02/08/2026
You introduce a new idea in a meeting.
Three people lean forward with interest. One person crosses their arms.
And suddenly, almost all your attention goes to that one person.
It’s an easy trap to fall into:
You start searching for an even better argument. You explain your idea one more time. You address the next concern.
Meanwhile, the people who were already curious are left waiting.
Excitement turns into justification. The idea loses momentum. And you grind yourself down against resistance until barely any of the original joy and energy remains.
Perhaps this is one of the quieter forms of functioning:
You are highly active. But much of your energy is not flowing into what you want to create. It is going into the attempt to convince the most skeptical person in the room.
Before you know it, their approval has become a prerequisite for starting:
“We can’t really move forward until they are on board too.”
Not every resistance is yours to overcome.
Of course, there are situations in which we need to engage with it. When someone has decision-making power or their approval is genuinely necessary for the next step, we cannot simply bypass them.
But often, we have more room to maneuver than we think.
We could begin with the people who are curious. Try something small. Make the idea visible. Give it a chance to gain strength and momentum.
Alan AtKisson’s model of how new ideas spread helped us understand this dynamic many years ago.
It describes the different roles people play in innovation and change processes—and the fact that they are not all ready to engage with something new at the same time.
Some become curious precisely when an idea is still unfinished, untested, and open-ended. It is exactly what is new and uncertain that attracts them. They want to experiment, join the exploration, and discover for themselves what might be possible.
Others first want to see that the idea works in practice.
The first allies help an idea travel. Some test it or help develop it. Others lend it credibility and carry it into conversations the initiator could never reach alone.
One person does not have to convince everyone. The movement is carried forward by others.
Leading change well therefore does not mean bringing everyone along at the same time.
It means recognizing who matters in each phase.
It also means holding steady when some people are still against the idea—without letting their skepticism become your own.
For our new video, we found a simple image for this:
A stone can strike rock—or send ripples across the water.
Not because one throw is more forceful, but because in water, a single impulse can create many ripples.
In the video, we explore how easily we grind down our creative energy against the strongest resistance—and how change can gain momentum without us having to convince everyone first.
You’ll find the link in the first comment.
And here is a small invitation to put more of your energy into creating:
In the next 48 hours, choose someone who is already curious and invite them to take one small next step with you.
This could be a short conversation. A joint test. A first sketch or prototype that you look at together. Something small enough to actually happen—and concrete enough to create a real experience.
Then observe:
What begins to move when you do not start with the strongest resistance?
And what happens to your own energy?
If you try it, I’d love to hear what it sets in motion. Share your experience in the comments.
