Influencer: The Power to Change Anything

This book presented a great model and made great use of a small number of case studies explored in depth. What keeps it from being 5-stars is primarily that many of the chapters felt overly repetitive. I almost forgave that and gave an extra star because the chapter summaries are so great — but not quite.

Influence is not a matter of personality or charisma. Rather, influence is achieved by systematically applying techniques to motivate change. Before you can apply, you need to know what change you want to achieve. Thus, the first step of the influence process is to identify the results you want and how you could measure those results.

Next, you need to find vital behaviors. These are the high-leverage activities that, if changed, can show more make a significant difference in the desired outcomes Both words are important here. These must be behaviors, not outcomes. E.g., when losing weight, "Consume fewer calories than you expend" sounds like a behavior but it is actually the outcome. Behaviors are more specific: "Use a smaller plate" is a behavior. Second, these behaviors must be vital: they must be the ones that actually drive the desired outcome. Vital behaviors can be discovered by looking at cases of positive deviance: looking to see where outcomes are unexpectedly good and seeing what they do differently than the average and bad cases. Once a vital behavior is hypothesized, it should be tested.

After identifying a vital behavior, you can start to influence. Effective influence needs to address two key questions: "Is this worth it?" (motivation) and "Can I do it?" (ability). Each of these can be influenced at a personal, social, and structural level. The bulk of the book is going through each of the six types of influence resulting from this model in detail. The brief summary (from the diagram they use throughout the book):

Personal motivation: Make the undesirable desirable. I.e., change intrinsic motivations.

Personal ability: Surpass your limits. I.e., training and practice.

Social motivation: Harness peer pressure. I.e., utilize the influence of well-respected, well-connected individuals and social norms.

Social ability: Find strength in numbers. I.e., use the social capital of a group to pool skills and resources.

Structural motivation: Design rewards and demand accountability. I.e., how to carefully supplement intrinsic and social motivation with extrinsic motivators.

Structural ability: Change the environment. I.e., change the powerful (and often unobserved) cues that influence behavior.

The book contains much more detail, as well as concrete illustrations of the principles in practice. It is worth the read. (And, I suspect, will be harder to put in practice than to read about.) show less

When Stephen Covey labeled this new book "an instant classic," I knew it was a must-read for me.

But I was floored at how brilliant this book really is.

Many books deal with some aspect or particular technique of change in people. Influencer is radically different: it presents a complete structural blueprint of the science of change, and takes you step by step through the critical factors behind change and how to apply them to any problem.

Instead of endless dry facts or empty clichés, Influencer breaks down its major points chapter by chapter, illustrating them with a detailed analysis of several real-world case studies of seemingly insurmountable change problems, including Delancy, a rehab center for hard-core criminal drug addicts show more which has an astonishing success rate of over 90%. Interspersed are personal and family case studies, research, and history all engagingly written in a well-organized, coherent style. At the end of each chapter is a summary of key concepts covered.

Influencer immediately helped me understand both my own thinking processes toward change and those of others, and jump-started good ideas for both my personal growth and solving several business issues. Influencer is by far the most original and useful book I have read this year. Highly recommended. show less

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 show more 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. show less

From a "reform school" with a 90% success rate, to HIV elimination in Bangkok, to Guinea worm (there's a reason you've probably never heard of that) eradication in Africa, to the beginning of woman's rights in India... this tells amazing and real stories. Read it, if only to realize that great things are happening. Internalize it, if you want to make changes.

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.

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.

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.