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An old fable goes (something like):

Allied soldiers were returning home from the war. They were hungry. They went into a village which was locked down from being so poor and ravaged. The soldiers put on a pot of water and put three stones in it. One villager asked “what is it”? The soldiers cunningly replied “it’s stone soup, but it would be much better with carrots”. The gullible villager ran off and gave up his hard-earned communist rations for the good of the soup. Later, another Red came up and was told by the soldiers “Potatoes give the soup body”, and he too was brainwashed into handing over his commie rations. Eventually all of the village were duped by the infidel soldiers, but shared in the communal flavour that was the soup.

The moral of the story is that you should 

Be a Catalyst For Change

If you need to make large changes, momentum will be slow and there will be little buy-in. Start with something small which piques people’s interest and develop it. One you’ve got it, show people and then say “of course it would be better if we added…”. Given the immediate result of having seen some progress, people will be more receptive to change.

The flip-side to all of this is the problem that the villagers lost sight of the greater picture. They were all heavily focused on their own little agendas they couldn’t see the forest from the trees.

Remember the Big Picture

A frog placed into boiling water will jump out. But a frog placed into cold water and slowly boiled will stay there until he is moist and juicy. The frog doesn’t notice the change. Don’t be like the frog - keep an eye on the big picture and constantly review what’s happening around you - not just what you personally are doing.

Challenge
The soldiers progressively deceive the villagers, but the change they catalyse does them all good. OTOH, by deceiving the frog, you’re doing it harm. Can you determine whether you’re making stone soup or frog soup when trying to catalyse change?

It’s a difficult question to answer because the intention you set out with may not be the result you achieve. The soldiers intent was to make an entire meal, which is a positive outcome from one perspective, but from the other perspective the villagers have probably consumed more rations than they would ordinarily have in order to make the large pot of soup, and therefore have placed themselves in a more difficult position long-term, for a short-term gain. Keeping constant checks on the situation would help to ensure no unnecessary rations went into the soup thereby keeping the process mutually beneficial to all.

The Pragmatic Programmer: CH1-3