This page intentionally left blank 75 Make Change Inevitable Who shall set a limit to the influence of a human being? —Ralph Waldo Emerson L et’s say that you’ve discovered the vital behaviors that need to be enacted to help resolve a profound and per- sistent problem you’re facing. You’ve also helped every- one involved see the need for change. Now how do you actually go about making that change happen? To answer this question, let’s return to Guinea worm dis- ease eradication efforts in North Africa—this time to a town in Nigeria. Imagine that you’re following General Gowon. He has been to this village to help dislodge the flawed beliefs that have kept villagers from changing their behavior. Minds have been changed. Certainly changing behavior will be a snap. So what’s the next step? Most of us have our favorite influence methods—just pass a law, just threaten a consequence, or just offer a training pro- gram. The problem with sticking to our favorite methods is not that the methods are flawed per se; it’s that they’re far too sim- plistic. It’s akin to hiking the Himalayas with only a fanny pack. There’s nothing wrong with Gatorade and a granola bar, but you’ll probably need a lot more. Bringing a simple solution to a complex and resistant problem almost never works. Nevertheless, people bet on single-source influence strate- gies all the time. For instance, ask leaders how they’re planning to change their employees from being clock-punchers to qual- ity zealots, and they’ll point to their new training program— the same one that they’re convinced drove General Electric’s Copyright © 2008 by VitalSmarts, LLC. Click here for terms of use. 76 INFLUENCER stock through the stratosphere in the 1990s. The training con- tent might provide a start, but when it comes to creating a cul- ture of quality, it’ll take a great deal more than a training class. Ask politicians what they’re doing to fight crime, and they’ll tell you that they’re working hard to secure harsher sentences for felony convictions. Also not enough to have much of an impact. Ask community leaders what steps they’re taking to stem the growing plight of childhood obesity, and they’ll sing the praises of their latest pet project—removing candy machines from schools. And let’s be honest. How many of us haven’t yearned for a quick fix for our own problems? A miracle diet pill, a magical marriage solution, or a $500 set of DVDs that promises finan- cial freedom. Just give us that one thing, and we’re ready to roll. But it takes a combination of strategies aimed at a handful of vital behaviors to solve profound and persistent problems. In fact, this is the core principle demonstrated by virtually all the change masters we studied. No single strategy explained their success. In fact, it became quite evident that individuals who succeed where others have routinely failed overdetermine success—that is, they bring more influence strategies into play than they might assume would be the minimum required for success. They leave nothing to chance. This could sound discouraging. In Chapter 2 we shared the good news that it often takes only a few vital behaviors, routinely enacted, to bring about massive and lasting changes. Now we’re adding the idea that, while you need to affect only a few behav- iors, behind each you’ll uncover a number of forces that either encourage or discourage the right action and an equal number of forces that either enable or block the correct behavior. Ignore these varied and sundry forces at your own peril. Fortunately there’s additional good news. We now know enough about the forces that affect human behavior to place them into a coherent and workable model that can be used to organize our thinking, select a full set of influence strategies, Make Change Inevitable 77 combine them into a powerful plan, and eventually make change inevitable. MASTER SIX SOURCES OF INFLUENCE Here’s how the model works. As we’ve said before, virtually all forces that have an impact on human behavior work on only two mental maps—not two thousand, just two. At the end of the day a person asks, “Can I do what’s required?” and, “Will it be worth it?” The first question simply asks, “Am I able?” The second, “Am I motivated?” Consequently, no matter the num- ber of forces that affect human action—from peer pressure in a junior high school to making citizens aware of the cost of illit- eracy in a barrio to offering a class on anger management in Beverly Hills—all these strategies work in one of two ways. They either motivate or enable a vital behavior. Some do both. Motivation and ability comprise the first two domains of our model. We further subdivide these two domains into personal, social, and structural sources. These three sources of influence reflect separate and highly developed literatures—psychology, social psychology, and organization theory. By exploring all three, we ensure that we draw our strategies from the known repertoire of influence techniques. Let’s quickly look at the range of influence sources effective influencers draw upon. Don’t worry if they aren’t crystal clear at this point. Over the next six chapters, we explain the various influence methods in detail. In fact, you’re likely to see how many of them account for improvements you’ve made in your own life. But for now, you’ll know how to consciously draw upon this robust set of sources any time you need. At the personal level, influence masters work on connect- ing vital behaviors to intrinsic motives as well as coaching the specifics