Own it, then change it

The only way to have create influence in a culture (not the uncreated influence that coincidentally happens, but a planned change) is to first own the culture. You have to know exactly how the culture works, fit into the culture and then from the inside you can make the changes. Change can only come when it is relevant to the current cultural climate, and springs from the cultural climate. Pushing a culture from the outside is too hard and foreign. People have to find a change perfectly fitting to who they are, or a part of who they want to be before they will follow it.

Consider Socrates: His persuasion technique was to ask questions. The listener would then give their most logical answer to the question. Each question would be part of a theme, but not a question about the theme itself. They would then build up, and lead to a logical conclusion about the big theme, which is different from the gut reaction the person would have had in the beginning. Through this he would not only get the person to believe what he wanted them to, but would make them find the answer in themselves. Pushing from the inside.