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geekwayne's review against another edition
3.0
'Influencer: The Power To Change Anything' gives the reader a set of tools to influence and motivate others. Through a series of tools and stories of how these tools have worked for others, the concepts are reiterated and reinforced.
The illustrations include a prison release program that has a high success rate, and a soap opera that teaches villagers that it's wrong to abuse women. Other illustrations include corporate change and weight loss. With tools like harnessing peer pressure and finding vital behaviours, this becomes quickly valuable. The authors warn that the six tools in the book must all be utilized. There is no piecemeal approach to the art of influence, but if the stories are any indication, these are powerful tools.
The stories get repeated to illustrate different aspects, which is good, but there is a repetitive type of introduction that got a bit old, but I suppose if you were to come back to the book as a refresher on a certain chapter then maybe this comes in handy. The authors offer a training and resources based on this on their website. Interesting and practical.
I was given a review copy of this ebook by McGraw-Hill Professional and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this book.
The illustrations include a prison release program that has a high success rate, and a soap opera that teaches villagers that it's wrong to abuse women. Other illustrations include corporate change and weight loss. With tools like harnessing peer pressure and finding vital behaviours, this becomes quickly valuable. The authors warn that the six tools in the book must all be utilized. There is no piecemeal approach to the art of influence, but if the stories are any indication, these are powerful tools.
The stories get repeated to illustrate different aspects, which is good, but there is a repetitive type of introduction that got a bit old, but I suppose if you were to come back to the book as a refresher on a certain chapter then maybe this comes in handy. The authors offer a training and resources based on this on their website. Interesting and practical.
I was given a review copy of this ebook by McGraw-Hill Professional and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this book.
ekb523's review against another edition
3.0
I really like the simple influence structure this book provides. The biggest reason I’m giving it 3 stars (instead of higher) is that to implement effectively and change your practice I think you need to be working alongside a coach.
papidoc's review against another edition
5.0
Influencer is the latest from the fertile minds of the folks at VitalSmarts. Building heavily on their former books, Crucial Conversations and Crucial Confrontations, Influencer uses their six-cell matrix (first discussed in Crucial Confrontations) to analyze and explore methods for influencing others (or yourself) to change for the better. They identify and explain a handful of high-leverage actions that one can take that will help lead to powerful and lasting changes in individuals and organizations. They outline strategies that incorporate those high-leverage behaviors and the elements of the six-cell matrix to bring about change and that will lead to the outcomes we desire.
Along the way they use a variety of potent examples from all around the world to illustrate their methods. These examples alone are worth the time to read the book, but the methods they describe are of tremendous value. You’ll see the commonalities in eradicating a plague of Guinea worms, the successes of a halfway house for ex-convicts, the elimination of behavior that puts people at risk for contracting the HIV virus, losing weight, and the problems that organizations everywhere face in achieving consistently high performance…and how those commonalities can be tapped to effect change anywhere.
Key insights such as vital behaviors, research grounded in positive deviance, recovery behaviors, results testing, vicarious learning, and the power of stories are brought together with the six sources of influence to provide the reader with a powerful way to influence change, grounded in knowledge gained from decades of study in tens of thousands of separate research efforts. These methods can be used on oneself, in dyadic interpersonal situations, families, small groups or teams, or scaled up to meet the needs of large organizations or even entire societies. I recommend it to anyone faced with the need to bring about positive and fundamental change.
Along the way they use a variety of potent examples from all around the world to illustrate their methods. These examples alone are worth the time to read the book, but the methods they describe are of tremendous value. You’ll see the commonalities in eradicating a plague of Guinea worms, the successes of a halfway house for ex-convicts, the elimination of behavior that puts people at risk for contracting the HIV virus, losing weight, and the problems that organizations everywhere face in achieving consistently high performance…and how those commonalities can be tapped to effect change anywhere.
Key insights such as vital behaviors, research grounded in positive deviance, recovery behaviors, results testing, vicarious learning, and the power of stories are brought together with the six sources of influence to provide the reader with a powerful way to influence change, grounded in knowledge gained from decades of study in tens of thousands of separate research efforts. These methods can be used on oneself, in dyadic interpersonal situations, families, small groups or teams, or scaled up to meet the needs of large organizations or even entire societies. I recommend it to anyone faced with the need to bring about positive and fundamental change.
suzemo's review against another edition
3.0
Influencer: The Power to Change was written by the same people who wrote Crucial Conversations. Both books were strongly recommended by my favorite HR trainer to improve work skills, particularly for effective communication and coaching.
I thought Influencer would be more about acting/speaking in a manner that would make one more influential through to other people, but it wasn't quite that. It does have good information re: becoming a better Influencer, but more in the line of someone who wishes to be an agent of change for behaviors and programs. Not so much a "let's speak in a way that can actually affect the way people think" so much as "here are the tools and actions that lead to major effective changes for major programmatic shifts".
It was solid, just not quite what I expected. They do lay everything out well, with the 6 behaviors/things people can do to make shifts and the importance of each. It covers everything from walking the walk to finding people to buy into programs and help assemble a team to make major changes.
I do like how it covers positive vs negative reinforcement and expected outcomes. Nothing I had not known before or anything, but it would be good information for those a little bit less versed in behavior modification and appropriate actions to make them happen. There were some good tidbits to take to heart (that I did pay attention to and will try to add to my repertoire), and it was an overall good book.
The authors also present studies and examples, which is also rather nice (vs random anecdotal evidence) and it follows several examples of change and how the different principles applied and helped the programs succeed.
I thought Influencer would be more about acting/speaking in a manner that would make one more influential through to other people, but it wasn't quite that. It does have good information re: becoming a better Influencer, but more in the line of someone who wishes to be an agent of change for behaviors and programs. Not so much a "let's speak in a way that can actually affect the way people think" so much as "here are the tools and actions that lead to major effective changes for major programmatic shifts".
It was solid, just not quite what I expected. They do lay everything out well, with the 6 behaviors/things people can do to make shifts and the importance of each. It covers everything from walking the walk to finding people to buy into programs and help assemble a team to make major changes.
I do like how it covers positive vs negative reinforcement and expected outcomes. Nothing I had not known before or anything, but it would be good information for those a little bit less versed in behavior modification and appropriate actions to make them happen. There were some good tidbits to take to heart (that I did pay attention to and will try to add to my repertoire), and it was an overall good book.
The authors also present studies and examples, which is also rather nice (vs random anecdotal evidence) and it follows several examples of change and how the different principles applied and helped the programs succeed.
jenzbookshelf's review against another edition
3.0
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.
rbogue's review
4.0
Do you have influence? Most of us want to believe that we wield influence like a machete that can cut a path through the jungle striking a bush or tree in our path and having it instantly fall out of our way but most of us who have tried to wield this weapon have been disappointed. We have left a wake of poorly adopted changes that are unwelcome proof that there’s opportunity for improvement when it comes to leveraging our influence. Influencer seeks to help us to understand how to successfully influence change and what we might have done wrong in our failed attempts to influence others to change.
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deeparcher's review against another edition
3.0
This book reminded me of Switch by the Heath brothers. I liked Switch better, but that's me.
erikars's review against another edition
4.0
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 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.)
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 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.)