Deploying CBC as a Leader – 5. Gaining Buy-In

This is the moment where CBC either lives or dies. You can draft all the elegant agreements you want, but unless people actually agree to operate this way, it’s just paperwork. Buy-in matters because CBC requires a shift in how people think about commitments: no more vague goals, no more wiggle room. Everyone signs their name to the work before it starts. That can feel intimidating if you sell it wrong — or liberating if you sell it right.

Start Small, Prove It Works

Pilot with one project or one direct report. Don’t roll out CBC across the entire org overnight. Show how it works in a controlled context.
Keep the first agreement simple. A few deliverables, a clear deadline, and unambiguous success criteria.
Win early. When the first agreement closes cleanly — either successful or clearly failed without finger-pointing — you’ve got evidence.

Scenario (1-1 in a startup): A PM is constantly frustrated that engineers “don’t deliver what I asked for.” Instead of another sprint planning session, you set up a CBC agreement: Objective = “Launch billing page MVP by March 15.” Deliverables = “Page deployed with Stripe integration, tested for refunds.” Both sides sign off. Suddenly, no one is arguing about whether “launch” meant mockups or live code — it’s in writing.

Emphasize Mutual Protection, Not Control

For contributors: CBC protects them from scope creep and leadership whiplash. If a VP shows up mid-sprint with “one more thing,” the contributor can point to the contract and ask for renegotiation.
For leaders: CBC protects them from excuses. If the agreement is clear and signed, non-delivery can’t be hidden behind hand-waving.

Contrast with OKRs: OKRs are aspirational. They’re supposed to stretch, but that means they’re also supposed to fail sometimes. That sounds noble until you’re the one cleaning up half-baked initiatives. CBC doesn’t stretch — it commits. Work is either done or not, and everyone knows which.

Make It a Negotiation, Not a Dictate

Invite pushback. If a direct report thinks the scope is too broad or the timeline is unrealistic, that conversation happens before the agreement is signed — not after.
Model collaboration. You don’t “hand down” CBC agreements. You co-create them. This is how you build trust while enforcing clarity.
Remove fear. CBC isn’t about trapping people — it’s about preventing them from being trapped by unclear expectations.

Scenario (midsize company): A data team lead is sick of being the “catch-all” for ad hoc requests. You draft a CBC agreement for a quarterly dashboard project. They push back that without guaranteed access to the BI pipeline team, they can’t commit. Perfect — that dependency is now in the contract. Suddenly, the CIO knows exactly why the dashboard is late: blocked dependency, not incompetence.

Treat the First Wins as Marketing

Broadcast success. When a CBC agreement prevents misalignment or shields a team from random scope changes, talk about it.
Make failure safe. If a CBC agreement fails, frame it as proof of why CBC exists: it shows exactly where things broke down.
Build momentum. Each agreement is a case study. The more you show CBC in action, the less selling you’ll need to do.

Scenario (enterprise): In a large company, cross-departmental projects die because nobody really owns them. You run a CBC trial with the security team on a compliance initiative. For the first time, Finance can’t shrug and say, “We thought Security was handling it.” The agreement makes it obvious who dropped the ball. That’s gold in an enterprise.

Takeaway

CBC buy-in isn’t won through pep talks or leadership mandates. It’s earned by showing that contracts cut through chaos, protect both sides, and make accountability unavoidable. Once people see that agreements mean fewer headaches and fewer political battles, they’ll stop asking “why CBC?” and start asking “when’s the next agreement?”