If you don’t have authority to instruct change (do you ever?), here’s a way to look at what needs to happen…
1. Build rapport with a larger and larger set of people within the entity you hope to influence.
2. Then, as you change yourself, the rapport group you’re connected to will change as well, provided you stay in rapport with them.
What is rapport? For this purpose, a good description is an unconscious sense of connection with another person or a group, arising from a feeling of being alike in some way. That’s something we can work on.
Try to change too fast, and you’ll break rapport with some or all of the group, and the bigger the change you want to lead, the deeper the level of rapport you’ll need.
A little patience is required to achieve change this way, but it’s lasting. Maybe it’s the only way that really works.
It’s all about being in rapport with your audience—the community, if you like.