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jurgenappelo's review against another edition
4.0
Good overview of change management and many great examples. Thought I find the model they use (motivation vs. ability) a bit contrived.
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.
kellyholmes's review against another edition
4.0
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.
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.
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.
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.
krisfj's review against another edition
3.0
Great concepts, but this book could easily be a pamphlet and you'd get just as much out of it.
wolvereader's review against another edition
3.0
Influencer seems like a decent overview of broad strategies for influence. I didn't love it, though. It felt too broad to be helpful, and the stories were too pat to feel realistic. Partly I was annoyed that it occasionally felt like an advertisement for [b:Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High|15014|Crucial Conversations Tools for Talking When Stakes are High|Kerry Patterson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1290394180s/15014.jpg|2051713] (which admittedly is a good book).
The overview of how to build an influence strategy is probably true, but given how broad the examples were, would probably require a ton of effort to tailor for your individual influence needs.
In the end, I think this was academically useful, but I probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone who had immediate influence needs.
The overview of how to build an influence strategy is probably true, but given how broad the examples were, would probably require a ton of effort to tailor for your individual influence needs.
In the end, I think this was academically useful, but I probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone who had immediate influence needs.
dav's review against another edition
2.0
Meh. Way too heavy on anecdotes for my taste. It could have all been boiled down to like 20-30 pages and been just as informative.
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