How do you get people to say yes to a new idea or innovation? The deep assumption of most people 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 such as
• Inertia: The powerful desire to stick with what we know, despite the limitations
• Effort: The energy (real and perceived) needed to make change happen
• Emotion: The unintended negative emotions created by the very change we seek
• Reactance: The impulse to resist being changed
In this session, David Schonthal, Clinical Professor and Director of Entrepreneurship Programs at the Kellogg School of Management and co-author of the new book, The Human Element, highlighted the Frictions that operate against new ideas and innovation; described the unexpected reasons why the ideas and initiatives they are most passionate about get rejected; and explained how to transform those frictions important catalysts for change.
David Schonthal is an award-winning Clinical Professor and Director of Entrepreneurship Programs at the Kellogg School of Management where he teaches courses on new venture creation, design thinking, healthcare innovation and creativity. David is also co-author with fellow Kellogg professor Loran Nordgren, of The Human Element (Wiley, 2021), a book about overcoming people's resistance to innovation and change.
Outside of Kellogg, David has been a practitioner of entrepreneurship, design, and innovation for over 20 years. He has spent a decade working at world-renowned design firm, IDEO, and currently serves as an Operating Partner at 7Wire Ventures, a healthcare technology-focused venture capital firm. David is a Global Advisor at Design for Ventures (D4V), a Tokyo-based early-stage venture capital fund that invests in design-led Japanese startups and is the Co-Founder of MATTER, a 25,000-square-foot innovation center in downtown Chicago focused on catalyzing and supporting healthcare entrepreneurship.
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