Influencer The Power to Change Anything by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield and Ron McMillan_10 pdf

Within a year the organization hadlaunched two product releases on time and on budget, andmorale was at an all-time high.* To see how the power of social capital can apply at home,let’s

and men And yet these people felt unable to exert sufficientinfluence to change the behavior they despised So Japhet gavethem a way In his own words:

“On the TV program Soul City, we purposefully created a

well-respected teacher, Thabang, who repeatedly abused hislikable wife Matlakala Viewers—both male and female—quickly concluded that Matlakala didn’t deserve the abuse astradition had often spoken She was pleasant, easy to get alongwith, and nothing more than an innocent victim Equallycurious, Thabang was mostly a reasonable and good person—much like themselves.”

Then the writers showed how interested friends and bors could be part of the solution Dr Arvind Singhal, who

neigh-served as a research adviser to Soul City, reports, “On one

episode the neighbors hear Thabang beating poor Matlakalaand they can take it no longer, so they decide to let Thabangknow that his actions aren’t going unobserved But how?How could they let Thabang know without being too intrusive?How could they do it without putting themselves at physicalrisk? Saying something directly would be unacceptable anddangerous.”

Dr Singhal explains “To send their violent neighbor themessage that his behavior is neither private nor acceptable, theneighbors gather outside Thabang’s front door and bang potsand pans They don’t say a word; they just bang pots and pans.”

In the program, Thabang becomes embarrassed and begins tochange his behavior

What happened after that was totally unexpected People

in several townships across South Africa, upon hearing thesounds of spousal abuse next door, began to stand in front oftheir neighbor’s homes and bang pots and pans

The power of vicarious modeling had worked its magic.The message was out Men would no longer be allowed toabuse their wives with impunity Violent behavior, and the col-lective silence that supported it, were not part of the new norm

Here’s the influence takeaway Japhet realized that if badbehavior is reinforced by a web of players, all the players have

to be engaged in influencing change In this particular case,the neighbors had to help lead the change for good becauseneighbors who stood by and allowed obvious abuse to continuewere a big part of the problem

And that’s also how Mike finally eliminated “projectchicken.” He had first tried to solve the problem by confront-ing employees like Jess without addressing the role his man-agers, directors, and a host of others played in the problem.When he realized what was missing, he took a completely dif-ferent tack He asked the training department to teach peoplehow to hold high-stakes conversations about project problems.Then he charged every one of his organization’s leaders to bethe teachers It was a stroke of brilliance that changed every-thing

Every two weeks the very manager who had previously sentsubtle signals about suppressing candor taught a two-hour ses-sion on how to speak up about risky problems In the first twosessions Jess listened passively and cynically By the third ses-sion he raised a concern with his manager In the context ofthe class, the manager felt a special responsibility to respondappropriately By the sixth session many of Jess’s peers hadbegun to open up Within a matter of months powerful newnorms emerged, and Mike’s vital behavior of candor underpressure flourished Within a year the organization hadlaunched two product releases on time and on budget, andmorale was at an all-time high.*

To see how the power of social capital can apply at home,let’s return to our friend Henry as he continues his lifelongquest to eat healthily and keep his weight down He’s learnedthat when it comes to coworkers, friends, and family members,

*For more information on this and other case studies, visit www.vitalsmarts.com/ corporatecasestudies.aspx.

most are full-out disablers, not enablers Instead of acting likefriends, they act like accomplices in the crimes against his body.They take Henry out to fancy restaurants, eat fatty and deliciousfood in front of him at work, give him gifts of the very food heloves but shouldn’t eat, stock the pantry chock full of all thewrong ingredients, and so on

In fact, when it comes to losing weight, Henry can’t think

of anyone who is enabling him in any way One day when heasked his wife to stop buying bags of chocolate candy, she actu-ally laughed out loud She loves candy, buys candy, eats candy,and never gains a pound, so why shouldn’t she buy candy?

But Henry knows it’s hard to go it alone “Hey, look at me

I live here in the apartment with you I smell all that deliciouschocolate, and it drives me crazy!”

