It doesn’t start with consensus.
It doesn’t start with alignment. Or a perfectly crafted strategy deck.
It starts with someone who decides to care enough to act.

If you want to make something happen — something real — you’ll have to step forward. You’ll need to take the lead, not with a megaphone, but with a story. And you’ll have to carry that story longer than you thought. Through the noise, the politics, the objections, the indifference.

You’ll repeat yourself. You’ll adapt. You’ll face resistance, egos, shifting priorities, hidden agendas, and inbox apathy. You’ll deal with legal, procurement, budget holders, risk officers — and someone who just doesn’t like the colour blue. And still: you keep going. Because if you stop when people don’t instantly nod along, it was never a real story to begin with. You can send a message. You can write a memo. Share a slide. But if it doesn’t move people, it doesn’t land. That’s the difference.
Reaching someone is not the same as moving them.

You move people by sharing what you truly believe. By showing your own doubt, conviction, friction. By standing for something, even if it makes the room uncomfortable. Not with perfect arguments, but with personal ones. Not by broadcasting, but by connecting. One person at a time. And that’s how movements start.

I’ve seen it.
That you can tap draught beer at an altitude of 10.000 feet, even when everyone around said it couldn’t be done.
When I helped Heineken integrate Twitter into their UEFA Champions League sponsorship — back when social media wasn’t that much part of the considered set.
At Deloitte whom I convinced to launch sustainable sneakers as part of their ESG strategy — and saw over 100 partners and directors actually wear them.

None of those things started with a green light. They started with a conversation. And then another. And another. People often think that once you’ve done it once, it gets easier. That you just replicate the playbook. But that’s not how this works.

Every time, you start at zero. The context changes. The people change. And the resistance always finds a new shape. What does change is you. You start recognising the patterns. You learn where the real blockers sit. You know when to push, when to reframe, when to wait. But the effort — the emotional labour — stays.

Because this isn’t about rolling out a plan.
It’s about standing for something. About being willing to carry it.

And when you do that — when you move people — you create a movement.