When we want to make a change, a change for ourselves or a change that helps others get to where they want to go, we’re going to need enrolment. There’s no way around it.

Enrolment. Your name needs to be on the roll, the long list of names rolled up into a scroll in Medieval times, the roll of names that says who’s in and who’s out. And if your name isn’t on the list when we do a roll call then you can’t come where we’re going. You need to enrol.

Enrolment can be voluntary or mandatory. In some states, enrolment in the military is mandatory. But for most situations we’re likely to encounter, enrolment is a choice.

You can enrol yourself, and you can enrol others. Enrolling others is the virtuous act of convincing someone to sign up for a journey that will benefit them.

Sometimes you’ll put your name on the list, but you aren’t really convinced yet. You haven’t sold yourself on the commitment to the process. Sometimes the same will happen with your clients. Sometimes you won’t have their buy-in.

It’s possible to have true enrolment without buy-in, but when people are on the fence, then sometimes the generous thing to do is get them to buy in. Sometimes people don’t even know they’re on the fence until you ask them to buy in, but when money is involved people will question their enrolment. “Maybe I’m ready to sign up, but am I ready to buy in? Am I really prepared to do the work required to get the benefit of this journey?”

It can be tempting, sometimes scary to ask people to buy into an idea, especially if it’s new, if it’s unproven, and sometimes getting that buy-in can mean the difference between the idea succeeding and failing. Sometimes just having their name on the list isn’t going to be enough to get them to prioritise the journey and if you’d only charged them some money, you’d have helped them get where they wanted to go.