How do you get people on board with change?

By David van der Meulen

Major reorganizations, making teams self-managing, working agile: the digital revolution is forcing companies to change. That's hard enough, and then you also have to get your people on board. Whereas, people are already not cheering on the couches for change.

Once I asked Obama's former speechwriter Jon Favreau, "How did you use clichés like Change, Hope and Yes, we can get millions of people on their feet?" His answer: "By the charge Obama himself gave them." You saw the same thing with Mayor Eberhard van der Laan, whose speechwriter I was at the time. Famed and loved for his plain language. But more importantly, in many of his stories and messages you felt an emotional connection to the subject. You felt he meant business.

And herein lies the crux. To change, people need to feel urgency, to believe that they mean business. If the messenger himself believes in the importance, getting people on board becomes a lot easier.

And if you are convinced of the importance, how can you touch people to the maximum so that they welcome the change? Here are three tips for getting started.

1.Speak from your toes

A strong example are the teenagers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Their conviction is so raw; it touches, cracks the status quo, brings people together and into action. They get things done that no one has yet managed: hundreds of thousands of Americans standing up against gun laws.

.Outline a big picture perspective

We like to keep the change we want to achieve small, for fear of resistance. While it is precisely the bold vistas that capture the imagination and inspire people. This is how Elon Musk manages to stir the world time and again.

.Embrace your first followers

Literally get people moving. This talk shows with an unexpected example, how to lead the silent crowd to revolution as a lone frontrunner.