Some books you don’t just read cover to cover like a gripping novel. That’s how I feel about “The Human Element” by Loran Nordgren and David Schonthal. I skimmed it almost a year ago, applied some insights in a client article, then life got in the way. But like all essential things, I keep circling back.
Even on first reading, I was fascinated by their approach to introducing new ideas, products, or “change” subtly. Not through aggressive sales tactics and loud words, but by focusing on friction—the resistance we humans instinctively build when we sense someone’s trying to sell us something.
The authors argue we shouldn’t keep adding fuel to make things move. Better to address resistance with patience and empathy. What I love about this book is its practical edge. They work methodically through different types of friction, offering concrete tips and examples for dissolving resistance and redirecting it into forward momentum.
What creates friction and how should you address it?
Inertia (“interesting, but not that important”): Transform unknown ideas into known ones. Start small, repeat often, work with analogies and examples.
Effort (“too expensive, too complicated”): First understand what’s seen as effortful—struggle or unclear tasks/goals. Step-by-step instructions help. Clear roadmaps work.
Emotion (“too risky, too taxing”): Identify what triggers these unexpected emotions. Question the “why.” Address the feelings directly.
Reactance (“my boss/partner is against it”): All the persuasion in the world backfires here. Every argument hardens positions. Work gently, with questions.
When you can precisely sense (and ask about) what type of friction exists, you can find the right measures and content formats.
I recommend this book to anyone hitting walls with the fuel approach who wants a subtler communication style. Understanding exactly how your audience thinks—what drives them but also holds them back—lets you communicate with much finer precision.
My notes:
Two types of fuel exist: Progressive fuel makes ideas more attractive and convincing. Future-focused aversive fuel drives people through fear of choosing wrong.
Why people hesitate with new ideas: Either the idea isn’t good enough (insufficient fuel) or friction blocks progress.
Never blame the recipient: When we don’t understand resistance forces, we blame the people and institutions rejecting our ideas instead of the dark forces undermining them.
Focus on the invisible: Fuel is easy to spot. Friction hides beneath the surface. Recognising friction requires empathy—we must focus on the audience, not the idea.
Uncover deeper layers of resistance: Ask a customer directly “What concerns do you have?” and they’ll say something, but not their real worry. It’s hard to feel and communicate this. We must distinguish between feelings and emotions. Feeling is the felt experience. Emotions are the complex cognitive engine determining how we feel. People know how they feel but struggle to explain exactly why.
Inertia prefers the familiar: The instinct to favour the familiar. It’s an operating principle governing much of our behaviour. We like people, objects, and ideas more the more familiar they become.
Hope in new generations: New ideas, however proven and obvious, only get implemented when generations viewing them as new die and are replaced by generations viewing them as accepted and old.
Overcoming inertia: Transform the unknown into the familiar. As familiarity grows, friction lessens. The goal is making a new idea feel less like a foreign intruder and more like an old friend.
Outsmart the law of least effort: This law says people over time take the path offering greatest reward for least possible effort. The focus is on the cost of action.
Don’t just delight customers: The question shouldn’t be: How can we delight customers? It should be: How can we make the interaction simple for customers?
Understand emotional friction: Unintended negative feelings that hinder new ideas or innovations. Fear and doubts associated with introducing new products are common emotional friction. It’s the opposite of what we intend.
Understand emotional value: “Jobs to be done” theory—customers consider functional value (time savings), social value (impressing friends), and emotional value (joy). These three value dimensions exist in every decision we make.
Access to “fuel” is self-service: As consumers, we know exactly where to go for the knowledge and data needed for our decisions. But there’s a strange side effect of self-service fuel—it increases the emotional risk of making the wrong choice.
Overcoming emotions: We don’t see what we’re looking for. Inattentional blindness, and we experience it daily.
Breaking resistance: The more we feel our freedom is being taken away, the more we’ll feel the need to fight back. When our attempts to create change trigger resistance, resistance to innovation intensifies. When confronted with evidence contradicting their worldview, people often prefer rejecting evidence over questioning their beliefs. Just feeling persuaded is enough to trigger resistance.
Overcoming resistance: Stop pushing for change. Instead of trying to persuade others, help them convince themselves. Self-persuasion happens when arguments and insights for change come from within. Questions instead of telling. New innovations and ideas are more easily accepted when we start with questions showing acceptance and common ground.
Originally published auf Deutsch at reinergaertner.de (est. 1997, older than Google). AI helped translate this. I helped introduce the errors.