Influencer: The Power to Change Anything

Insightful. Readable. Easy to remember structure. Easy to teach others the change structure they offer. I've had health care operations senior managers reference it during change initiatives to make sure they covered all six sources. I'd recommend everyone drop the complicated and complex change management structures they use and adopt this.

The book is full of good advice, that if followed, will have no choice, but to bring success. I bought a copy for myself and after reading my copy I bought one for my boss. She told me it was the best gift, I could ever give her.

I loved this book. It has excellent examples of real life changes made. Learnings from this book are useful in you personal and professional life. The website mentioned at the end did not work for me. I can't wait to read the crucial books.

Ever since I read Crucial Conversations I have been a follower and believer of all of the published works. Influencer is one of those books that made a huge difference in how I approach situations where my being able to influence actions/behaviors. The stories of successful influencers reinforce the approach of the process. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking to improve their ability to make a difference.

This is an excellent book. Very well organized and developed. If you want to understand how we are influenced everyday you must read this book.
It's not just theory but the book gives you a framework to apply what you read right away.

Very interesting book, especially when you start to realize organizations and companies, and even special interest groups are using the techniques outlined in this book. But conversely, the principles can be used for positive influence as well.

I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to lead people and make things change. There are a lot of concrete examples that explain the ideas the author tries to convey.
Honestly one of my best purchase in a long time. I have only read 150 pages so far, but I already start to make changes in my life and around me.

I read this book after a friend recommended it and the Crucial Skills series as some of the most influential books he'd read in the past several years. With that high expectation I began reading this book and it did not disappoint. It's not so much a self-help book as it is a resource for learning how to influence and contribute to lasting change... in anything - in myself, in an organization, in my family. I now find myself thinking about the principles taught in this book when I recognize things in my environment that are sub-optimal and how I can influence a change for the better. I highly recommend this book and also Crucial Conversations to anyone who would like to become more of an influence for good in any area of their life.

The book presents very general concepts with specific and powerful examples that illustrate the main point -- you need to change the way people think about something before you can influence them to change their behavior. It looks at human behavior, influence techniques, and influence traps/pitfalls, and offers tons of tips on how you can approach influence in any situation.

This is an excellent book that I almost passed on because of the bad reviews. If you want to learn how to change behaviors that seem intractable this book will give you powerful change tools. Influencers will help managers and leaders with organizational change, parents with their children's behaviors. This book isn't about quick fixes, self-help, or even the "persuasion techniques" that salesmen need to close a deal or managers need to get their orders followed. This book is about influencing behavior over the long view. This is an important book.

Let me address the critical reviews that almost "influenced" me to not buy this book. The principle complaints seem to be: the book is poorly written, there are 5 authors, the book mocks the `Serenity' prayer, and lastly it is not a self-help book. The reading level of this book is probably greater than the 8th grade level most books are written at. However the book is well organized, threads its various stories and points throughout and kept me involved to the end. The joint efforts of these authors has produced two other fine books (Crucial Conversations and Crucial Confrontations) so their writing skill and collaboration are proven.

Serenity has become apathy: the acceptance of things that we can change--a substitution for courage. This book calls readers to challenge the status quo and to lead change where possible. Lastly, this is NOT a self-help book. This is not a book for salespeople or others looking for persuasion techniques. If you want to learn about those things read Tipping point, anything by David J. Lieberman (such as "Get Anyone to Do Anything"). Read "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert B. Cialdini or "The Psychology of Persuasion" by Kevin Hogan. This is a book on how to help others.

"Influencers" creates an entire change model based on the fact that people choose their behaviors based on what they believe works and only change after answering two questions: can I do it and is it worth it? Those two dimensions of desiring change--motivation and ability--have personal, social, and structural elements, resulting in 6 strategies influencers can use to leverage change.

The book solves the paradox of having so much information but little change, for example dieting or smoking. We know what to do but we don't do it: we need people who are Influencers. Influencers know that behaviors are not changed through verbal persuasion but through personal experience. When experience can't be had Influencers need to create profound visceral experiences. Change "takes a combination of strategies aimed at a handful of vital behaviors to solve profound and persistent problems" (76). This book will teach you how to do this! If you are the kind of person that reads books like Rick Warren's "A Purpose Driven Life" or John Maxwell's "Becoming a Person of Influence" you will like this book. If you want to be effective in helping others without force or by power you should read this book.

