To Implement Change, You Don’t Need to Convince Everyone at Once

Managers launching a new initiative often try to start big. They work to gain approval for a substantial budget, recruit high-profile executives, arrange a big “kick-off” meeting, then look to move fast, gain scale, and generate some quick wins. But starting with a big kickoff campaign is more likely to activate resistance than it is to win over a majority. It’s also unnecessary. Decades of research shows that you don’t need to convince everybody for an idea to take hold. In fact, a significant minority is completely sufficient to create change. So rather than trying to convince the skeptics from the outset, a much more effective strategy is to identify people who are already enthusiastic about the idea and want the transformation to succeed. Then, when people see that something is working, they want to be involved, and they bring in others who can bring in others still. That’s how you can grow your initiative and tip the scales toward widespread change.