S7 E12: How to Create Real Buy-In with Your Employees with Dave Garrison

In this episode, Bart speaks with Dave Garrison, Founder and Chief Navigating Officer of Garrison Growth, about his new book The Buy-In Advantage. They explore why employee engagement is at a decade low, the forces driving disengagement, and why it’s critical for leaders to overcome these challenges to build a fully committed workforce. Dave shares practical, no-cost strategies leaders can use to foster authentic buy-in—shifting from “telling” to “asking,” recognizing employees as human beings (not just human doings), and connecting people’s work to purpose and growth. A timely and valuable conversation for leaders at all levels, offering concrete tools to inspire and engage teams in an era when it matters more than ever. Get your copy of The Buy-In Advantage here: 00:37 Show intro 01:14 Welcoming Dave Garrison 01:51 What is a Chief Navigating Officer? 03:14 Dave's career background 04:27 The story of seeing a shaman 05:54 Removing artificial constraints 06:48 Walking out of the corporate world into CNO 07:22 What it was like to leave the job he had 07:53 The business was funded on credit card debt 08:18 How the venture has evolved in the last 10 years 09:27 About his new book 10:59 Creating engagement 11:06 Game-changing orgs always have 3 elements 11:38 How do leaders build an environment for engagement? 12:52 What is the buy-in crisis? And where does it come from? 13:49 Gen Z values – money less important, impact with like-minded people 14:59 What's driving the buy-in crisis 16:17 Two-thirds don’t care about the company 16:32 The costs of lack of engagement 16:53 Churn is a waste of time and resources 17:49 Are companies just grinning and bearing it with turnover? 19:01 How do great leaders foster buy-in 19:27 Give up on the bully or bribe approach 20:15 Why can’t people be as enthusiastic about jobs as they are about sports? 20:50 The way the boss sees things is only one way 21:02 Collective genius 21:22 Human beings, not human doings 22:10 Sense of purpose 22:34 Challenges and opportunities to learn and grow 22:57 Bart summarizes main points so far 23:35 Warning signs that buy-in is not occurring 26:21 What lets you know this is a great idea? 26:48 Don’t share your idea — share the problem 27:36 Example of Jeff Edison’s leadership 30:16 Ask questions instead of providing answers 32:08 Example of older leaders stuck in ‘answer mode’ 34:05 Teachers with right answers 34:52 Where are we with workforce engagement? 35:21 We’re at a decade-low in engagement 36:23 Where to find The Buy-In Advantage 37:15 Thank Yous 37:28 Outro

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S7 E12: How to Create Real Buy-In with Your Employees with Dave Garrison is an episode from The Inspire Podcast by The Inspire Podcast by the Humphrey Group.

This episode is 00:38:32 long.

This episode was published on Sep 2, 2025.

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