How do you get people to say yes to a new idea or innovation? The deep assumption of most marketers, innovators, executives, activists, or anyone else in the business of creating change, is that the way to sell an idea is to focus on heightening its appeal. We instinctively believe that if we add enough value, people will say “yes”. This reflex tends to lead us down a path of adding features to an idea and amplifying its benefits in order to get others on board. These activities and strategies designed to generate demand is a set of tactics we refer to in the book collectively as “Fuel”.

But by focusing on Fuel to enhance attraction, innovators often neglect the other half of the equation – the Frictions that work against the desired behavior we seek in others. Frictions are the psychological forces that oppose and undermine change. Though rarely considered, identifying, understanding and overcoming these Frictions is often the key to successfully achieving our innovation goals.

In this book, readers will discover the four Frictions that operate against new ideas and innovation:

Effort

The energy (real and perceived) needed

to make change happen

Inertia

The powerful desire to stick with what we know,

despite the limitations

Emotion

The unintended negative emotions created by

the very change we seek

Reactance

The impulse to resist being changed

By examining these Frictions, readers will come to understand the unexpected reasons why the ideas and initiatives they are most passionate about get rejected. Readers also will learn how to identify and disarm these forces of resistance and will discover how the very Frictions that hold us back can be transformed into important catalysts for change.