What if I told you that you don't need to change minds to create powerful change?

Busting the myth that wastes our energy and sabotages transformation

If you are committed to changing the world, you have probably heard that it depends on your ability to win hearts and minds.

Well, that’s a myth, and I am here to bust it.  

Imagine if electricity required the buy-in of the candle-lit world that could not even imagine it? If Steve Jobs and Apple needed millions of people to want a single-button phone? If our collective fire safety depended on thousands of tradespeople consistently implementing an array of optional measures?

Instead, electrification swept the globe after key New York buildings lit up. The iPhone was so intuitive and possibility-expanding that we lined up for it. Fire safety measures are not only embedded into the building code but enforced by countless professionals.

If we do NOT need people to care about wicked problems such as climate change, modern slavery, loss of biodiversity or racial injustice in order to solve them, then why are we so fixated on changing minds?

I see several major reasons.

It feels good when the people come to share our worldview. Speak our language. Rage at what enrages us. However, while a thirst for validation and belonging is innate, it is detrimental when it drives our change-making.

“People don’t care” also offers an excuse not to solve the challenges in front of us. If we accept that the nay-sayers don’t hold much power, we must get on with it. And there are many – including valid – reasons we would rather not. But other peoples feelings about the causes that move us shouldn’t be one of them.

The other is believing that changing minds is required for creating change – the fallacy I aim to defang.