Bought In vs. I'm In

Borrowed

"There's a difference between interest and commitment. When you're interested in doing something, you do it only when it's convenient. When you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results."

Commonly attributed to Ken Blanchard

Learned

I've been thinking about the difference between being bought in and "I'm in" ever since a conversation with Sara, Barrel COO, last week.

We're in the middle of a lot at Barrel. Hiring, role definition, process. The industry is moving at lightning speed beneath it all. There's so much opportunity. All I can say is every day is full.

Someone can be bought in without being in. They hear the vision (or feedback or direction), agree with it, and say the right things in the room. Then you look for the follow-up, the plan, the ownership, and it isn't there. The response is usually some version of "I've been busy." Nothing went wrong. They were bought in.

I used to think a real part of my job was getting people there. Paint the picture well enough, be empathetic, address the objections, and people would come along. I don't believe that anymore. You can come to a consensus with someone. You can't make them want it. Only one of those moves on its own.

The clearest version of this for me right now is AI. The "I'm in" people aren't telling me they're on board. They're already building things, reimagining how they work, showing me stuff I didn't ask to see. That's the signal. Not what someone says when others are around, but what they're already doing when no one is watching. So I've gotten careful about how much I try to engineer this.

We had an all-hands a couple of months ago where I talked about why AI matters to us and showed what I'd been building myself. Not long after, I started Project AI to give us a central place to review folks’ experiments and align on the path forward. I didn't ask anyone to join. I set up the meeting and said come only if you can commit to the time. I'm still figuring out the best agenda, but for now it's a show-and-tell that ends with next steps, and the people in it have a hand in shaping the future of how we work.

But the structure isn't what creates the wanting. These sessions aren't meant to be work sessions. They're places to brainstorm and envision. I don't want to create the sort of company culture that relies on setting protected time and no-client-work days to get people to engage and experiment. I can give people the direction, the tools, the inspiration, and the real work to apply them. The drive to go try things has to be theirs.

You could call that drive passion. Right now, I think it's what separates the people and teams who pull ahead. They'll be the ones who wanted it badly enough to go figure it out.

So what I'm focusing on is continuing to be honest about where things are going, what it means, and why I'm excited. And that passion, the wanting, is becoming the thing I care about most in who we bring in. Not whether someone has the right background or skills, that part's easier to screen for. Whether they're the type who takes ownership. The "I'm in" mentality. It's hard to interview for, and I'm still learning how to see it. But it's the one thing I don't think someone grows into if it isn't already there.

& Thought

Where am I trying to manufacture something in others that can only come from them?