Write out the S.W.O.T. analysis. You can never go wrong by listing all the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with any new idea.
- State key messages. This helps show why the project is important. For example, a key message can be as simple as “innovation and progress: this shows our organization’s dedication to embracing modern ideas.”
- Include a timeline. This doesn’t need to be extremely detailed but should give a general idea of when project phases take place. We all know dates can change, but again, it’s something to help us stay on track and show our stakeholders we have a solid plan.
- Give ‘em the ol’ razzle dazzle! Pitching a new idea can be very intimidating, especially if we aren’t comfortable with our presentation skills. Giving a presentation that is a high-level summary, easy to understand, and relatively brief will help gain support from those busy executives. We already have our “key messages” in our plan, so use these as talking points! Our stakeholders have all the details they need in the project plan, so the presentation should be glossy and exciting. Think about selling a vision for the future of the organization.
- Provide consistent project updates. We did it! Now, in addition to fulfilling our promise of implementing the project, we need to keep our executives in the loop. Whatever the cadence, (weekly, monthly, etc.) giving reminders of upcoming steps and sharing some of those measurable outcomes will show that we value our stakeholders’ investment. Even if it’s not a financial investment, they’re investing in us to effectively complete the project. Plus, we’ll likely need their buy-in down the road, so this is a good way to continue to build their confidence in our capabilities. After all, we are the subject matter experts in our fields, and we need to show them we know our stuff!
I recently won over our Board of Mayor and Aldermen support with the rollout of our first ever Town logo. We have always used the Town seal in the past, so this is uncharted territory for my organization. The public announcement of the new logo is in a couple of weeks, and I am happy to share my plan, triumphs, and tribulations with my ELGL network. Feel free to reach out if you’re interested.
Good luck to all getting that executive buy-in and improving our organizations with our innovative and creative ideas!