Influencer simply fails to live up to its title. Aside from being an awkward title, "Influencer: The Power To Change Anything," is a pretty big promise on which the content just doesn't deliver. I found the book difficult to finish, not because the writing was difficult, wordy, or academically obtuse, but because it felt disorganized and unfocused.

The writing is a mixed bag, making me wonder about the process involved with five authors. Was it written by committee, were different people responsible for differents parts? The style varied in places, sometimes jumping back and forth between topics way too many times, and the total effect was one of confusion. Where it is not confusing, the writing is good, but not powerful or overly persuasive. It just leaves me with the feeling of something lacking.

There is good information in here, if one is really willing to expend the effort to dig it out. I loved the stories about Delancey Street and the other examples of "Influencers," and the lessons to be learned are important. I can't say they were worth the effort of slogging through the entire book, when the last chapter pretty much delivered all the content in one concise chunk. That made me wonder if this was really a magazine article that was puffed up to book length.

I love good material on persuasion and agents of change, but after reading this, I would not add it to my library. It did make me more curious about the work of some of the people mentioned, but was unfulfilling in the final analysis. It does not sell me on their ideas if they can't "influence" me with the book.

Influencer is a mixed bag, but a worthwhile one. I believe it belongs in the library of anyone looking to direct social change (on a small or large scale) or even change something about themselves. Indeed one of the interesting facets of this book is that it can be applied not just to others but to yourself. Unlike other books that might purport to make you more compelling to listen to, this one relies on behavioral science instead of baseless self-confidence or feel-good malarkey. It's worth reading and worth referring back to often; the main drawback is that it won't give you the complete picture, though it comes close.

In a nutshell, the book is about solving seemingly intractable human problems. (Or causing them; the authors caution these techniques are value-neutral.) It offers advice on how to find a solution, and then how to implement it. Implementation is the real meat of the book, and it boils down to two questions any rational person will ask when you try to get them to change their behavior: "Is it worth it?" and "Can I do it?" The book divides these two questions (motivation and ability) into three domains: personal, social, and structural (i.e. reward/risk). All of these have a bearing on the solution and need to be part of any influencer's strategy. And having read the book, I'm convinced it would be doable for just about anyone to come up with a decent top-level strategy for influencing change, with some branches of that strategy filled in in detail.

So that's the good, but here's the bad: On the social tier of that chart, the authors are in their comfort zone and it shows. This is where the book overlaps with their previous work. While I doubt their intention was merely to point people to their other books, they glossed over the nitty-gritty too casually just by being too familiar with it themselves. Many of the example issues they cite in the two "social" chapters were solved by training people in handling conversations or some such, which unfortunately isn't something the layman is set up to do. So any influence strategy you might build based on this book will most likely be lacking in this area.

The only other significant problem is that the writing is uneven. I wouldn't say it's dry throughout, and I was interested from start to finish just because I found the material fascinating and useful. But there are some stretches where the text dries out a bit, and others where conversational voice is used haphazardly. The book would have benefited from a ghost writer. These issues aside, my rating is three and a half stars, rounded up to four because I think this book hits on some really important points. If you want to effect some big changes, even just in yourself, this is probably one of the first books you should read.

It's a well-written book, but not terribly exciting. It does have good basic information about behavior modification techniques, providing examples of where the techniques have worked, how and why they have worked. The book sites case settings and ties them in throughout the book with various examples. The book also explains types of influencers that do NOT work in certain situations and why (i.e. why lecturing someone would not work in a specific situation.)

The concept of the book is: 1) here are the behavior influencers that have successfully worked; and 2) YOU can use them successfully to achieve certain behaviors (as others have). This book may be particularly useful to supervisors, coaches, teachers, or others who have a need to motivate others. There are 258 pages of information.

The book begins telling you that you have learned to follow the well-known prayer, ". . .[grant me the] SERENITY to accept the things you cannot change, the courage to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference." So, basically, we try to fix a chronic systemic problem a few times, then give in to the serenity and accept that we cannot change this problem/behavior/thing/etc, and most of us only lack the proper SKILL to be the catalyst for the change. The book studies cases of those who did NOT fall into acceptance of serenity and what they did to successfully influence others. One such successful influencer used throughout the book is Dr. Mimi Silbert, founder of Delancey. Through various therapy and socialization techniques and through her skills in behavior modification, praise, etc, Dr. Silbert has taken "thieves, prostitutes, robbers, and murderers" who are "nasty, racist, violent, and greedy" and gotten them to totally change their behaviors, become employable productive citizens and actually care about each other's success. She states that "most were gang members and many are third generation gang members". "Some have been homeless for years and most are lifetime drug addicts". She states that within hours of joining Delancey, they are working. "Of those who join Delancey, over 90 % never go back to drugs or crime." You will see examples from Delancey throughout the book.