of each behavior through deliberate practice. At the 78 INFLUENCER group level, savvy folks draw on the enormous power of social influence to both motivate and enable the target behaviors. At the structural level, top performers take advantage of methods that most people rarely use. They attach appropriate reward structures to motivate people to pick up the vital behaviors. And finally, they go to pains to ensure that things—systems, processes, reporting structures, visual cues, work layouts, tools, supplies, machinery, and so forth—support the vital behaviors. With this model at the ready, influence geniuses know exactly which forces to bring into play in order to overdeter- mine their chances of success. Pictorially, we can display these six sources of influence in the following model. Design Rewards and Demand Accountability Change the Environment Harness Peer Pressure Find Strength in Numbers Make the Undesirable Desirable Surpass Your Limits MOTIVATION PERSONAL SOCIAL STRUCTURAL ABILITY Make Change Inevitable 79 To better understand how each of these six sources oper- ates, let’s return to the village in Nigeria where we show up with visions of annihilating the nasty Guinea worm. We know that villagers need to enact only three vital behaviors in order to eliminate the worm. First, people must filter their water. How hard could that be? Second, should someone still become infected, he or she must not make contact with the public water supply until the infection has run its course. Just stay away from the water. And third, if a neighbor is not filtering water or becomes infected, the villagers must confront him or her. Since we know the three behaviors that will eradicate the Guinea worm, it sounds as if our influence project won’t be particularly complicated. However, before we start giving heartfelt speeches and handing out four-color pamphlets, let’s see how each of the six sources of influence affects this actual project. Source 1: Personal Motivation. When the Guinea worm is exit- ing a victim’s body, the pain is absolutely excruciating. Since victims can’t merely yank the worm out of their arm or leg with- out the worm breaking and causing a horrific infection, they’re forced to wind the parasite around a stick and slowly edge it out over a couple of weeks—or even a couple of months. There’s only one source of relief during this prolonged ordeal, and that’s for victims to soak their painful sores in water. That means that individuals are personally motivated to do exactly the opposite of one of the vital behaviors—stay away from the water. If you don’t deal with personal motivation, your influence plan will fail. Source 2: Personal Ability. Many of the villagers don’t know how to properly filter water. They’ve been trying since General Gowon left, but the Guinea worm disease is still rampant. When they take the steps to filter the water, they’ll carelessly slop over a splash here and a drop there, infecting the water supply and continuing the infestation. Or they’ll transfer filtered water into 80 INFLUENCER a pot that’s still moist with unfiltered water. They’ll need train- ing to enhance their personal ability. Source 3: Social Motivation. Next, when you sit down with the locals to teach them how to eliminate the Guinea worm, nobody is going to pay very much attention to your advice. You’re an outsider and as such simply can’t be trusted. You may be in good with the chief, but there are three tribes in the vil- lage, two of which resent the chief and will resist anything you offer because he’s behind it. Unless circumstances change, you have a serious problem with social motivation. Source 4: Social Ability. People in a community will have to assist each other if they hope to succeed. When it comes to an outbreak, nobody can make it on his or her own. If ever there was a circumstance where the expression “It takes a village” applies, this is it. For example, if someone comes down with the worm, others may have to fetch water for him or her. And when it comes to filtering, locals often have to buddy up in order to have enough pots to both fetch and filter water. If locals don’t enlist the help of others, you’ll be missing the key factor of social ability. Source 5: Structural Motivation. Given the villagers’ current financial circumstances (living hand-to-mouth), individuals who become infected can’t afford to stay away from work. This forces them to labor in and around the water supply. Quite sim- ply, to put food on the table, they’ll need to fetch water for both their crops and livestock. This means that the formal reward sys- tem is at odds with the three vital behaviors. Infected people earn money only if they work near the water source. If you don’t compensate for the existing reward structure, victims will be compelled to serve their families at the expense of the entire vil- lage. Try to move forward without addressing structural motiva- tion, and your influence won’t reach far. Make Change Inevitable 81 Source 6: Structural Ability. Lastly, locals don’t have all the tools they need to filter the water or to care for their wounds in a way that keeps them away from the community water source. Worse still, the layout of the village makes access to the public water supply so easy and natural that it’s enormously tempting for vic- tims to merely plunge their aching arm or leg into the water— at the peril of everyone else. If you don’t work on this last source of influence, structural ability, you’re also likely to fail. MAKE USE OF ALL SIX