To facilitate change, chemists often use a special set of substances. These unsung heroes clean the exhaust in your car and the grime on your contact lenses. They turn air into fertilizer and petroleum into bike helmets. They speed change, enabling molecules that might take years to interact to do so in seconds.
Rather than pushing, they lower the barriers to change. And these substances are called catalysts.
Generating change is not about being more convincing or a better persuader. Instead, it’s about being a catalyst—changing minds by removing roadblocks and lowering the barriers that keep people from taking action.
