🤓 How to get buy-in for your ideas, align stakeholders and become a better communicator?
Thoughts by Ronen Shetelboim, #7・ Apr 27, 2022
Getting buy-in for your ideas is hard.
Yet.. it’s something that you’ll need to do at all levels, regardless, if you are a manager, individual contributor or a CEO.
The bigger the company you work for, the harder it gets.
The more complex projects you take on, the more important it is to get buy-in.
The good news is that there is a way, well.. actually it's a framework.
This framework is going to help you get buy-in for your ideas, align stakeholders and become a better communicator.
If you haven’t heard about it before, you are here for a treat. 😉
Before I get into the details of the framework, here are a few things I learned in the pursuit of getting better at getting buy-in for my ideas.
Influence. Getting buy-in is about the ability to influence others. It’s also a core principle of leadership.
Accountability. It’s on me to get buy-in for my ideas. No one else, I am the one accountable. When you don’t get buy-in, it’s easy to blame others, but actually, it’s your responsibility to explain your ideas in the best way you can.
Clarity. I need to have extreme clarity around my ideas before I can influence others and get buy-in.
So.. What is the framework?
I call it The Written Memo framework. (aka 1-pager framework, the amazon 6-pager framework, the written-document framework).
Let’s dive in.
What is The Written Memo Framework?
The Written Memo Framework is a framework that I use to communicate new ideas, to share results or to explain a complex topic.
I use this framework to get extreme clarity, buy-in and alignment from stakeholders.
The framework includes 3 steps:
Step 1: A written summary document (a memo) with a narrative (at least 1-page, no more than 6-pages and no slides).
Step 2: A pre-read meeting. A dedicated meeting to review the memo. This meeting doesn’t have slides or presentation. The facilitator of the meeting is the person who wrote the memo. The meeting is focused on reading the memo, adding comments and discussing the comments in the memo. In terms of meeting structure, half of the meeting should be dedicated to reading the memo and writing comments in the memo (I use google docs), and half of the meeting should be dedicated to discuss and answer the comments in the memo.
Step 3: A follow up meeting. A dedicated meeting to follow up on any additional items from the pre-read meeting. It can be items that are still open, items you didn’t have time to address in the pre-read meeting or an update on next steps as a result of the feedback from the pre-read meeting.
💡 Pro Tip! Here are few specific examples for when you can use this framework:
new product or campaign launch
when you need to justify purchase of a new tool or software
when you need to unlock budget
when sharing results for campaign, project, analysis or even quarterly business review
when explaining a complex topic (attribution model, ICP analysis, persona analysis, digital strategy, nurture strategy and etc..)
Why do you need this framework?
Extreme Clarity for everyone. Typically, the person who writes the memo is going to have the best understanding of the topic, while your stakeholders might have different levels of understanding of the topic. Different levels of understanding can result in either no feedback, or the wrong feedback for you and your team. The written memo should provide clarity to all levels. 💡 Pro Tip! When you finish your written memo, you should ask yourself, would a 12-year old understand the memo? If so, then great, now, what about a PhD level student? A clear memo should provide clarity to all levels.
Extreme Clarity for you! Writing helps you focus on what’s important. Writing provides clarity of thoughts. As you are refining your written document (so both a 12-year old and a PhD student can understand), you’ll get more clarity. 💡 Pro tip! There is a framework called the Feynman Technique, it’s a learning & teaching technique that forces you to have a deep understanding of a given topic and enables you to explain complicated subjects to others in simple terms. There are 4 key steps in the Feynman Technique: #1 you choose a topic, #2 you explain it to a 12 year old, #3 Reflect, refine and simplify. #4 you organize and review. You can read more about it here.
Eliminate bias towards pretty design. People tend to like ideas, not because they are good ideas, but because they are presented in a pretty way. Don’t fall into this trap. The written memo will allow you to eliminate the bias towards pretty design and focus on the quality of the ideas.
Eliminate bias towards a good presenter. People tend to like ideas, not because they are good ideas, but because they are presented well by a good presenter. The written memo requires people to review the content, there is no presentation. Thus, it will eliminate the bias towards a good presenter and keep the focus on the quality of the idea.
Better more productive magical meetings! You are not going to present slides. Your stakeholders will have to read the memo to understand it. Generally, people read 3X faster than a typical presenter can talk, so your stakeholders can absorb much more information in a given time while reading. Reading will get everyone on the same page and the same level of understanding. If you do it right, you’ll experience what I like to call ‘A Magical Meeting’. ✨ ‘A Magical Meeting’ ✨ is a meeting where everyone has the full context, same level understanding of the topic, people are well-versed in the critical data, people understand the business implications, you start the meeting on time, you might even finish few minutes early, and all you focus on is solving the actual problem and getting quality feedback!
What is the structure of a good written memo?
A good written memo should have the following sections:
Executive summary.
Goal. They why behind your document, what are you trying to achieve.
Supporting data.
Links to relevant supporting documents, reports, visuals.
What’s currently working / not working around this topic.
Dependencies. Who else needs to be involved or be aware in order to make it work.
Anything else that you think will be helpful for stakeholders to know.
💡 Pro Tips!
Don’t over think the structure, start doing it, you’ll get feedback from stakeholders and you’ll refine the structure of your written memo overtime.
A good written memo should be written in a simple language (no acronyms), so everyone in the room can understand it.
Pay attention to the length of your written memo. It takes people an average 3 minutes to read 1 page. So if you have a 30 minutes meeting, and the first 10 minutes are dedicated to reading and adding comments, the document should not exceed 3 pages. According to Amazon, the written memo should never exceed 6 pages.
What is the structure of a good pre-read meeting?
You’ll create the pre-read document (the memo) in advance. Ideally the document should be created in a format that allows everyone to access it and leave comments. (Google Docs is my preferred method).
You’ll schedule a meeting with all relevant stakeholders.
You’ll send a pre-read to the group 24 hours before the meeting.
You’ll provide 10-15 minutes at the beginning of the meeting for people to review and add their comments.
You’ll answer the comments live in the doc. .
And… that’s it! thank you for reading. Per usual, let me know if you have any thoughts and have a fantastic week! 🙌
✍🏻 What I wrote in March & April
🤓 How to Make Better Decisions?
🤓 How to prepare for paternity leave, support your partner and set your team for success?
🤓 How to manage your 1:1 with your boss?
🤓 The 1 thing you can do to become a better leader
🎧 Bonus Section
Last week I was a guest on the podcast “Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing”, it was a lot of fun. We talked about hiring people remote, what can you do to become a better leader, how to develop strategic relationships and more… you can listen to the episode here:
Spotify: https://hubs.ly/Q018rS2w0
Apple: https://hubs.ly/Q018rR6J0