How to Create Change | Simon Sinek — Transcript

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1. 0:00people with new ideas whether they have
2. 0:02neurodiversity or
3. 0:03not are threatening to the status
4. 0:07quo right and there's nothing wrong with
5. 0:11the status quo per se the reason status
6. 0:13quo exists is because things are kind of
7. 0:15working right and the people who are the
8. 0:18most defensive of the status quo are
9. 0:20people who benefit from the status quo
10. 0:23so if you come in and say I'm going to
11. 0:24try something new with good no guarantee
12. 0:26of success and by the way if we fail
13. 0:27you're all going to lose your jobs not
14. 0:30lot of
15. 0:30takers which is why most people don't
16. 0:33start businesses most people aren't
17. 0:35entrepreneurs and nor should they be
18. 0:37because the chances of failure are
19. 0:39overwhelming and even if you have the
20. 0:41desire and you've got a family and kids
21. 0:44like it's just not worth the risk
22. 0:46because the chances are in the high 90th
23. 0:48percentiles that you're going to fail in
24. 0:49the first three years and so you have
25. 0:51you have to remember that and so my rule
26. 0:55has never been to try and convince
27. 0:57people who don't want to be
28. 0:58convinced cuz all you're going to do is
29. 1:00fight I'm right you're wrong and they're
30. 1:03going to say no I'm right you're wrong
31. 1:05and you're both right contextual for me
32. 1:09My Religion for new ideas has been
33. 1:12something called the law of diffusion of
34. 1:13Innovations bell curve in every
35. 1:17population you're going to have a
36. 1:19standard deviation you're going to have
37. 1:20high performers you're going to have low
38. 1:21performers you're going to have an
39. 1:21average always right what EMT Rogers
40. 1:25wrote about in the 1950s when he wrote
41. 1:27about the low of diffusion is that the
42. 1:28first 2 and a half% of any population
43. 1:30this one included are going to be your
44. 1:32big idea people your innovators Steve
45. 1:34Jobs Richard Branson right the next 12
46. 1:38and a half% of your population are your
47. 1:39early adopters these are the people who
48. 1:42are very comfortable spending time money
49. 1:43or energy to be a part of something that
50. 1:45reflects their own beliefs they have a
51. 1:47pretty good res risk tolerance they
52. 1:49stand in line for 48 hours to see a new
53. 1:51Star Wars movie where you could just go
54. 1:52two weeks later and buy a ticket and go
55. 1:53in for them that's worth it right then
56. 1:56you have your majority the 68% more
57. 1:59cynical more practical what's in it for
58. 2:01me will I get my money back am I going
59. 2:03to get in trouble if everything goes
60. 2:04wrong right then you have your laggers
61. 2:07the last 16% the only reason they make
62. 2:09any change is because you have no choice
63. 2:11anymore the law of diffusion says that
64. 2:13mass Market success or mass Market
65. 2:15acceptance for any idea or product you
66. 2:17have to achieve between 15 and 18%
67. 2:20Market penetration and there's a social
68. 2:21phenomenon that happens called a Tipping
69. 2:24Point it just goes and the reason is
70. 2:26very simple it's because the early
71. 2:28majority will not try something
72. 2:29something until someone else has tried
73. 2:31it
74. 2:32first problem is is that if you ignore
75. 2:35this you'll always get about 10% of
76. 2:37people who believe what you believe who
77. 2:39see what you see right always ah love
78. 2:42her she gets it oh my God he's an idiot
79. 2:44he doesn't get it get what but that's
80. 2:46how we describe it right and that 10% is
81. 2:49not enough to make the system tip and
82. 2:50that's where you get
83. 2:51frustration and so uh What Jeffrey Moore
84. 2:55wrote about called crossing the chasm is
85. 2:56how do you get from 10% to 15 to 18% and
86. 2:59what I learned
87. 3:00is that the way you talk to early
88. 3:02adopters is by starting with why talk
89. 3:04about what you believe not what you do
90. 3:07talk about why you're doing it not what
91. 3:08the plan is right talk about the
92. 3:11dream and what I learned was the more I
93. 3:13did that the more I found the early
94. 3:15adopters and they were willing to take
95. 3:16risks and they were willing to
96. 3:17experiment I built my entire brand with
97. 3:21zero marketing budget and no public
98. 3:23relations and at the time no social
99. 3:25media right it's because I made a
100. 3:28decision that I was going to Focus only
101. 3:30on early adopters and I was going to
102. 3:33start with why I got really good at
103. 3:34learning how to talk to people at an
104. 3:36emotional level not a product or fact
105. 3:38level right eventually the facts and
106. 3:41product had to Bear out but that's not
107. 3:42where I started start with
108. 3:45why um and the system
109. 3:47tipped and I've done it in companies
110. 3:50I've done it in
111. 3:52companies um and so if you want to
112. 3:54affect change in your company stop
113. 3:56trying to convince
114. 3:57people so I'll give you real life
