10
Become an Influencer
They gave me away as a prize once—a Win Tony Curtis for a Weekend competition. The woman who won was disappointed. She’d hoped for second prize—a new stove.
—Tony Curtis
This book started with a bold assertion. We claimed that if you bundle the right number and type of influences into a robust influence strategy, you can change virtually anything. At first blush, this claim seems ludicrous. Obviously there are thousands of things out there that none of us will ever change. Take gravity. It’s been around for a while and doesn’t appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. From there we explained that the change we were referring to is in our inability to alter the human behaviors that are key to achieving many of our most cherished goals.
Notwithstanding the enormous resistance you may often see, we shared research data and real-life success stories that clearly demonstrate that you can change almost any human behavior—and maintain that change for years. That is, you can if you follow the three keys we’ve been elucidating.
To breathe life into these three keys, we shared a theory of influence, originally postulated by Dr. Albert Bandura and then applied by tenacious influencers such as Dr. Mimi Silbert of Delancey Street—who routinely helps people alter some of the most dreadful and entrenched behaviors imaginable. As a result of Silbert’s efforts, thousands of former criminals and drug addicts have transformed into productive citizens. Better still, her success rate hovers above 90 percent in a world where 10 percent is seen as a breakthrough. Mimi is a lifetime student of influence.
We also looked at Dr. Don Berwick and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) group. He and his team of dedicated change agents went toe-to-toe with the rather entrenched and resistant medical establishment and found a way to save over 100,000 lives a year—every year. And they did this not through a medical miracle or political power but by applying sound principles of influence. They too figured out how to get people to change.
We also looked at the soon-to-be completed work being done with Guinea worm disease in sub-Saharan Africa. Following a long tradition of outside experts lecturing and tsk-tsk-ing the locals for enacting behaviors that cause them to ingest and harbor Guinea worms, a group consisting of a handful of professionals from the Carter Center, together with the cooperation of hundreds of on-site influencers, has all but eliminated the dreaded disease worldwide. As a result of their efforts, one day soon the very last Guinea worm will have been eliminated from the face of the earth. Forever. And, once again, this heroic accomplishment didn’t come through advances in medicine or technology but through the work of influence experts who moved beyond lectures and have found a way to get millions of absolute strangers, spread halfway across the world, to change their behavior.
There’s more. With the first release of this book, many of our readers were inspired by the influencers we’ve spotlighted and decided that they would apply what they learned from these pages to their own goals. Now, scarcely a week passes that we don’t hear from individuals who have transformed their relationships, families, work groups, companies, and communities—through the application of these same influence principles.
For example, we will never forget the moving stories of leaders who have reduced costly and tragic industrial accidents to nearly zero. One excited manager called our offices to announce that through the application of sound influence principles, there were 12 families in his company who hadn’t lost a loved one over the past year. He didn’t know who they were, simply that the number of deaths in his company had dropped by a dozen. Other intrepid change agents have stemmed the flow of students leaving school early, reduced hospital-acquired infections, or even helped addicts kick their habit. The list of their impressive achievements only increases as more and more people learn to affect rather than merely be affected by the world around them.
Both these everyday change agents and skilled professionals teach us the same lesson: when it comes to influencing human behavior, the sky’s the limit. If you know how to make use of the right influence tools and bring them to bear on a carefully designed effort, you too can change anything.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
We all have ability. The difference is how we use it.
—Stevie Wonder
As you lead out with your own influence challenge, think back to the earlier chapters and remember those three all-important keys to creating change. First, your influence begins when you learn to focus and measure. Identify what you really want. Then create measures that rivet your attention on your inspiring goal. Measure frequently. And ensure not just that you measure the right thing, but that your measures are influencing the right behavior.
This step may require more analysis than first meets the eye. For instance, while working with a group of manufacturing executives who were doing their level best to improve the quality of the products they shipped, the company leaders picked their goal. They wanted their quality numbers to improve 30 percent by a certain date. That sounded good.
