0:07 so here's the biggest mistake companies
0:08 make when they're doing cultural
0:12 transformations they treat it like it's
0:16 a marketing campaign where here's the
0:20 launch date right and here are all the
0:21 programs we're gonna make everybody go
0:23 through and hear all the powerpoints and
0:25 hear all the executives that are gonna
0:26 give the powerpoints you're nodding yes
0:28 I'm getting something right right and
0:31 then it doesn't work or people are
0:34 resistant or fight or don't show up or
0:37 even sabotage and it's all well intended
0:40 it's imperfect and sometimes we get the
0:42 cultural thing wrong or the timing wrong
0:44 but it's all well intended and it falls
0:46 flat and it's a big waste of time in a
0:47 big waste of money and we're right back
0:47 where we started
0:52 right there's something called a law of
0:53 diffusion of innovations
1:00 this must be come your best friend okay
1:04 the bell curve all populations always
1:06 sift across the standard deviation if
1:08 you have high performers you have low
1:10 performance always and then you have an
1:14 average always in this room there's a
1:15 group of people I know who are nodding
1:17 their heads going yep yep yep yep
1:19 there's a group of people who think I'm
1:22 an idiot and I like I wasted my money
1:25 but most people are like I'm open yeah
1:27 this is interesting I like some of it
1:30 you know I know that I know that going
1:32 in every single time and the fact that
1:34 you all wanted to come and pay to be and
1:36 it's not a general industry thing then I
1:37 know that it's just a little more one
1:38 way or the other but it's still the
1:40 standard deviation always right
1:41 what does what the law of diffusion
1:43 tells us is that the first two and a
1:44 half percent of our population are
1:48 innovators big idea people Steve Jobs
1:52 you know beyond musk then you have the
1:55 next 12 to 13 percent of our population
1:58 our early adopters who are willing to
2:01 sacrifice time money and energy to be a
2:02 part of something that reflects their
2:04 own beliefs they stand in line to see
2:07 the new Star Wars for eight hours even
2:08 though you can just go in a week and
2:11 just buy a ticket and go in they thought
2:12 that was a good use of time and money right
2:14 right
2:17 then you have the next the early
2:19 majority the late majority and your
2:20 laggards the only reason these people do
2:21 something is because they have no choice
2:26 anymore right what you're asking for in
2:29 cultural transformation is this how do
2:31 we change our company right the problem
2:35 is the problem is is this this group of
2:36 people the majority they're cynical
2:38 they're practical
2:40 what's in it for me what do I get if it
2:42 goes wrong are you gonna pay me extra if
2:45 I have to stay late you know they're
2:47 cynical in their practical right these
2:50 people not so much right they'll just do
2:51 something because they think it's great
2:53 they want to be a part of it what the
2:54 law of diffusion tells us is that you
2:56 cannot achieve mass-market success or
2:59 stickiness for a new idea until you
3:01 achieve 15 to 18 percent market
3:03 penetration it is the tipping point it
3:06 is a social phenomenon if you ignore
3:08 everything I tell you today about this
3:12 you will always get about 10% that's
3:15 what you'll say they just get it we love
3:18 them they get it and 10% of the company
3:20 is gonna be all in it's not enough and
3:23 so this that Jeffrey Moore called the
3:26 chasm crossing the chasm is the magical
3:28 gap and the way you get it you get it is
3:32 you don't talk to these people at all
3:36 you ignore them and you aim at these
3:38 people only the early adopters because
3:40 these people do not want to try
3:43 something new until someone else has
3:47 tried it first and let me tell you how
3:51 it looks cuz I've done it so I a large
3:54 company many many more people than is in
3:59 your company 200,000 people wanted me to
4:02 help them do a millennial training
4:08 program so I said great I pull out my
4:10 little pocket copy of the law of
4:11 diffusion because to me this is religion
4:13 by the way this is how I built my entire
4:16 career remember that story I told you
4:17 before it convinced me why I should hire
4:22 you he told me he was over here he
