Commitment needs buy-in and clarity.

A few years ago, I wrote in Healthy Conflict Leads to Commitment that great teams can expect commitment when trust is solid and conflict is productive. Today, I want to emphasize that commitment has two other important components: clarity and buy-in.

I think at the time I wrote the original post, I was looking harder at “buy-in” than at “clarity”.

In recent years, I’ve flipped that emphasis. In my work with clients, I see far more frustration, dissatisfaction, and wasted time over lack of clarity than over inadequate buy-in. In fact, I see buy-in increase when people are clearer about goals and expectations, but I don’t see buy-in alone resulting in greater productivity.

Both matter, but what I’ve seen since this post is clear: We’re wise to inject more clarity into roles, responsibilities, enterprise goals, individual tasks… everything!

~ Alan