♖ Nemawashi

Hey Moaters,

A few months ago, I asked Tamara Grominsky, founder of PMM Camp, one of my favorite questions:

"What's the most underrated skill that has the biggest career impact, but almost no one talks about?"

She didn't hesitate: "The ability to drive change."

Her answer reminded me of something Alex Popp, a former colleague, told me five years ago: "The biggest decisions in large companies aren't made in the boardroom. They're made in the hallways everyday."

After 18 years in high-stakes finance nd enterprise software, where deals take 9-12 months and involve 7+ stakeholders, I've learned he was right.

That hallway work—the quiet preparation before the big decision—has a name:

Nemawashi (根回し)—my favorite Japanese word. It means "going around the roots," preparing the soil before you transplant a tree.

It's the invisible skill that separates leaders who drive real change from those who just talk about it.

And nowhere is this skill more essential than in one of the hardest changes any company can make: pricing.

Why Pricing Work Is Actually Change Management Work

Here's something most people don't understand about pricing transformation: the math is the easy part.

The hard part? Getting a CEO, CFO, VP of Product, VP of Sales, Head of Engineering, and Customer Success leader to agree on anything. Every single one has legitimate concerns and organizational power. Every single one could torpedo the initiative if they don't feel heard.

The difference between pricing projects that succeed and those that die in committee? Nemawashi.

I've asked nearly a dozen former Pricing I/O clients what the team's biggest value was. The answer almost always comes down to two words: alignment & confidence.

At Pricing I/O, the team doesn't show up with "the answer." They spend weeks having quiet conversations. Listening to fears. Testing ideas privately. Building trust before building the model.

By the time the "big presentation" happens, there are no surprises. The decision has already been made; privately, collaboratively, one conversation at a time.

The Invisible Skill That Actually Drives Change

Most Western leaders approach change backwards. We build the perfect strategy, code the product, craft the deck, then announce it—expecting everyone to fall in line.

What happens? Resistance. Confusion. Passive-aggressive Slack threads.

McKinsey found that 70% of change initiatives fail due to poor stakeholder buy-in. Prosci found initiatives with strong early alignment have an 8x higher success rate.

The best leaders don't skip the root work. They obsess over it.

The 4R Framework for Change That Sticks

After watching our team guide software leaders through pricing transformations—and observing my own trial-and-error—I've broken Nemawashi into a repeatable 4R system you can adopt for your situation.

Our pricing engagements at Pricing I/O unfold in three phases, but what makes it work isn't the frameworks, it's the invisible change management woven throughout. We listen deeply upfront, run multi-day workshops where every voice gets heard, and build momentum so by launch, the new pricing feels inevitable, not imposed.

1. Relationships — Build Trust Before Agenda

People don't resist ideas, they resist you if they don't trust you.

Before proposing any pricing model, Pricing I/O spends weeks understanding not just the business case, but the personal risk each stakeholder faces.

The breakthrough: Ask "What would make this easier for you?" When you address the person before the problem, you remove the biggest barrier: fear.

2. Rehearsal — Preview Ideas Privately

Never debut a big idea cold. Test it first. Let people poke holes. Refine it together.

The team runs multi-day workshops where executives work through pricing models together. It's not a presentation—it's a collaboration. By the end, executives stop saying "your pricing model" and start saying "our pricing model."

This is where the magic happens.

Tactical move: Before your next big decision, schedule 3-5 one-on-ones. Share your thinking. Ask for feedback. Incorporate it.

3. Repetition — Seed Ideas Until They Feel Familiar

Change fails when people feel surprised. Repetition removes surprise.

Share your idea across multiple formats: a coffee chat, a Slack message, a team sync, a one-pager. Each touch builds familiarity. Each repetition reduces resistance.

By the time you "announce" it, it's old news. And old news feels safe.

4. Resolution — Align Publicly, Decide Once

If your "decision meeting" has debate, you skipped the earlier steps. By the time you go public, the decision should be made. The meeting exists to commit, not convince.

Use language like "we've landed," not "I've decided." The work of alignment happened privately. The public moment is just confirmation.

When Pricing I/O presents their final recommendation, every decision-maker has already reviewed and contributed to it.

By rollout, the new pricing doesn't feel like a change, it feels like the natural next step everyone helped create.

That's Nemawashi: when done right, resistance disappears because people already own the outcome.

Why This Matters More Than Ever

We're obsessed with speed—ship fast, fail fast, move fast. But fast execution still fails if people aren't ready.

AI can build features faster. But it can't prepare your CFO for a pricing change. It can't help your sales team trust a new comp plan.

That's Nemawashi. That's human work. In a world optimizing for velocity, leaders who master preparation will win.

The Takeaway

Before your next big decision or transformation, spend time in the roots.

Have the private conversations before one public meeting. Map who needs to believe before you ask them to commit. Build trust before you build the deck.

You'll be amazed how fast things move when people already believe.

'Til next time,

—Ali

P.S. Feeling pressure to move faster than feels right? Hit reply. I read every response and often use them to spark future issues. Your challenge might become the next one that helps hundreds of leaders.

About Me: I'm Ali, Head of Growth at Pricing I/O. I write The Moat to help B2B leaders think differently about strategy, growth, and execution. Learn more about my story on LinkedIn.