Nemawashi is a technique for getting people on board with an idea before going through a formal approval process. In other words, “don’t call the vote unless you have the votes.” This perfectly describes one of the more successful techniques in affecting change I’ve encountered.
Traditionally used in the context of proposing big changes or projects, I believe there can be value in applying nemawashi at any scale. Even changes that only affect your immediate team may meet resistance and would have greatly benefited from an informal nemawashi process.
One of the biggest mistakes I see people make is that they write up their ideas or proposals alone or in a small group and release their raw proposal into the wild. Feedback comes in, many of it bringing up important concerns, gaps and challenges that should have been addressed. The author(s) feel disheartened and either get so discouraged as to drop the proposal, or go back and try to fix it in private, only to release it again and get a new round of critical feedback. Nemawashi is a way to avoid all this malarky.
Consider the following benefits:
- Early improvement to the proposal
- The first draft usually feels like a first draft. There are assumptions made that gloss over key details. Some pieces of information are misleading. Some statements may be outright incorrect. By discussing the idea beforehand, certain rough or hazy spots in the proposal can be solidified and ironed out. Valuable insights can be gained. If your idea goes “public” with these “low hanging mistakes” highly visible, you and your idea will lose credibility.
- Increased support/reduced resistance:
- If there are any concerns or objections to some or all of your idea, it’s good to know early and address those head on. It may be impossible to remove all friction, but the more that can be removed, the better. By soliciting and accepting feedback, stakeholders begin to feel a sense of ownership an will be more invested in the overall success of the idea.
- Relationship building
- Open communication and collaboration is the foundation for healthy relationships. It leads to a sense of shared purpose and support. Stakeholders already familiar with the idea will tend to be more cooperative. Stakeholders left out may feel adversarial against your idea; this is especially important to avoid if there are power imbalances at play.
Basic Nemawashi Playbook
This will change from company to company and team to team, but in general nemawashi requires having 1:1 access to most (preferably all) stakeholders.
- Step 0: Have a plan or idea or proposal
- Ya need something to support. It’s generally helpful if it’s recorded somewhere and shareable. Be clear on the problem that needs to be solved, the overall solution proposed as well as any benefits/concerns you foresee. Be as transparent as possible. Information hiding here is not your friend.
- Step 1: Identify and prioritize the stakeholders
- Identify individuals who will be affected by your idea. If an entire team is affected, choose one or two representatives from that team.
- Identify individuals that have decision making power of your idea.
- Prioritize stakeholders on who would be most useful to talk to first. Consider factors such as:
- influence: how successful is this person in advocating for themselves and others?
- potential resistance: has this person expressed disagreement for similar ideas in the past?
- ability to support your idea: is this person too busy or too outside the realm of influence to really matter?
- closeness: stakeholders that you’re familiar with and already have a good working relationship with is a source of honesty.
- Be open to stakeholders recommending additional individuals to get buy-in from outside of your original list.
- Step 2: Talk to the stakeholders 1:1 and get their understanding and support
- Prepare your pitch. Depending on how close of a working relationship you have the pitch can be as informal as “hey I have an idea on X, let me know what you think” and a link to a google doc.
- Be clear that you’re looking for feedback with the end goal of getting their buy-in for the idea. Ask about their objections and take those objections seriously.
- Avoid being defensive. Be open and understanding of their points of view. Answer questions, take notes and adapt your idea. For items that require more thought, make sure to set the expectation that you will follow up.
- Step 3: Iterate on improvements, keeping stakeholders in the loop
- If you go through the trouble of getting buy-in, you need to go through the trouble of closing the feedback loop by taking feedback seriously and following up with individuals that had issues with an earlier version of your idea.
- 100% agreement is usually impossible. For pieces of feedback that you simply cannot incorporate, pay homage to the feedback as much as possible in other ways. For pieces of feedback that are in conflict, try to uncover why such a conflict exists, there is likely a key misunderstanding or hidden truth on your part or the part of the stakeholders.
- Identify the most and least supportive stakeholders. Gauge consensus.
- Step 4: Make your proposal public
- If support is “strong enough,” start the formal proposal process.
- If support is weak, it may be for a variety of reasons: wrong time, wrong people, wrong solution. The information you have now will be much more than what you had at the beginning so you should have an idea why support is low. Remember, it’s perfectly fine to put an idea on ice for later or to drop it completely. It’s probably not a hill worth dying on. Move on to the next idea.
- Step 5: Take the W or L
- Nemawashi does not guarantee your idea will be approved. If it’s not, move on. If it is, congratulations! Now you have to begin the process of getting the work scheduled.
When Is nemawashi most appropriate?
- Complex or large changes that require several teams. Projects that are long term, expensive or involve a lot of people tend to go smoother with more collaboration and consensus early on.
- Radical ideas that seem to come out of left field – stakeholders may need time to warm up to the idea and think about the implications of it. Many people are not good at dealing with change, so easing that change in and making cautious stakeholders feel like they have some sort of ownership on the direction of the change will ease many fears.
- Dealing with power imbalances. There are many types of power, and you and your stakeholders likely fall into a lot of power buckets. Does their power come from being an expert? From their ability to network? From their place in the hierarchy? From their given role? What type of power do you have? Nemawashi can provide a path for an individual with a weaker or different power position to influence “above” their level. For example, by getting the support of someone with high expert power early, individuals with high referent power may feel more comfortable advocating for your idea.
When is nemawashi NOT appropriate?
As with all techniques, there is a time and place where it will be most effective, and recognizing when it may not be that time is important.
Nemawashi should be avoided if:
- You don’t have the time. The situation is urgent – an immediate decision needs to be made. Delays in decision making causes active harm. Nemawashi takes time to do correctly, don’t attempt if you don’t have time.
- The idea simply isn’t big enough. For example, you probably don’t need nemawashi for run-of-the-mill code changes or small copy updates. If a single approver is all that is required for the change, you don’t need nemawashi.
- Your organization is not suited for collaboration in this manner. The culture is either too hierarchical (top down decision making only) or toxic. If your stakeholders are not open to giving feedback in good faith, nemawashi becomes much more difficult. Some may relish in playing the politics in such an environment, but for the rest of us, nemawashi requires a baseline of trust in our stakeholders (and stakeholders trust in us).
- You have tried to implement nemawashi incorrectly with the same set of stakeholders a few times and they start to feel like it is a waste of time. Are you asking for consensus and ignoring feedback? Are all your ideas shot down early on and you drop the idea entirely? Sometimes you really have to “read the room.”
Bonus Tips
Nemawashi is a consensus building practice. First and foremost, you need individuals willing to collaborate with you and act in good faith in providing insights and committing support.
Anne’s top tips:
- Don’t ask for feedback unless you’re willing to take it seriously. Don’t be defensive. If a stakeholder responds with a fundamental misunderstanding of your proposal, take it as a hint that your idea isn’t as clear as you thought it was and work to improve it. If one person doesn’t understand, chances are many people will not understand.
- Get somewhat regular 1:1’s on the calendar with common stakeholders. Start building that relationship before you need their support.
- Choose your stakeholders wisely, understand how they communicate and listen between the lines. Someone may choose to withhold their spiciest takes if they assume it will not be valuable to you, or that if you may not take it well.