Then the operating manager pointed out that in the past they had been able to eke out quality improvements, but it felt like squeezing blood from a turnip. It required extraordinary leadership focus and effort. “I don’t simply want the quality measure to improve,” the manager stated. “I want to create a place filled with employees who care about quality. Just think what it would be like if employees, of their own initiative, were constantly making quality improvements—requiring little or no oversight—because they cared about quality the same as everyone in this room does.” That became the leaders’ new target of focus and measure.
This challenge of digging until you find what you really want spreads across every potential change project. For instance, when you work with individuals who operate fitness centers, you soon discover that they too have learned to look for what people truly want. Clients routinely explain that they desire to lose a certain number of pounds, but when you peel back the onion’s layers, you learn that what they really want is the energy, flexibility, self-esteem, and other benefits associated with healthier living—calling for not merely a change in the foods they consume but in their exercise patterns as well. As the once-popular advertising campaign suggested, people “on a diet” need to focus on what they’re going to gain from their change and not solely on what they’re trying to lose. With personal health issues, if you don’t focus on the complete package of what you really want, you can end up thin but also weak, creaky, cranky, and listless. So, as you start your own change effort, take the time to identify what you really want.
Next, find vital behaviors. Don’t squander your influence efforts by putting a lot of effort on fuzzy definitions of what you want to change. (Not unlike the pilot who comes on the plane’s PA system and announces: “I have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is that we’re lost; the good news is that we’re making good time.”) Don’t put precious energy into strategies that rapidly propel you in the wrong direction. Instead, identify the two or three behaviors that will drive a disproportionate amount of change and aim your efforts at those.
Where do you find these high-leverage actions? Sometimes they’re easy to spot, but tough to get people to do. Other times you can use crucial moments—moments when someone’s choices have a disproportionate effect on many things that follow—as a clue to find them. Often there are positive deviants you can study to see what they do differently to produce much better results. And finally, keep your eyes open for behaviors required to bust old cultural norms that are keeping you stuck.
Finally, engage all six sources of influence. Like the emphasis in this book, most of your efforts to develop a potent influence strategy should focus on this third key. Figure out which sources of influence are working against you. Then engage all six sources of influence as you create your influence strategy. You probably won’t hit upon the best combination of influence tools without personal research, even trial and error. But do it. Add a source of influence, see how it works, then make adjustments as called for. Here are a few suggestions as you search for the right combination of influence strategies.
DON’T CONFUSE TINKERING WITH A GENUINE EFFORT
When we first studied corporate leaders who had attempted to create a massive change in their organizations, we asked them how successful they had been in creating widespread and lasting change. Then we asked them to select from an extensive list the actual change methods they had used. The list included everything from speeches to training to the use of opinion leaders. To our astonishment, most of the leaders had used only one or two methods. Not to our astonishment, most of their change efforts had failed.
As we looked for the story behind these startling statistics, we learned that it was common for leaders to enter the serious business of overcoming massive problems with a troubling attitude. It was as if they were saying, “Let’s try a couple of things and see what happens.” They appeared reluctant to put together a comprehensive effort, for fear that if it failed, they would lose face. Better to merely tinker around; then, if it doesn’t work, well, they hadn’t tried all that hard, so no big deal. Unfortunately, giving a speech or something equally weak probably isn’t going to be sufficient to solve teacher burnout, inner-city crime, project delays, and the like. Nevertheless, many of the leaders we studied felt perfectly comfortable tinkering rather than leading change.
Other would-be influencers we studied appeared to be toying with change because all they really wanted to achieve was the ability to cover themselves. For instance, in one company after an ugly incident in which a group of visiting schoolchildren taking a plant tour walked by a work group only to hear them cursing profusely, the plant manager responded in a curious way. When we asked him about the swearing incident, his response was rapid and angry: “They know better than to curse. I recently wrote a memo!” From there he did nothing to resolve the problem in the future. He had written his memo. He was now covered.
Perhaps the most common form of tinkering with influence is less a function of self-deception and more one of economy. Leaders earnestly apply an element or two from a change program they’ve recently examined—but only an element or two. They may realize that their entire culture calls for an overhaul, but they choose to implement only a few elements because they’re looking to create change “on the cheap.”
