PM POV: Building buy-in from people who don't want change

Hey there, PM Community!

Let me tell you about the time I was leading a financial operations project at a fast-scaling startup.

The company was growing fast through M&As and drowning in duplicate processes. Each team had their own way of working, built to serve their own legacy clients, their own systems, their own rules.

The goal? Unify reporting and approvals across teams.

What we had was costing too much time, and we were dropping details left and right.

The new way would save hours, reduce errors, and improve visibility.

But the moment I introduced it, the resistance showed up:

That’s when I realized:
You can’t manage buy-in.
You have to build it.

I didn’t take it personally.
I took it seriously.

This wasn’t resistance for the sake of resisting.
It was people trying to protect what they already understood.

Here’s what worked:

🔹 Listen first. I held 1:1s with each team lead to understand what they were afraid of losing.
🔹 Build psychological safety. I framed the rollout as a pilot, a test we would shape together. It would not be a decision dropped on them.
🔹 Make it theirs. I created a cross-team working group. Their insights directly shaped the final flow.
🔹 Translate the why. I didn’t lead with the metrics. I showed how it made their work easier, faster, and clearer.
🔹 Celebrate small wins. We spotlighted early progress, like one team reducing closeout time by 2 full days.

That’s when things shifted:
✦ Morale drastically improved.
✦ Siloed teams became more collaborative.
✦ The change became much easier to implement.
✦ Those who resisted became advocates for the change.

That’s strategic project management.
That’s what it means to lead like a Project COO™.

Change shouldn’t require power or pressure.
It’s about making people feel seen in the process.

💬 What project are you rolling out right now that needs more than just a plan? Reply and let me know. I’d love to hear how you’re building buy-in.

Until next shift,
Tanesha
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