The authors give enough persuasive information and illustrations that one has all the tools one needs to bring about real change IF one is willing to apply what one read. Excellent material. (

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lbradf | Jan 17, 2009 |

This book articulates the strategies that the world's most influential people use to solve persistent, resistant problems. The biggest eye-opener for me was the point that verbal persuasion can't solve all the world's problems, especially when you're trying to convince someone to change their behavior. I've always believed in the power of a carefully crafted argument and prided myself on being able to put forth an effective argument for certain things. But this book made me realize that verbal persuasion is just one eensy weensy technique in the grab-bag of influential techniques, and it's an overused and often ineffective technique at that.

I love how this book teases out the different techniques and gives lots of examples of each. The authors recommend that you read it with a problem in mind that you want to solve. The problem I kept in mind as I was reading was how to get more people at my company to recycle everything that's possible to recycle. Too many times at work, I walk by a trash can that contains a perfectly recyclable piece of paper or aluminum can. And the recycling bin is right. next. to. the. trash. If the person had just moved their hand a measly couple of inches to one side, they could have dropped the item in a recycling bin instead of the trash! But I digress...

For some of the techniques, I immediately got ideas for how to apply them to this problem. For others, I couldn't think of anything. So while I don't think all these techniques will work for every problem, this book certainly made me look at the lack of recycling at my office in a new light, and it gave me a renewed sense of hope for increasing the amount we recycle.

I'm going to put this on my wish list to own because I could see myself referring to it fairly often. The authors also have a web site, influencerbook.com, with a worksheet you can fill out to brainstorm solutions to a problem you're trying to solve. (

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snozzberry | May 18, 2008 |

This book has great real life stories in it. It sets forth principles for influencing others. I learned a lot, but I'm still not sure how to apply all the principles. I listened to it while on the treadmill. This is one I think I need to go back and read. I may understand the application better when I can concentrate on the book alone and not be distracted by my exercise routine. (

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mentormom | Apr 23, 2008 |

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mentormom | Apr 23, 2008 |

extended abstract only. some very practical and useful points that can be used immediately. (

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sphinx | Mar 25, 2008 |

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Epigraph

Dedication

We dedicate this book to influencers everywhere -- to the tenacious scholars and practitioners who, through the careful blending of theory and experience, have not only added to an ever-growing knowledge of how things work, but have also curbed the cynic's smirk, restored hope, and made it possible for each of us to become a powerful agent of change.

First words

Quotations

For now, let's meet the one almost all cited as the scholar or scholars: Albert Bandura. He's a genius whom influence masters routinely study. When we first entered the offices of the practitioners we studied, most displayed Dr. Bandura's works on their bookshelves. His name leaped out at us because our history with him goes back over 30 years.

In fact, his strategy focuses on an outcome, not on behaviors. What he's really saying is that if he does something right, as a result of his efforts he'll burn more calories than he eats. What he has to do is still unknown.
Confusing outcomes with behaviors is no small issue. In fact, when you look at most failed influence strategies, you're likely to find at least one example of means/ends confusion.

One of the vital behaviors consists of the use of praise versus the use of punishment. Top performers reward positive performance far more frequently than their counterparts. Bottom performers quickly become discouraged and mutter things such as, "Didn't I just teach you that two minutes ago?" The best consistently reinforce even moderately good performance, and learning flourishes.

Since lectures don't work with phobics and you can't get them to conquer their fear through personal experience, you have to find something in between--something more than words and less than personal action. This "in between" thing turns out to be one of the most highly valued tools in any influence genius's arsenal. It's referred to as vicarious experience.

Here's how vicarious experience works. When you expose subjects to other people who are demonstrating a vital behavior, the subjects learn from the surrogates's successes and failures. Watching others in action is the next best thing to experiencing something on your own.

If you want to change behavior, any behavior, you have to change maps of cause and effect.

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Effective stories and other vicarious experiences overcome this flaw. A well-told narrative provides concrete and vivid detail rather than terse summaries and unclear conclusions. It changes people's view of how the world works because it presents a plausible, touching, and memorable flow of cause and effect that can alter people's view of the consequences of various actions or beliefs.

It turns out that one of the keys to motivation lies in a force just barely outside the activity itself. It lies in the mastery of ever-more challenging goals.

Bandura's research has uncovered four processes that allow individuals to act in ways that are clearly disconnected from their moral compass. These strategies that transform us into amoral agents include moral justification, dehumanization, minimizing, and displacing responsibility.

She explains, "I don't like the word self-esteem. Ultimately if you don't earn your own self-respect, you'll tear yourself apart. No one else can give it to you. It doesn't come from sitting in a group and having someone say, 'I feel very good about you.' . . . You convince yourself over time that you're good, and it takes hard work.

"But you can't do it alone. You don't get it by someone helping you. You get it by you helping someone else. It's being the helper that makes you like yourself. So will you confront people who screw up? Yes, you will. Will you take responsibility for someone else's problems? Yes, you will. And when you do, you'll respect yourself. Because you matter when you matter to someone else."

This discovery led Miller to develop an influence method called motivational interviewing. Through a skillful use of open and nondirective questions, the counselor helps others examine what is most important to them and what changes in their life might be required in order for them to live according to their values. When you listen and they talk, they discover on their own what they must do. Then they make the necessary changes.

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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 007148499X, Hardcover)

An INFLUENCER motivates others to change.

An INFLUENCER replaces bad behaviors with powerful new skills.

An INFLUENCER makes things happen.

This is what it takes to be an INFLUENCER.

Whether you're a CEO, a parent, or merely a person who wants to make a difference, you probably wish you had more influence with the people in your life. But most of us stop trying to make change happen because we believe it is too difficult, if not impossible. We develop complicated coping strategies when we should be learning the tools and techniques of the world's most influential people.

But this is about to change. From the bestselling authors who taught the world how to have Crucial Conversations comes Influencer, a thought-provoking book that combines the remarkable insights of behavioral scientists and business leaders with the astonishing stories of high-powered influencers from all walks of life. You'll be taught each and every step of the influence process-including robust strategies for making change inevitable in your personal life, your business, and your world. You'll learn how to:

Identify a handful of high-leverage behaviors that lead to rapid and profound change. Apply strategies for changing both thoughts and actions. Marshall six sources of influence to make change inevitable.

Influencer takes you on a fascinating journey from San Francisco to Thailand where you'll see how seemingly “insignificant” people are making incredibly significant improvements in solving problems others would think impossible. You'll learn how savvy folks make change not only achievable and sustainable, but inevitable. You'll discover why some managers have increased productivity repeatedly and significantly-while others have failed miserably.

No matter who you are, or what you do, you'll never learn a more valuable or important set of principles and skills. Once you tap into the power of influence, you can reach out and help others work smarter, grow faster, live, look, and feel better, even save lives. The sky is the limit…for an Influencer.

Are you an Influencer ?

Find out at www.influencerbook.com

”You don't have to be a manager to realize that no one likes being told what to do. Yet lectures are still the main way we try to get people to change their behavior. Fortunately, social learning academics have been studying alternatives for decades. Patterson and his fellow consultants have now collected their findings in this engaging, example-rich book. The key message is hardly new, but it has gotten more sophisticated: Managers need to get out of the way and facilitate, not manage, the process of change for employees. They can do this by offering vicarious experiences, restructured environments, peer pressure, and frequent tests-all geared so that people embrace the change as authentic to them, not imposed by an outsider. Missing are only success stories of organizations that persuaded managers to drop their controlling habits and choose to be mere facilitators.”-John T. Landry, Harvard Business Review

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:23 -0400)

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