Dr. Mimi Silbert told us that over the past three decades, she has invested a great deal of time with people who have traveled halfway around the world to learn what she’s done to help criminals and drug addicts become productive citizens. Silbert tells those who visit Delancey Street the whole story—emphasizing each of the elements required to make the venture succeed. She clarifies the exact vital behaviors the organization tries to encourage. Then she goes to great pains to ensure that the influence strategy makes good use of all six sources of influence.
More often than not, the travelers leave Delancey Street filled with hope. Then they go home and create change “on the cheap” by selecting one idea to add to their existing ineffective effort. Of course, this single element rarely adds enough horsepower to create change, so their “new and improved” strategy fails, and the earnest change agents wonder why their effort didn’t work—often suggesting (incorrectly) that Mimi’s results are idiosyncratic and can’t be scaled.
Would-be influencers are continually relying on this cafeteria-style method of tinkering in which they select only a few elements from a broader change menu. For example, if you look at the diffusion of the North Carolina “Second-Chance” strategy we described in Chapter 8, you’ll find that it follows a predictable and lamentable path. Remember the clever crime reduction strategy where soon-to-be-arrested drug dealers were brought into a room filled with pictures of them committing crimes? At one point the local district attorney shows a video montage made up of criminal scenes taken of each of the subjects in action and then asks the subjects to raise their hand when they see themselves committing a felony. And they do.
This method for creating a sense of impending doom is coupled with family support, job training, and several other essential ingredients that have yielded encouraging results. In fact, the designers of second-chance programs go to great pains to ensure that all six sources of influence are incorporated into their efforts.
The impressive results of the comprehensive effort have since been reported in the press. Police leaders enthusiastically read about the strategy and select a few of the elements they think their city council will approve, or they choose a couple for which they can secure funding. Or perhaps they give extra attention to a strategy they are already implementing but can now call a “second-chance program.” And sure enough, after they employ only one or two elements from the overall intervention, the change effort fails. In the end, eager would-be influencers search for another change plan that they then choose from selectively and implement poorly—thus failing all over again.
Whatever the rationale for tinkering, the cost of putting forth a tepid effort can be extraordinary. In addition to the fact that addressing profound problems with trivial solutions doesn’t create the changes you desire, you do create a reputation for not being able to create change. At the personal level, repeated failures can lead to a loss of self-confidence. Eventually you stop attempting to make the world a better place and work on honing your coping techniques instead. At the community level, repeated failures can harm your reputation. Soon your latest change ideas are tagged “program-of-the-month” or “another one of Mom’s crazy ideas!” When you slip to this state, as you invent new notions, others ridicule your plans, offer no help in implementing them, and wait for them to fail. Which they do.
Think about the challenge in the following fashion. If you were facing six hulking behemoths pulling on one side of a rope, what hope would you have of pulling them in a new direction by sending a fourth-grade child to the other side? Your only hope would be to remove the forces pulling against you and add forces pulling for you or—even better—doing both. In short, you become an effective influencer when, and only when, you learn to overdetermine change by amassing sufficient sources of influence to make change inevitable.
DIAGNOSE BEFORE YOU PRESCRIBE
Be warned, just being aware of the six-source model doesn’t guarantee that you’ll apply it correctly. If you’re facing a daunting influence challenge, you would do well to follow the lead of savvy influencers. Diagnose before you prescribe. Anything else is malpractice. Figure out which sources of influence are behind the behavior you’re trying to change before you come up with corresponding influence tactics. Most leaders fail to take this essential step and simply throw together an influence strategy they believe should work under any circumstances. More often than not, they apply the latest and hottest technique they’ve just heard or read about—often from a friend or relative who knows less about the topic than they do.
