Upton Sinclair said "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

But what if it goes deeper than salary? What if it's about identity itself?

In this one, we explore why clear explanations often increase resistance, how an interior designer accidentally solved the change management problem, and what executive data analysis reveals when everyone plots different insights from the same numbers.

From expert panels to Pimlico plumbers, we feel our way through the murky challenge of introducing ideas that threaten people's fundamental worldview – and discover that experience beats explanation every time.

We get into:

• The Sinclair Effect: when understanding threatens identity (not just salary)
• Why simplifying your explanation can actually make your ideas MORE threatening
• The executive data exercise that exposed beautiful chaos (everyone saw something different)
• The Winkler Constraint: how Caroline Winkler transformed her viewers' rooms with only three purchases allowed – and why
• How expertise shows up best under tight limitations
• The plumber parallel and why end customers don't care which wrench you use
• Leading with theory vs. leading with experience (and Tom's early mistakes)
• Opening portals vs planting flags, and the role of jamming
• Why the saying "consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds" can hurt your career (ask us how we know)
• How to give people what they want while accidentally also giving them what they need (but without being manipulative about it)

"You can't just not give people what they want. Then you are a blocker."

References & links

• Upton Sinclair - "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it"
• Jen Briselli and Kyle Godbey's "Field notes from the swamp" https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL89SttTTcPTGDdRlcQTcEqz4Ra9z2w0le&si=FC6O6zfbLCzykKm8
• Cynefin framework / complexity science (Dave Snowden)
• Caroline Winkler - YouTube interior designer https://youtu.be/ZvHM_VCybN0?si=CIPObJld8IM4Mc-X
• Venkatesh Rao - "Portals and flags" concept https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2014/06/25/portals-and-flags/
• Eleanor Roosevelt - (possibly apocryphal) "Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds"
• Pivot Triggers (Crown & Reach)

When have you fallen over by leading with theory? When have you enabled an experience that let things shift by themselves? Drop us a line: [email protected]

Find out more about us and our work at crownandreach.com

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