Review of "Influencers"

Another one of the social science books that I've been reading for the last few years. The key argument here is that we really can change individual and group behavior much more effectively than we might imagine because behaviors are really just skills that with enough "directed experiences" can be learned(going back to the "expertise" literature). Lots of examples follow, but I'll just summarize the key three things that I learned from the book.

1) Changing behavior requires a variety of influence strategies and you really need to harness multiple approaches at the same time in order to be effective.

2) But there is a heirarchy in terms of these approaches, and we typically start at the wrong end with punishments. We should start instead with personal motivation (back to Pink's "intrinsic motivation" ideas), especially by helping people understand that there is a real problem and that they can solve that problem (storytelling and directed experiences are particularly helpful). Social context comes next, and structural factors (transactional leadership in terms of rewards and punishments)are the least effective influence strategies. I personally probably spend too much time on structure and social context and not enough on the personal aspects of influencing people.

3) Within that "personal" context, focusing on "vital behaviors" is key. I've been trying to apply that concept in our retention discussions by emphasizing the use of our "Early Alert System" as the key behavior that we'd like to foster.

All in all a worthwhile book and certainly more helpful for people in leadership contexts than some of the others that I've read. At times, however, it did feel like it was written by a couple of consultants who were trying to tell me their tales and sell me on their services. Gladwell is definitely a better storyteller.