Leaders often assume their people are excited about change. A recent HBR study by Deborah Lovich and colleagues on AI adoption found that 76% of executives believe employees are enthusiastic about AI. However, only 31% of employees agreed. That’s not a small gap. These are two different views of reality.
This is aligned with some of my experiences with organizational transformation around innovation. Leaders can sometimes overestimate buy-in for their initiatives.
This is not because they’re careless or arrogant, but because the higher up you go, the rosier the world looks. The HBR study shows that as seniority increases, optimism about employee sentiment rises. Executives feel hopeful. Employees feel anxious.
This can be viewed as an empathy gap. Leaders feel excitement about the change. Meanwhile, employees are sitting with very different emotions; fear of job loss, confusion about the technology and uncertainty about whether they’ll still matter.
What Is Buy-In?
It is important to note that buy-in is not the same as compliance. With compliance people are doing what they are told to do. To create buy-in you need have two things:
Positive Evaluation: People see the initiative as a good and legitimate thing for the organization to do.
Active Participation: People advocate for the initiative to others and contribute to make it a success.
If you only have one and not the other, you don’t actually have buy-in. Without positive evaluation, participation becomes compliance. Without active participation, evaluation becomes polite endorsements.
How To Create Buy-In
The research in the HBR paper shows that employee-centric organizations, those that listen deeply, co-create and involve their people early, are seven times more likely to succeed with AI adoption.
This is not a marginal gain. It’s exactly how momentum with change works. When people feel that their contributions are valued, this creates more buy-in. So if you want people to join your transformation, don’t start with the roadmap. Start with listening and working with employees to co-design the initiative. When people help create the future, they’re far more willing to live in it.