Tap into the power of Influence to create meaningful change in your work and personal life.
- Updated: November 4, 2020
Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, Second Edition is one of the best books on influence I have read. It provides you with a visual framework you can use and refer to. The framework is a six-quadrant grid which helps us identify ways to influence key behaviours in ourselves and others.
Having a framework for thinking about and discussing influencing change is beneficial. This is a book for everyone.
In Influencer, the authors (Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler) present proven skills, principles, and strategies to help you tap into the power of influence.
With that, you can create fast, impactful, and lasting change in any aspect of your work and personal life.
3 Keys to Becoming an Influencer
You need the following 3 keys to influence change and can use them to influence behaviours.
1. Focus and Measure
Influencers are truly clear about the results they want. The first thing they do is focus and measure.
You must clarify what you want, why and when you want it before attempting any change.
An overwhelming majority of influence attempts fail at the beginning by neglecting this first key.
Unsuccessful attempts at change make one of three early mistakes that weaken their influence:
1. Fuzzy, uncompelling goals:
The goal tends to be vague.
(“Empower our employees,” “Help inner city kids,” or “Build the team”).
2. Infrequent or no measures:
Even when the intended result is quite clear, unsuccessful influencers rarely develop credible measures against which to match their goals.
(“Develop a culture of candid communication”),
3. Bad measures:
And finally, influencers who fail have driven the wrong behaviour by measuring the wrong variable.
3 principles applied to get an effective result:
• Set specific, meaningful and time-bound goals.
A “help the poor” goal is vague and subjective, whereas a goal to “save 500,000 lives in poverty-stricken countries from poverty-related diseases by 31 Dec 2025″ is specific.
• Measure frequently.
Something measured regularly and given constant attention will drive behaviours.
A change agent must invest the time, effort, and resources to collect specific data and metrics and track the actual progress to effectively influence change.
• Measure the right things that will drive the behaviours you want to change.
it may be a mistake to directly track the number of sexual assaults If the objective is to reduce sexual aggression. if people are afraid to report the assaults, there may be a drop in assault cases when the actual situation is getting worse. Alternatively, it may be better to measure if people feel safe from sexual assaults and if they feel safe to report such assaults.
2. Identify Vital Behaviours
Once you know your desired outcomes, you must define the behavioural change required to achieve those results. Influencers do not dilute their efforts over dozens of behaviours. They focus on a few high-leverage behaviours that will create the greatest impact.
After identifying possible vital behaviours, test the solutions with other failed groups to see if they deliver the desired results.
You can draw from 4 vital behaviour search strategies:
• Notice the obvious. Recognize behaviours that are obvious but underused.
• Look for crucial moments. Find times when behaviour puts success at risk.
• Learn from positive deviants. Distinguish behaviours that set apart positive deviants. These live in the same world but somehow produce much better results.
• Spot culture busters. Find behaviours that reverse stubborn cultural norms and taboos.
3. Use the 6 Sources Of Influence
You must get people to implement those behaviours after the exact results you want and the vital behaviours that will get you there. Influencers use 6 different sources of influence to drive vital behaviours at various levels to effect change.
These 6 sources of influence jointly address 2 driving forces across 3 domains:
• All human behaviours depend on 2 drivers:
(i) Ability – whether you can do the necessary, and
(ii) Motivation – whether you think it is worth it.
• You can apply these 2 drivers in the 3 domains:
(i) Personal,
(ii) Social and
(iii) Structural.
The 6 sources of influence are as follows:
1. Personal Motivation: Help Them Love What They Hate
Influencers increase personal motivation by making painful things pleasurable by:
– Giving people the freedom of choice,
– Let people experience the long-term implications of their choices first-hand,
– Telling meaningful stories and
– Make vital behaviours a game.
2. Personal Ability: Help Them Do What They Cannot Do
Influencers improve people’s ability to execute the vital behaviours by equipping people with:
– Technical skills,
– Interpersonal skills and
– Intrapersonal skills.
3. Social Motivation: Provide Encouragement
influencers use 3 best practices to amplify their social influence and the impact of social support:
– Using the “Power of One”,
– Engaging both formal and informal leaders, and
– Creating new forms.
4. Social Ability: Help
Influencers build social capital to provide the help, approval or cooperation needed for individuals to adopt new behaviours.
5. Structural Motivation: Change Their Economy
Influencers will ensure that any extrinsic rewards and punishments will support rather than undermine the desired vital behaviours.
6. Structural Ability: Change Their Space
Influencers are aware of the effect of environmental factors such as buildings, colours, sounds, etc. on behaviours. They know how to shape them to enable vital behaviours.
Conclusion
You can change almost anything by using the 3 keys to influence:
1. Focus and measure
2. Define vital behaviours, and
3. Using the 6 sources of influence.
You can find comprehensive case studies supported by evidence to illustrate how Influencer principles and strategies work from the book. You can obtain useful ideas to help you formulate influence strategies for a broad range of challenges be it personal, organisational, or societal.