Influencer : The Power to Change Anything

This book introduced some insights & techniques 4 persuasion that I never thought of. Excellent read on the power of common sense approaches to major & minor problems.

The audiobook edition is what I am listening to, & it's one of the most compelling reads out there. This is not a self-help book, but it examines very clearly & concisely the forces & factors where influence takes hold & changes human behaviour. With clear examples & step by step analysis, the authors offer a convincing study of how people influence other people's behaviours, & insights to keep in mind in our own lives & actions. This is a book which examines people dynamics but uses strong anecdotal examples from around the world. A good effort that will be valuable 4 any leader, sociologist, etc.

This is a powerful book that is relevant & helpful 4 anyone who is dealing with personal and/or organizational issues. It is very timely given what we are going through now as a nation & as a world community.

The title of this book is "Influencer: The Power to Change Anything." I'll call shenanigans on that subtitle, because this is not a book about exercising personal power. Rather, it's a series of case studies that demonstrate how influence can be used in positive ways to improve the world around us. It's powerful reading, yes. But that's because many of the anecdotes are interesting, & some are quite powerful.

This is a very well-written book, with some extremely interesting stories to share. Dr. Donald Hopkins & his fight against the dreaded guinea worm is a common theme, & it's an interesting story. Another "influence master" detailed started a rehabilitation center 4 convicts that actually works. Yet another started a small business program in Bangladesh that has given hope to the poor. The stories really stuck with me after I read the book, & they've helped me to think of ways I can influence others in my own life.

Of less value to me was the "six sources of influence" model, which sounds very academic, but lacks the intuitive "oomph" of methods like the "7 Habits" or the "22 laws" that leadership gurus like to bring up. You can actually find all of the information about the abstract concepts on the book's website, & you can read case studies on many of the featured stories on publisher VitalSmarts's site. (This is mentioned in the book as well, so I'm guessing the authors don't mind if people mine their sites 4 information before reading.)

Still, "Influencer" is a great read, & I'd certainly recommend it to anyone looking 4 inspiration. The world can be a better place, & this book does a good job of calling out some notable cases. Just don't expect to walk away prepared to change the world -- apparently, it's not as easy as the subtitle would lead you to believe.

I'm not sure why I ordered this book other than that it was free. I am not the type of person who reads self-help or business books & the one or two times in my life that I was forced to do so I couldn't see the point of the book nor did I derive anything beneficial. I have been in sales most of my life & at various points have been known as one of the top salesmen in my field. I've often been asked to share what has made me successful so I have taught classes on selling. It seems to me to be an exercise in futility. I wish it was easy to simply tell some one how to be or what to do & that success will follow. It is my belief that human beings are infinitely more complex than what the business & self-help books portray & they do not change easily, if ever. I am sure that there are people who have benefitted from this class of book but I have never met one & I suspect they are rare. People are what they are & even if you get them excited 4 a short time they soon revert to their norm.

As far as this book goes it seems neither better nor worse than other books in its class. It relies on telling stories to show people how they might use different behaviours to achieve more influence. I don't think reading this book is going to enable anyone to make a profound change in their lives, just as the past twenty years worth of self-help & business books haven't seemed to make a bit of difference to anyone I know personally or within society in general. There is an old saying, "Those who can, do, those who can't, teach". That's why I don't teach anymore. It's depressing to try & teach something & see that the message sent just isn't ever received because of the fundamental difference in experience, motivation, outlook & thought processes between two different people. I would also offer this thought....the only way you'll change your life or influence others successfully is simply to go try doing it & get better. In other words, there is no magic words/spell/book that is going to change your world. There is only doing, practice, & gaining experience. Save your time & money, skip the book, & go practice influencing others. You'll fail a lot, but then you get better incrementally, & you'll have made progress. It's as unlikely that you'll make progress reading a book as it is unlikely that you'll learn to play the piano by reading a book. People make a lot of money by the lure of a shortcut to be found within the pages of their book but I don't know of any shortcuts to playing a piano or in learning to influence others. I sure didn't see any in this book.

An INFLUENCER motivates others to change, An INFLUENCER replaces bad behaviors with powerful new skills. An INFLUENCER makes things happen. This is what it takes to be an INFLUENCER. Whether you're a CEO, a parent, or merely a person who wants to make a difference, you probably wish you had more influence with the people in your life. But most of us stop trying to make change happen because we believe it is too difficult, if not impossible. We develop complicated coping strategies when we should be learning the tools & techniques of the world's most influential people. But this is about to change. From the bestselling authors who taught the world how to have Crucial Conversations comes Influencer, a thought-provoking book that combines the remarkable insights of behavioral scientists & business leaders with the astonishing stories of high-powered influencers from all walks of life. You'll be taught each & every step of the influence process-including robust strategies 4 making change inevitable in your personal life, your business, & your world. You'll learn how to: Identify a handful of high-leverage behaviors that lead to rapid & profound change. Apply strategies 4 changing both thoughts & actions. Marshall six sources of influence to make change inevitable. Influencer takes you on a fascinating journey from San Francisco to Thailand where you'll see how seemingly "insignificant" people are making incredibly significant improvements in solving problems others would think impossible. You'll learn how savvy folks make change not only achievable & sustainable, but inevitable. You'll discover why some managers have increased productivity repeatedly & significantly -- while others have failed miserably. No matter who you are, or what you do, you'll never learn a more valuable or important set of principles & skills. Once you tap into the power of influence, you can reach out & help others work smarter, grow faster, live, look, & feel better, even save lives. The sky is the limit...for an Influencer. Are you an Influencer? "You don't have to be a manager to realize that no one likes being told what to do. Yet lectures are still the main way we try to get people to change their behavior. Fortunately, social learning academics have been studying alternatives 4 decades. Patterson & his fellow consultants have now collected their findings in this engaging, example-rich book. The key message is hardly new, but it has gotten more sophisticated: Managers need to get out of the way & facilitate, not manage, the process of change 4 employees. They can do this by offering vicarious experiences, restructured environments, peer pressure, & frequent tests -- all geared so that people embrace the change as authentic to them, not imposed by an outsider. Missing are only success stories of organizations that persuaded managers to drop their controlling habits & choose to be mere facilitators." --John T. Landry, Harvard Business Review.