And it wasn’t just his olfactory powers that clued Henry inabout the importance of enlisting others’ help He had recentlyread a study (conducted by our friend Albert Bandura) aboutresearch subjects who were trying to lower their cholesterol Asboth Henry and Albert suspected, participants routinelyachieved greater reductions in their cholesterol when theirspouses took part in the program

So Henry has to find a way to step up to his disablers andask them to become enablers This means that Henry will have

to talk to others in a way that creates genuine dialogue ratherthan resistance and recrimination

When You Can’t Succeed on Your Own

The poet John Donne was right: No man is an island Whenthe people surrounding you are causing or contributing to theproblems—playing the role of disabler rather than enabler—fight the urge to attack your detractors for their contribution to

your pain Instead, co-opt them Turn a me problem into a we

problem Build social capital in order to resolve persistent andresistant behaviors

Interdependence.When a vital behavior requires several ple to work in concert—where no one person can succeed onhis or her own—you have to develop people’s ability to work

peo-as a team There wpeo-as a time when highly skilled craftspeopleworked alone producing pots, candles, jewelry, and the like.But today corporate success often depends on experts who are

at least as specialized as their predecessors, but who rely on oneanother to complete their tasks

For instance, a typical software development team consistsnot only of code writers but also of designers, marketers, writ-ers, and salespeople At various stages in the development, allhave to connect, bring their piece of the project online, and,

at the interpersonal level, find a way to collaborate Leaderswho fail to appreciate this concept are regularly disappointedwhen their influence efforts bear no fruit

We (the authors) once worked with a production team thathad decided to lower costs by shifting to just-in-time inventory.This meant that no longer would the company maintain a stock

of parts and work-in-progress as the product made its waythrough the production line One expert would hand his or herfinished work to the next expert instead of placing it in a stackthat the next person would get to at his or her leisure This newdesign, of course, called for impeccable timing (each person’sjob needed to take the same amount of time as the person’sbefore and after him or her) It also called for genuine collab-oration Any one person could slow down, speed up, take anunscheduled break, or fail to meet a quality standard, causingthe previous and next person fits

When we arrived to help with the project, the company hadlearned that the old style of stacking expensive inventorybetween employees had masked the workforce’s inability tocooperate Now that employees were immediately dependent

on the person before and after them, they were constantly ering, complaining, and asking to change positions in the line.Supervisors would routinely intervene to help their direct

bick-reports work through problems, but they ended up spendingmost of their time refereeing heated arguments.

It turns out that the company wasn’t prepared to shift to ajust-in-time system because it didn’t possess the social capital

to collaborate When executives purposefully built pendence into the work design, it quickly revealed that employ-ees lacked interpersonal problem-solving skills along with theability to hold one other accountable Working in isolation hadatrophied their ability to interact effectively No longer didemployees “work and play well” with their friends

interde-The company was unable to implement the new inventorysystem until each employee had been trained in interpersonalproblem solving Interdependence calls for individuals to shareideas, provide materials, lend a hand, subordinate one’s per-sonal needs to the needs of the group, and otherwise willinglyand ably collaborate Leaders who don’t continually help inter-dependent employees learn new and better ways to work in tan-dem tend to routinely suffer from rivalry, and are never able tomake full use of their valuable social capital

Novelty. Tanika’s group demonstrates another circumstancethat calls for the power of social capital Tanika and the othermembers of her borrower group were certainly not specialists,and they faced problems that were completely new to them.Fortunately, the toys-for-hair plan the five came up with grewout of the best thinking of the group No one person had exactlythe right idea, but as one partial idea was added upon and thenchanged again, each person helped create a strategy that, if left

to her own devices, none would have invented

When facing changing, turbulent, or novel times—callingfor novel solutions—multiple heads can be better than one Bydemanding that no budding entrepreneur work alone, Dr Yunusensures that his microcredit clients always work in teams, think

in teams, and meet every single week and brainstorm as teams.Grameen Bank counts on synergy through forced interaction

