Mauro Porcini

The second phase of my [new culture building] journey was the hidden rejection. People were rejecting me, but I was not aware of it. This is very typical when you try to change culture in any kind of organization. I learned something at that moment that changed the trajectory of my professional journey in these companies: every time I pitch an idea, I ask the person I’m with to make what they call a sacrifice, a commitment. Usually it’s money, the investment—give me people, give me the money to start the project. Nine of ten people drop out at this point. And this is great. I need to understand who the people are who make up the 10 percent of the population that is willing to try new things.

If you are trying to change things and you have tons of people in the room who don’t get it, it’s OK, it’s fine. It’s actually normal. If you have too many people with you, it means you are not changing anything. Hunt for that 11 percent. I call those people the co-conspirators. This is what you do in the third phase, what I call the occasional leap of faith, when some co-conspirators inside the company decide to take a chance on this new culture.

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