What “buy-in” is code for

When we say we need to  “get people’s buy-in” it’s code for getting their compliance on what we intend to impose. Buy-in is what we need when we exclude people from decision making, when we make them victims to rather than participants in the process of shaping what matters. Leaders who practice an exclusionary approach to their role typically have not been trained in what inclusion takes. The learning isn’t that tricky, and well worth the effort and rewards to authentic engagement and loyalty.