115. 3:59example in the early days of me
116. 4:01spreading this message of start with Y I
117. 4:03was doing consulting because I still
118. 4:05hadn't figured out like how I wanted to
119. 4:06spread it and um uh I needed every
120. 4:10dollar I could get I was living hand to
121. 4:12fist I mean I had no money in the bank
122. 4:13account literally like pennies and uh I
123. 4:17remember a guy called me and he heard
124. 4:19about me and he said you know I got your
125. 4:20number from who you know whomever uh
126. 4:23I've heard you do great work he
127. 4:24literally said this to me convince me
128. 4:25why I should hire you now as much as I
129. 4:28needed his business I got very good at
130. 4:31hearing who's an early adopter and who's
131. 4:32not convince me I should hire you not an
132. 4:34early adopter so I literally I said to
133. 4:37him
134. 4:39don't don't he goes what I'm like I am
135. 4:42the wrong guy for you right but the
136. 4:45people who called me and said you're
137. 4:47onto something it's not perfect but
138. 4:48you're on to something I said yes to
139. 4:50them every time even if they paid me
140. 4:52zero because what ended up happening is
141. 4:55they let me experiment on their
142. 4:55businesses I would literally say can I
143. 4:57try something new on your company went
144. 4:59yeah try go
145. 5:00that's an early adopter
146. 5:02mentality going back to you find the
147. 5:03early adopters the ones who want to try
148. 5:05it volunteer I'll tell you a real life
149. 5:07example of how it worked inside a
150. 5:08company you'll like this
151. 5:10too a big company they got 100,000
152. 5:13employees they wanted me to build a
153. 5:16millennial training program for them
154. 5:18right because of the millennial
155. 5:20leadership
156. 5:24issues so I said okay but we're going to
157. 5:27do it my way because this is how big
158. 5:29companies do things they spend lots of
159. 5:31money to hire all the best people to
160. 5:33make the training program and then they
161. 5:36launch it and they have PowerPoints
162. 5:39Galore saying this is why you need to
163. 5:41take part in this program and people go
164. 5:45no and they go no it's really good and
165. 5:47then it fails it's good stuff just no
166. 5:50adoption and a lot of resistance I know
167. 5:53this because you can't take new things
168. 5:55and give them to the majority duh so I
169. 5:59said we're going to do it my way and
170. 6:00here's what we're going to do because
171. 6:02early adopters you want small barriers
172. 6:04you don't want to make everything too
173. 6:05easy you want small barriers right so I
174. 6:08said here's what we're going to do I'm
175. 6:10going to teach the first class and I
176. 6:11don't know what the program is going to
177. 6:12look like we have no program we're going
178. 6:14to teach one class and I'm going to
179. 6:16teach it and they have to apply we only
180. 6:18have a hundred spaces and they have to
181. 6:20apply to be a part of it and I made them
182. 6:21write essays from across the company we
183. 6:24made the announcement it's going to
184. 6:25happen you had to we we did an
185. 6:27application process wasn't easy we read
186. 6:30the actual essays and chose a 100
187. 6:33people uh we told them that you're going
188. 6:35to have to come to New York for the
189. 6:36training wherever you are across the
190. 6:37country you're going to get no extra
191. 6:39money for it um we said that nobody born
192. 6:42before the year 1984 was eligible to
193. 6:44come into the room which means all the
194. 6:46senior leaders couldn't come spy on me I
195. 6:49was the only person born before 84 who
196. 6:50was in the
197. 6:52room and it was fantastic and we had
198. 6:54tons of fun and at the end I said look
199. 6:56this program isn't built I need
200. 6:57volunteers to help build it and here's
201. 6:59the conditions I'm going to we can't we
202. 7:01don't have any more money to give you
203. 7:02you still have to do your regular job
204. 7:04it's not it probably won't help you get
205. 7:05promoted it's just that you think this
206. 7:07is important work I had 50 volunteers
207. 7:09from the room who wanted to help build
208. 7:10the program great I let them all go back
209. 7:12to their job they all fly home about two
210. 7:14weeks
211. 7:16later the sponsor my sponsor at the
212. 7:18company calls me up furious at me you
213. 7:22screwed me I'm like what happened he
214. 7:25goes I'm getting calls from across the
215. 7:26country from all of these managers
216. 7:28screaming and yelling at me demand in
217. 7:30why aren't my people invited into this
218. 7:32thing and I leaned in I said that's
219. 7:34called
220. 7:35demand we created demand because all the
221. 7:38early adopters went back and said this
222. 7:40is amazing we need it no marketing no PR
223. 7:44no powerp points and best of all they
224. 7:47were going to build it for
225. 7:50us so that's how you leverage the low of
226. 7:52diffusion when you have new ideas in a
227. 7:53system that's largely resistant to new
228. 7:55ideas