4:23 didn't tell me he was over here I could
4:26 hear that I ignored him for now I'll get
4:27 him later
4:32 right someone else will get him later so
4:34 here's what we did what the company
4:36 wanted to do was traditional they wanted
4:37 me to design the program we're gonna
4:40 launch it we're gonna make videos there
4:44 were me to be on the videos and then
4:45 we're gonna have the training program
4:47 and we're gonna force all the
4:48 Millennials to go through the training
4:52 program it'll be amazing and I'm
4:55 thinking it's gonna fail so this is what
4:59 I said I said I'm gonna do one workshop
5:03 once and we will make it open to anybody
5:08 born after 1984 only which means if you
5:10 were born before 1984 you're not
5:12 eligible that keeps all the senior
5:16 executives out so they can't come and
5:22 watch make sure and the people who come
5:25 in we only have a hundred and 100 seats
5:27 a hundred twenty-five seats and they
5:30 have to apply because I want people to
5:32 put in extra time and extra energy and
5:34 and the problem with the Internet is
5:36 we've made everything easy let's try and
5:37 make everything as so easy as possible
5:39 click click click click click you're in
5:41 no I want to make things a little bit
5:44 difficult right so they had to fill out
5:46 a proper essay and submit it and we
5:48 actually read all of them and we could
5:50 tell who was phoning it in and we could
5:52 tell who actually genuinely wanted to be
5:55 there and we selected a hundred a
5:58 hundred people and we only did it from
6:00 the East Coast offices just because it
6:01 was convenience we did New York he was
6:02 on the East Coast in New York and
6:04 Virginia right just because it was
6:06 easier maybe a few of the other offices
6:07 actually it was also Chicago and all
6:10 that whatever a bunch of the offices
6:13 I gave this wonderful workshop and at
6:15 the end of it I said hey guys we don't
6:17 have a Millenial training program we
6:18 want to do one so I'm asking for
6:20 volunteers from this room to help build
6:22 it you're not gonna get any extra money
6:26 you might have to work extra hours on
6:28 your own time and you may or may not
6:30 have this included in your compensation
6:33 or promotion packages at all who wants
6:37 in I had fifty volunteers who said that
6:38 they were gonna help build this program
6:41 for no additional money and no
6:43 particular personal benefit it's because
6:46 they believed in it right two weeks
6:49 later one of the senior executives in
6:51 the company calls me up furious at me
6:55 he's so angry at me do you know why
6:58 because leaders from across the entire
7:02 country were calling up screaming at him
7:04 why don't we get a Millenial training
7:07 program why is it only on the west coast
7:09 and I said congratulations that's called
7:18 demand because they all went back to
7:24 work and said this is amazing right had
7:25 I done a traditional way those same
7:28 leaders would have called up and yelled
7:31 why do I have to give up my people for
7:33 an hour and a half every week I am busy
7:35 we don't need this would have been the
7:39 exact same response so you want to make
7:42 it slightly difficult an invitation
7:45 voluntary and invite them to actually
7:47 help you build it because then it has a
7:48 grassroots nature and so now you're
7:50 doing things from the top and the bottom
7:52 so you have the formal corporate stuff
7:56 always voluntary and the stuff from the
7:58 bottom coming from them and you help
8:00 them and you give them resources and
8:02 then you create a scenario where you can
8:03 check in with them and they can all
8:05 check in with each other once a month on
8:07 a conference call and all share best
8:09 practices so that you can take something
8:10 that's working in one country and try it
8:12 in another country and you will learn
8:13 from them and you'll give them resources
8:16 and in time I don't know how long and
8:18 this is why companies don't like this it
8:20 100% works I just don't know how long
8:22 one year two year three years I don't
8:24 know it depends on the
8:25 company depends on the size depends on
8:27 the culture I don't know in a hundred
8:28 percent works so if you're comfortable
8:30 the fact that it'll work we just don't
8:35 know when this is your best friend your
8:36 early adopters [Music]
