Take No Prisoners is a free weekly memo from Scott Wintrip that explores how Radical Accountability prospers companies and changes lives. Instead of taking people hostage with outdated, heavy-handed, and ineffective methods of management, measurement, and motivation, Radical Accountability focuses on creating an unwavering responsibility for getting what matters most done.

Getting buy-in, while an admirable concept, is holding back versus helping many companies. If you have doubts about this, just look at the challenges your organization has had at getting people to buy-in to changes or ideas.

The problem with getting buy-in is that it’s typically an exercise in thought, not action.Leaders think about how to create consensus, talk about it, get staff thinking about it, and then hope that all this thinking and talking will turn into action. When it does not, too many leaders abandon solid plans, labeling good strategies or ideas as being flawed. The only flaw, much of the time, is the process for creating buy-in.

Talk is cheap, and thinking, more often than not, does not translate into actions and sustainable changes. Great leaders of good companies use knowledge and input to determine the correct course and strategies for their companies. They then require staff to contribute to how this will be achieved through plans and actions on those plans.

Just like the captain of a ship decides on a course based on key factors and then issues orders for the crew to navigate that course, corporate captains must do the same. Imagine a ship captain polling the crew as to what is the right course. Before long, that ship runs aground, wrecking everyone’s chances for a beneficial outcome.

Action is the strongest and most rapid method for creating buy-in. Thinking and talking get you nowhere but stuck in your head. Not a good place to be, especially with your competitors riding in your wake just waiting for the opportunity to take the lead.

This Week’s Radical Accountability Activating Action:  Chart the course, then make the course right by getting everyone into action to get there.