Skilled influencers avoid this hasty and costly mistake. For example, consider Dr. Warren Warwick of Fairview University Children’s Hospital. He realized that his recommended treatment regimes were no better than his influence strategy. He could recommend various treatments, but if his patients didn’t implement them, what good was he? Would he end up acting like the executive who curtly responded: “But I wrote them a memo!”? In one rather intriguing case, an 18-year-old cystic fibrosis patient he was treating wasn’t conforming to her treatment plan. Rather than launch into a lecture about how she would suffocate in a few years if she continued to slack off, Dr. Warwick stopped and diagnosed the underlying cause. Rather than asking “What the heck is wrong with her?,” Dr. Warwick tried to understand why she would fail to do something that would save her life. As he listened, he learned that there were several reasons behind the lapse.
The patient had a new boyfriend with whom she was staying half the time. Her mother had typically administered the treatments, but now the patient was often not at home at the prescribed times. She had started a job and was working nights. The school she attended changed policies and now required a nurse to administer her medicine. Deciding that this was a pain, she stopped taking the medicine. Worst of all, in spite of losing 20 percent of her lung capacity in the previous two months, she felt fine and concluded that fewer treatments were okay. The more Dr. Warwick listened to the patient, the more he realized that she was failing to follow standard procedure for several different reasons. When he understood the sources of influence he was up against, he and the patient then were able to develop a tailored plan that literally saved her life.
TRY ADDING A SOURCE
At the core of every true talent there is an awareness of the difficulties inherent in any achievement, and the confidence that by persistence and patience, something worthwhile will be realized.
—Eric Hoffer
As you look at your existing circumstance (including the current problem and the efforts you’re taking to resolve it), it’s important to realize that even though big influence challenges call for big solutions, you may already be most of the way there. Sometimes all it takes to create change is to add one more source of influence to your existing efforts. Perhaps several sources already support your vital behaviors—and the threshold for change is just one source away. What a shame it would be to have traveled 99 miles of a 100-mile journey only to quit at the very edge of success.
For example, you may have realized that if you simply build deliberate practice into your attempt to help your children learn to love reading, you could make enormous strides. You may have been struck with the insanity of sending people off to corporate training programs and then dropping them back into a social climate where no one reinforces the concepts they were taught. So you’ve added social and structural reinforcement into your change plan. Perhaps you’ve carted your treadmill from the basement up to your bedroom where you don’t have to fight the deadly power of propinquity.
In any case, don’t be intimidated at the prospect of coming up with six new sources. You probably have several of them currently working in your favor. Then, as you do add new ones, consider it an experiment. You can’t and don’t want to use every possible source of influence, so pick the ones you think are best suited to your circumstances, are the most powerful, and are the easiest to implement, and go from there. Then, don’t expect that you can put together the perfect combination of influence methods the very first time. Instead, prepare for “trial and learn.” Put a method into play, observe the impact, learn from the effort, make changes, and repeat until perfected.
JOIN THE COMMUNITY
Influencers not only overdetermine their results. They also rarely work alone. More often than not, big challenges require a community of influencers working in concert. As an increasing number of people apply the works of Bandura, Silbert, Swai, Hopkins, Berwick, and other influence experts to problems of every kind, new and vibrant influence communities are springing up each day.
Join one. Work alongside friends, colleagues, and experts. By collaborating with others to bring every influence tool imaginable to bear on your problems, you’ll see how the combined power of your group’s influence methods is far greater than the sum of the individual parts. Start by visiting influencerhook.com, where we provide a worksheet to help you prepare for and organize your next influence project. On this website you’ll also be able to view short segments of interviews with a few of the influencers you’ve already met in this book.
Finally, if you’d like to take a measure of your existing influence skills, the website offers a self-assessment that not only gives you a view into your existing influence repertoire but can also help you develop the next steps for becoming an effective influencer. Enjoy!
So it’s time to get started. Identify what you really want and how you’re going to measure it. Discover the handful of high-leverage behaviors that will help you reach this objective. Then identify and get working in your favor not just one or two but all six sources of influence. As you apply each source, carefully study the results; learn what is working and what isn’t, and then make changes. As you learn how to keep the right focus, adopt the right actions, and master the six sources, you too will become an influencer.