30Sep2025
In a world filled with rapid change and endless noise, how do leaders help their teams move forward? How do we cut through resistance, foster action, and get people to embrace new ways of working?
At Nordic Business Forum 2025, Jonah Berger, professor at The Wharton School and bestselling author of Contagious and The Catalyst, offered leaders a radical shift in mindset: stop pushing people to change. Start removing what’s holding them back.
Jonah’s research-backed keynote laid out a clear and practical framework for unlocking growth: not by applying more pressure, but by removing friction.
Growth Doesn’t Happen Through Force
“Even when the new thing is 2.6 times better, people still prefer the old one,” Jonah said. Why? Because sticking with what we know feels easier, safer, and less emotionally risky.
This is the status quo bias, and Jonah labeled it as the villain in every leader’s story. Whether it’s outdated systems, clunky products, or entrenched habits, people resist change because it feels uncertain and costly, especially when the benefits aren’t immediate.
Most leaders respond by pushing harder. They demand more facts, more emails, more urgency. But as Jonah warned: “The more we push people, the more they resist.”
The Better Way: Become a Catalyst
Drawing from his work with Apple, Google, Nike, and even hostage negotiators, Jonah offered a different approach: catalysts don’t add pressure. They remove friction.
His REDUCE framework breaks down five common barriers to change:
- Reactance: People resist when they feel forced.
- Endowment: People overvalue what they already have.
- Distance: Asking for too much change feels threatening.
- Uncertainty: Unknown outcomes feel riskier than known problems.
- Corroborating Evidence: Multiple sources are more persuasive than one.
Catalysts identify these “parking brakes” and release them, making change feel easier, safer, and more doable.
“We need to allow for agency. We need to give people back some of that sense of freedom and control and put them in the driver’s seat.”
Remove Friction, Don’t Add Force
Jonah offered powerful strategies to allow for agency, reduce resistance, and increase action. Here are three standouts:
1. Provide a Menu: “We need to stop trying to sell people and get them to buy in,” Jonah said. So, instead of saying “do this,” his advice is to give people a limited set of real choices: X or Y. This creates a sense of autonomy and leads to more buy-in.
2. Ask, Don’t Tell: Use questions instead of directives. People resist being told what to do, but they’re far more open when they feel ownership of the idea. “The more it’s their idea, the more they want to see it succeed,” he pointed out. Asking people encourages commitment to the conclusion.
3. Highlight a Gap: “We like our attitudes and actions to line up. If they don’t, we do the work to bring them into harmony,” Jonah explained. When someone’s behavior contradicts their values, shine a gentle spotlight on the inconsistency. Let them find a way to remove the tension themselves.
A Cure for Uncertainty: Make Change Easier to Try
One of the most powerful barriers Jonah unpacked was uncertainty, especially the mismatch between when costs and benefits appear: People face certain costs now (money, time, effort) for uncertain benefits later. Jonah calls this the cost-benefit timing gap, and it stops change cold, even when the idea is sound. To close this gap, leaders need to lower the barrier to trial.
He offered examples across industries:
- Dropbox gave users free storage to reduce the risk of switching.
- Retailers use free returns and samples to ease decision-making.
- Car dealerships offer test drives to help customers experience value first.
- Cities simulate the biking experience to shift driver behavior.
“Easier to try means more likely to buy.”
This isn’t just about products. Jonah told the story of bus drivers in Mexico who refused to give cyclists space until one clever change agent set up an exercise bike simulation to let them experience what it feels like. Behavior shifted almost immediately, not through pressure, but through empathy.
From Insight to Action
In closing, Jonah challenged the audience:
“Stop asking, ‘How do I convince people to change?’ Start asking, ‘What’s stopping them?’”
He drew the analogy to doctors who don’t put a cast on a patient without previously asking and checking where it hurts. Likewise, great leaders don’t start with pushing harder, they diagnose first, and then remove the right barriers.
In a world of relentless change, the leaders who win won’t be the loudest. They’ll be the ones who reduce friction, lower uncertainty, and make progress easier, one released parking brake at a time.
Jonah Berger’s keynote visual summary by Linda Saukko-Rauta
Key Points and Questions for Reflection
Key Points
- Pushing harder backfires. Removing barriers works better. Great leaders diagnose before they prescribe. They find the parking brakes.
- The REDUCE framework helps identify the real blockers: Reactance, Endowment, Distance, Uncertainty, and the need for Corroborating Evidence.
- Three strategies to generate buy-in: 1. Provide a Menu. 2. Ask, Don’t Tell. 3. Highlight a Gap
- Uncertainty is especially dangerous. It creates hesitation and delay.
- Freemium models, free trials, and simulations reduce perceived risk and make action easier.
Questions for Reflection
- Where are you pushing for change instead of reducing friction?
- What hidden “parking brakes” might be slowing your team, customers, or partners?
- How can you make your idea, product, or initiative easier to try with less risk?
- Are you offering real choice, or are people feeling cornered?
- What could you do this week to help someone experience the benefit of change instead of just hearing about it?