Risk.As you might expect, among all the influencers we havestudied, those who faced the biggest risks also drew most heav-ily from the power of social capital as a means of reducing thatrisk Toward the top of this list, of course, would be Dr Silbert,whose job it is to transform hardened criminals into produc-tive citizens Think of what Silbert’s wards do as a matter oftheir daily work, and you’ll appreciate just how much risk sheand her organization face

Every day about a hundred of Silbert’s San Francisco dents invade people’s residences across the Bay Area andremove their valuables This is something many of them didbefore joining Delancey The difference now is that they aredoing so as part of the Delancey Moving Company That’sright, people who had once made a living moving furnitureand other goods illegally are now doing so legally You’dthink that this business strategy was far too risky, given theemployees’ job histories Nevertheless, every single valuableDelancey movers remove shows up at the new residence.Delancey is the largest privately owned moving company inthe Bay Area for a good reason The company has never had aloss or theft Imagine what would happen if even one pearlnecklace came up missing? Delancey’s reputation would belost, and the moving company along with its 100 jobs would

resi-simply disappear In spite of huge risk, Delancey has no

problems

Equally astounding is the fact that in the Delancey rant, residents still reeling from alcohol or drug withdrawalserve alcohol to customers as part of their daily job Hearingabout this obvious incongruity for the first time, we askedSilbert how she deals with “relapses.” Without hesitation, sheanswered, “We don’t have relapse.” When we pressed her, shethought back to the last instance of abuse and acknowledgedthat a year earlier one person had “gotten dirty.” To fully appre-ciate what this means, we need to consider that the averagerehab program has a very low success rate

restau-Silbert sends criminals into people’s homes, and she asks

alcoholics to serve drinks—with almost no problems When

you ask her why her influence strategy succeeds, she explainsthat a key lies in the complex, pervasive, and powerful socialsystem of Delancey The organization does not have a singlein-house professional, but it does have a great deal of social cap-ital Delancey relies on a web of helping relationships thatSilbert has constructed for over 30 years

Here’s how she draws on the power of social capital as ameans of supporting vital behaviors Silbert structures theentire Delancey experience around residents giving each otherinstruction, mentoring, and guidance That means that a resi-dent who has been onboard for a single day is likely to be asked

to assist someone who has just arrived And despite the fact that

a resident may have shown up at the front door hung over, ducated, and skilled only in criminal behavior, he or she willeventually earn the equivalent of a Ph.D in mentoring, coach-ing, and teaching—or nobody would make it out alive

une-In Silbert’s words, “You learn a little and then teach it tosomeone else—‘Each one teach one.’ For example, you’re atDelancey a hot minute and someone newer than you comes

in So someone says to you, ‘Do me a favor, take him underyour wing.’ From that point on people talk with you more abouthow you’re doing with the guys under you than about yourself.”

To ensure that individuals assist one another, Delancey isstructured with one goal in mind From the moment a residentarrives at Delancey—frightened and suspicious—he or she isimmersed in a culture and language system designed to max-imize peer support If you were a resident, here’s how you’d beenriched with social capital

When you first show up, you’re assigned to a dorm of nineindividuals of different races Next, you’re placed in what is

known as a “minyan.” A minyan is made up of ten people from

different dorms The word minyan originates from Jewish dition and refers to a congregation consisting of 10 adults A

tra-full minyan is required to be present before public services can

be held So, the Delancey version of a minyan is a ing group that’s able to do what residents would be unable to

self-support-do on their own At Delancey, minyans practically print socialcapital

Minyan leaders take primary responsibility for residents’growth, needs, and supervision Minyans, in turn, are super-vised by a “barber.” (A good bawling out on the street is some-

times referred to as a “haircut.” Hence, the title barber goes to

those whose job it is to ensure that everyone in the minyan ischallenging everyone else.)

