Have you ever been bored during someone’s presentation?
Has someone ever been bored during yours?
It’s hard to turn your agenda into theirs.
But we have to. Or they won’t buy-in or act as we want.
One simple fix: when preparing your content, play the Why’s That Good? Game. You do this by imagining your audience saying “why’s that good?” about your messaging/agenda, and you replying “that’s good for you because”.
For example, for a leader outlining her new strategy:
STEP #1 – PREP
- Leader: here’s a new strategy
- Audience: why’s that good?
- Leader: that’s good for you because you’ll know the new direction we are going
- Audience: why’s that good?
- Leader: that’s good for you because you’ll know the changes to your role going forward
- Audience: why’s that good?
- Leader: that’s good for you because you’ll learn simple changes to make, to have even more success and enjoyment at work
The bottom bullet is their agenda, not the leader’s.
STEP #2 – FLIP
Which means, for this leader to get instant buy-in, she should start her communication with this bottom bullet – the other person’s agenda – and work upwards towards her agenda. Watch what happens when we flip the order:
“I want to show you simple changes to make, to help you have even more success and enjoyment at work. Ok? … So, I’d like to show you the exciting changes to your role going forward, including outlining the new direction we’re going. The first step of which is sharing our new strategy with you…”
Much more engaging than “Here’s our new strategy”.
Doing it in this new, flipped way means that we aren’t leading with our agenda. Instead, we’re leading them towards it.
And when you frame communications from their agenda, they’re more likely to buy into yours.
Action Point
To help people immediately buy-in with your next communication:
Prep – play the Why’s That Good? Game with your title and introductions. And then…
Flip – start your communication with their (not your) priority – since that’s the phrase most likely to get them listening.