The book explains 6 vital behaviors, which apply across ages, gender, geography, etc., the first vital behavior being reward vs. punishment. Top influencers reward positive performance frequently, while non-influencers criticize and condemn. Of course, the book continues in more detail.

Notable is also that at the end of each chapter is a summary of the concepts covered in the chapter, making it easy to assimilate what you just read in each chapter and easy to return and reference the high points of each chapter.

Every leader, pastor, fundraiser, teacher should read this book. Bad people, marketers, politicians: please don't read it! Fantastic insights, based on research, into why people think and do the things they do, and how to help them change.

Another great read for anyone in the health care field. I strongly recommend having this book and information in their arsenal as well for the upcoming ACA changes. Plus, I believe that these are powerful strategies for life.

Great book for educators. Should be required reading for all who work with people. Practical and effective information taught in a comprehensive and understandable fashion. Our faculty is doing a group study and application to our school with great results!

This is about tackling those persistent, profound and change resistant problems that overwhelm so many of us. Rather than back down because the problems seem insurmountable, we need to see our individual power to influence change. The concepts here are not novel -- some have said, "it's just common sense." Yet how many times has the lack of applying common sense allowed a bad situation to continue or become worse? Often it is adding the catalyst ingredient of courage, along with sound research and facts, and the appropriate street/industry or culture "cred" that lead to meaningful change. I liked this book primarily due to the story behind it; the authors' research for demonstrated personal influence, revealed people creating life-changing opportunities through a few seemly simple, yet life-changing actions. They cite several psychologists including the works of Bandura and Milgram, and the stories that illustrate some of our worst human failings and best human victories. Two major points are to (1)Find the 2-3 things that you want to do differently that will have a cascading effect on all other behaviors to create the change you envision, (2)Ensure that you can do it, and that you think it is worth doing. The neat 6-box matrix belies the profound effect we can have on each other. This is a good companion read to The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by M. Gladwell. - R. Anne Hull [...]

From the practical stand poing this is a great book to bring about long lasting and positive social change. The authors have identified two key concepts to handle social change: motivation and ability. Then they applied this concepts at three different levels such as: personal, social and structural level.

On the other hand, the authors have offered insightful ideais to bring about personal, social and structural change. On a more specific note, I enjoyed the fact that the authors were realistic by point out that there will be a need to use external reward and they can be positive or negative. I mean it was comforting to learn that sometimes we have punish others to bring about change. It was also noteworthy to realise that one has to be careful while rewarding people expecting them to keep up the good work.

However, from the academic stdandpoint, it is arguable to discuss about influence without dicussing the ethical implications of applying powerful ideas in different contexts.

I strongly recommend this book to everyone irrespective of their current field.

Proving their assertion; "...if you bundle the right numbers and type of influence techniques into the right influence strategy, you can change virtually anything", the authors artfully bundle stories (stories are one of their recommended methods for utilizing influence strategies) and repackage well known behavior control techniques into a bestselling book. Nice work if you can do it, and these authors have done it before and do it again with this book.

Although the contents may not represent new thinking, the stories are riveting, the style is comfortable, and the book is an easy read. It discourages the serenity approach (as in The Serenity Prayer), but does leave one feeling like it is possible to change anything - that may be its greatest contribution. The book is recommended for those facing a challenge that feels just too big to tackle.

Dennis DeWilde, author of
"The Performance Connection"

The core model presented for influencing people is intriguing, but the authors spend way too much of *your time* on obscure examples of events - we're talking guinea worms, micro loans, condoms for prostitutes, and doctor hand washing - that somehow are supposed to illuminate the genius of influencers at work...yet really never seems to gets beyond the anecdotal or take shape enough to be a full scale lesson in anything. Thanksgiving dinner without the turkey.

2 stars for some wise nuggets I did highlight buried inside all the fluffy meanderings.

