GAINING BUY-IN — Track Early Supporters

Keeping a Running List of Supporters

It’s important to track early supporters in order to gain buy-in. Even when an idea for equitable apprenticeship is just forming, you can start to keep an eye out for fellow allies for the cause. This will reduce work and effort when you’re ready to start rallying and organizing people to help. Such a list is also helpful in cases of turnover in employees. Knowledge of who is on board to pitch in can be shared in transition materials to avoid losing this institutional knowledge. Consider these tips below for what you should be tracking as you develop your list of supporters, and check out our downloadable tracking template below!

Keep a running list of people you encounter who are internal advocates of apprenticeships and equity (or similar work such as internships, returnships), then assemble them like avengers on the design/buy-in when needed
Be aware of traits of early supporters of tech apprenticeship, and seek them out:
People who have sponsored or supported other early career initiatives with an equity lens (internally or externally)
People who themselves come from underrepresented backgrounds or alternative education paths
People seeking professional development opportunities around career initiatives with an equity lens
Experiment with what format is best to engage people and test enthusiasm:
Quarterly coffee chats to start
Informal email newsletter to keep everyone posted on early thinking and progress
List serves, Google groups, Slack channels
Track the skills that people would like to use to contribute, their goals and passions, any resources they can bring to the table, what role they’d like to play, what level of involvement they’d prefer
Note their capacity now versus next quarter
Keep a running list of skeptics in key roles you encounter; they can potentially be brought into the fold later on, and noting their reasons for skepticism may strengthen and inform your approach