The use of social capital takes on still more forms Forexample, residents work for crews with crew bosses who are alsopeers The average person arrives with a seventh-grade educa-tion, and each is required to leave Delancey with at least a highschool equivalency certificate And Delancey achieves thisamazing result without hiring a single professional teacher.They build social capital by tutoring each other

To see how all this coaching, teaching, modeling, and ing plays itself out, consider the field of romance

tutor-“We’re not healthy,” our Delancey resident James admits

“We shouldn’t be in relationships until we can see the thing ismore than sex We tend to just say, ‘The hell with it!’ when therelationship gets tough.”

So to prepare to go on dates (something they’re not allowed

to do for at least six months), residents attend couples’ groupswhich, as you’ve probably guessed, are taught by resident cou-ples who have been dating slightly longer than the new students.The more seasoned couples teach others how to behave on dates

as well as how to talk about what’s working and what isn’t Andguess who will be going along with each new couple on theirfirst few dates A chaperone who is assigned by the barber tokeep the two on the straight and narrow

This is but a small sampling of how an organization thathas virtually no professional resources invests in social capital

as the primary asset for changing people’s behavior—and lives.Now, if a philanthropist left a billion dollars to Delancey so thatthe institution could afford to hire professional teachers, coun-selors, and coaches, do you think Dr Silbert would allow it?

Of course not By helping others, residents help themselveseven more Teachers learn more than students, mentors morethan mentees, and trainers more trainees, so why restrict all thisimportant learning to outside professionals who have alreadybeen to school?

At the business level, more than one organization is ning to understand how to reduce risk by making better use ofsocial capital For example, venture capitalists in Silicon Valleycreate “business incubators” as a way of helping new businessessurvive the risky start-up phase These are a system throughwhich specialists of all types freely offer expertise to companieswhen it’s most needed

begin-From a personal career standpoint, the need to build socialcapital by connecting with others has never been greater Tom

Boyle of British Telecom coined the expression NQ, or network

quotient, to highlight the importance of a person’s ability toform connections with others He argues that from a careerstandpoint a person’s NQ is now more important than his orher IQ Since you can’t know everything, it’s essential that youfind people who can make up for your blind spots A whole host

of recent studies reveals that today’s most successful ees have networks of people they can go to for expertise, as well

employ-as networks of people they can trust with sensitive requests.Successful people not only refuse to see themselves as islands,but they carefully reduce their personal vulnerability by ensur-ing that they’re valued members of hyperconnected networks All these examples deal with the same problem Chang-ing, complex, turbulent, and risky times require multiple heads

to come up with creative solutions that no one person couldever invent So take your lead from Dr Yunus When problemscall for creativity and multiple views, place people in teams To

make the best use of your existing human resources and matically lower your risks, take your lead from Delancey byturning your more experienced employees into coaches, train-ers, instructors, and mentors

dra-Blind Spots.Perhaps the most obvious condition that demandssocial support as a means of influencing vital behaviors comeswith the need for feedback that can be offered only by a pair

of outside eyes Anyone who has ever tried to learn tennis onhis or her own and then gone head-on with someone who hasspent a similar amount of time practicing with the aid of acoach quickly learns that real-time feedback from an expertbeats solo practice any day This being the case, you’d think thatmost people would turn to coaches to help in key areas of theirlives, but they don’t Only a few ask for feedback outside ofsports arenas

But there are exceptions For example, in health care,where doctors are required to insert tubes in people’s hearts andperform other such high-stakes practices, professionals long agolearned the power of real-time coaching In many instances,physicians aren’t allowed to merely watch others perform adetailed and dangerous procedure before they try it on theirown Instead, they must attempt the delicate procedure while

a coach provides immediate feedback on what’s working andwhat isn’t

When it comes to business and other lower-risk settings,leaders rarely think of using real-time coaches Some of today’scompanies provide their leaders with call-in advisers who dis-cuss what happened yesterday when the leader faced a chal-lenge and didn’t do all that well But few provide real-timecoaching This should change

For example, when we (the authors) worked with Lauren—

a rather vibrant executive who was a terrible speaker—we vided her with a speech coach It was amazing to watch someoneonce described as having “the uncanny ability to whip a crowdinto a nap” be transformed into a solid speaker in a matter of a