Having worked in the financial industry for over twenty years I've seen several attempts to make major changes at several institutions. All ended with minor improvements and within a few years the original behaviors had returned. With the Financial Crises of the last decade you would expect to see multiple changes, however, were starting to see the same mistakes of the past repeated. After reading this book and completing a postmortem on efforts I've been involved with in the past I have a better picture of where we lost effectiveness in our change efforts. As the authors point out, it's not as simple as choosing a few techniques to drive change, major change requires a deep dive into your employees current behaviors and an extensive plan to change those behaviors. Finally, one crucial aspect the authors pointed out, that I have seen omitted in many less than successful projects, is getting buy-in from your informal leaders. In concluding, most of the information we are aware of, the value in this book is in helping you to formulate a comprehensive plan to drive change at your organization.

This book creates a useful framework to use when approaching solutions to entrenched or difficult problems. The authors argue that most of us know what we want we just have to figure out what need to do to get there. It's about vital behaviors. They argue that before something can change we have to 1) think it is worth it and 2) be able to do it. It's a one two punch of motivation AND skill.

For simple things we can get away with just our personal motivation or skill, but harder things (addiction, managing chronic illness, poverty, and hunger) require social and structural (aka environmental) motivators and skills. Each chapter focuses on a specific area - Make the undesirable desirable (personal motivation), surpass your limits (personal ability), harness peer pressure (social motivation), find strength in numbers (social ability), design rewards and demand accountability (structural motivation), and change the environment (structural ability).

I'm not a manager, community activist or teacher, so I had to do some logical leaps to apply this book in my life. (If you are looking to change yourself or coach one or two other people read the related book Change Anything: The new Science of Personal Success. I refer to this when I'm having trouble figuring out why we aren't getting things done at work or when I'm fine tuning procedures. At home, I pull it out when I'm having trouble making my finances work or I'm tripping over the same mess in the shed as last year. I refer friends to it when they have difficulties working with their boss. In short, I use it a lot.

Like many other self-help books,such as the Seven Habits of High Effective people or Flow, Influencer is a different approach to organizing and interpreting material and information that has been out there in the world for some time. The authors collect examples of real people from around the world that represent ideal Influencers and deconstruct their techniques and methods, such as the use of narrative to demonstrate why people should change their behavior. This book seems like it would be useful to people in leadership positions whether someone in charge of company, a teacher, or just someone that is unhappy with their situation in life. I don't give this a higher rating because sometimes it seems like the authors could get to the point sooner instead of just teasing readers with example after example earlier on. I imagine they don't want to give too much away too soon in anticipation of a skeptical cynical audience, perhaps employees forced to read this book for work.

I thought that this book was great. It nicely packages a bunch of good and important info not readily available elsewhere (some of which stems from the authors' own work), and it tells you how to apply this info. It's not simply content with leaving you amazed at all the sexy info/research. It tells you what to do with it.

A very rudimentary outline is (a) it presents a framework/plan for how to go about producing change (of basically any form) in the first couple chapters. For instance, it shows you how to break down complex and confusing problems into more manageable, precise problems (e.g. finding the "vital behaviors"). And (b) in the main body, it presents various strategies for getting these problems solved (i.e. generating positive influence), along with a framework to organize these strategies. Here is where you can create your specific plan of attack (e.g. select a domain of influence and see what the research has shown about how to go about influence within this domain). Finally, interspersed throughout are a bunch of cool examples from people who have been successful at changing badness into goodness. The end product is a compendium of what have to be some of the best ideas out there for producing change. Moreover, these ideas are presented in a step-by-step, organized manner.

However, I think it should be noted that the major strength was not a set of task-specific techniques, but instead, the presentation of a framework for organizing and selecting which specific techniques will work best. The book promises to give you the "power to change anything", and the plan they give you is correspondingly general. It's not really a diet book or a book focused on specific persuasion techniques, and they don't present a set of results supporting public policy A over public policy B. What they present instead is a (research supported) plan to follow for organizing and selecting the set of specific techniques that will best get the job done. And a broad perspective like this is especially helpful in our kind of information-overload world.

Basically, it combines the "amazing research tales" of Blink with a real plan for application. And in so doing, it delivers in a very realistic way on what it promises in the title. It presents what has to be one of the best general schemes out there for trying to effect change.

I'm using this book for my graduate program project. I intend to continue to refer to this book for a long time. Just today, I was thinking about the 'six sources of influence'!

This is like 'Systemic(or fill in the blank) Change for Dummies'!

I could write a lot more but I'm in graduate school and need to conserve my writing energy, but again, great book. Get it. Read it. Practice it.

I've recommended the first edition of this book to so many people, and they have all found it exceptionally useful. Not just an inspirational book, but extremely practical and best of all, based on evidence.
I gave my original copy of the first edition to my daughter-in-law as she was very interested in it and it was so relevant to the work she was doing--and as soon as I did, I regretted losing it, but I thought, hey that's great I can buy the new edition! And what do you know, it's even better with new case studies as well as the original compelling ones.
It's not just a theoretical management strategy or a "believe and it will all work, if it doesn't you didn't believe hard enough"; this is based on real people, real cases and real success in areas not many people have managed to impact. The lessons learned and strategies used are all carefully researched and analysed.
Unlike many academic books, it tells a fascinating story in clear and concise language, with advice and ideas you can put into action straight away.
The steps they outline aren't easy, but they are achievable and the results amazing. In combination with their other books, Crucial Conversations and Crucial Confrontations, I've found it a great help in managing myself, my staff and my relationships. You will get more out of the book if you first read Crucial Conversations, but it's not essential as they do cover some of the material in Influencer.Think what the world could be like if we all gave this a try...

This is a brilliant book packed with powerful examples of how to change behavior. Uncovering vital behaviors is the key, from what I gathered about 1/2 way into listening to it on Audible.

My only concern and anger with the author is about the way he represents the 12-step serenity prayer several times in the beginning. Kerry, are you an addict that has lived the process of the 12-steps? If not, please remove this reference. For context, here's the full serenity prayer:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change. (you)
The courage to change the things I can. (me)
And the wisdom to know the difference.

The way Kerry focusing on only "serenity" in the first part of this very important 3 part step--he misses the point. The point (to me) of this prayer is part 2--what can I do to change my behavior, to stop doing the thing that is a dis-ease creating cycle? There are vital behaviors for all addictions. That's what this prayer is about and how it's relevant with your research Kerry. NOT focused on the complacency you elude to with the focus on only the word "serenity." That's not the point--this prayer in fact totally ties with the research you've validated. When I as an addict identify my behavior/am told the behaviors to stop and change immediately--and I comply, the results are amazingly successful. At least that's been my experience and that of many in recovery communities I know.

Caveat--perhaps Kerry touches on this at the end of his book which I have not finished but the opening definitely "triggered" me... so I share my perspective.

Have you ever had the misfortune of purchasing a ten page idea that a wordy author has turned into a 250 page book? I have and even after reading excerpts and reviews before every purchase, I'm still never sure exactly what I'm going to get. "Influencer" is flat out stuffed with food for thought on leading change. There is not a wasted page or chapter as the authors deliver tips, tactics and stories that will alter the way you think about leading change. The only downside is that it will be a challenge to remember and apply everything I just learned to my next change initiative. Towards the end of the book there is mention of a website that is supposed to help readers plan change, but the site cannot be found. I purchased and read the book on Kindle but I'll be ordering a hard copy that can be highlighted and earmarked for quick and easy future reference.

The authors offer truly groundbreaking insights and methods in this book, and I will cite a few, but the depth and breadth of their work is far too vast to encapsulate here. They note the plethora of unhelpful, anecdotal advice that often passes for wisdom in similar books, and instead provide scientifically documented, step-by-step methods for defining and achieving goals. They provide compelling examples of how these techniques have been implemented. The most fascinating story, in my opinion, involved the eradication of the guinea worm, an endemic parasite that can grow up to three feet long and emerges through the skin causing tremendous pain. The authors cited techniques employed by Carter Foundation workers to teach villagers how to filter their water and prevent reinfestation of water sources by infected persons. Carter Foundation workers sought positive deviants (villages who had learned their own ways of avoiding guinea worm infestation) to teach other villages what to do.

I noted many techniques that I myself had discovered by trial and error, such as perfect practice, which involves working on improving specific elements of a task; they cite basketball freethrowing, where perfect practice includes improving followthrough, elbow position, etc., as opposed to results oriented practice that can reinforce poor technique, e.g. shoot until I get 20 baskets. As a Chemistry teacher, I inherently implemented many of these techniques. This book provided me with more insight and concrete guidance than most of the teaching and education books I was provided in my teacher training.

This is one of the most enlightening books I have ever read on human behavior. Having borrowed this book from the library, I now plan to purchase it (the actual ink and paper version), because I know I will refer to it again and again.

Narrated by Eric Conger with dignity and clarity.