SOURCES Now that we’ve explored how all six sources of influence came into play with the Guinea worm project, it’s easy to see why influence geniuses take pains to address each source when going head to head with a profound and persistent problem. Leave out one source, and you’re likely to fail. Throughout the remainder of this book—to demonstrate how the six sources can be applied in combination—we explore what Dr. Silbert has done with each of these influence tools to help transform lifelong felons into productive citizens. At the home level, we follow an individual who is trying to lose weight and see how each of the six sources might apply to this widespread (pun intended) problem. Finally, we’d ask you to pick a challenge of your own and read each of the six chapters with that problem in mind. Then fashion your own six-source influence strategy. Do it correctly, and like Dr. Silbert and dozens of other successful influencers, you’ll solve problems that have had you and others stumped for years. This page intentionally left blank 83 4 Make the Undesirable Desirable PERSONAL MOTIVATION Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now. —Steven Wright Design Rewards and Demand Accountability Change the Environment Harness Peer Pressure Find Strength in Numbers Make the Undesirable Desirable Surpass Your Limits MOTIVATION PERSONAL SOCIAL STRUCTURAL ABILITY Copyright © 2008 by VitalSmarts, LLC. Click here for terms of use. [...]... class? They quickly found that learning to read was difficult and not always a whole lot of fun They couldn’t go home that night and read to their grandchildren Fortunately, the characters in the television show had demonstrated the difficult side of the learning process, so it wasn’t a huge surprise People understood the pleasures of reading, but knew they’d have to work to become proficient before these... by engaging them in the story of a man just like them—someone who was “too old to learn.” Someone who was initially unwilling to bear the shame of sitting in a class with much younger people and admitting his “defect.” Week after week as Sabido’s audiences experienced the journey to literacy and vicariously experienced what it would be like to be able to read, it began to mean something They imagined... here.” Right These arguments are easy to make but hard to sell because they involve verbal persuasion and the people you’re talking to don’t understand the language You’re describing activities and outcomes for which they have no frame of reference, and you’re then asking them to make enormous immediate sacrifices (no gang, no drugs, no freedom) in order to achieve them It won’t work It can’t work Silbert... known to humankind is our own evaluation of our behavior and accomplishments When people are able to meet their personal standards, they feel validated and fulfilled They also feel as if they’re living up to the image of who they want to be In this particular case, Perelman probably exacted pleasure from all three of the intrinsic sources we just discussed He reveled in the accomplishment, loved the. .. (as required by the community code), so you have to keep ratting him out to the local authorities And guess what If you stop grounding, harping, or ratting folks out, they’ll stop doing what they’re supposed to be doing because they don’t like doing it The point? If we could only find a way to make a healthy behavior intrinsically satisfying, or an unhealthy behavior inherently undesirable, then we wouldn’t... access to fascinating books They saw the effect a grandparent could have on grandchildren They felt what it would be like to have the sense of pride that comes from graduating from literacy class And eventually they shut down the streets of Mexico City with their deluge of requests for literacy information that was advertised on the series What do you think happened when all these new people arrived at their... be like When they do try to imagine it, they make some very predictable errors They assume that it will be very much like their present life—minus the fun You know, cleaning toilets while giving up the excitement of crime or the stimulation of drugs They’re unable to imagine the pleasure associated with getting a raise, owning a home, or any of a thousand other parts of a law-abiding life they’ve never... lifetime drug addict to withstand the pain of withdrawal long enough to get clean? Or for that matter, how might you motivate a terrified nurse to tell an intimidating doctor that he needs to wash his hands more thoroughly before examining patients? If you can’t find a way to change a person’s intrinsic response to a behavior—if you can’t make the right behaviors pleasurable and the wrong behaviors painful—you’ll... than the challenge of reaching the next level on a video game—it becomes a measure of who they are They set high standards of who they’ll be, high enough to create a worthy challenge, and then they work hard to become that very person For example, meet Grigori Perelman Grigori worked his head off for years in his dingy apartment in St Petersburg, 94 INFLUENCER Russia A few years ago the grizzled and. .. to change the feeling associated with a vital behavior, we can make compulsive bad habits feel as disgusting as going to bed with gritty teeth And we can make formerly unappealing activities become as satisfying as brushing our teeth And if you miss this important concept, whenever you try to motivate yourself or others to change behavior, you’ll turn to perks and wisecracks rather than find ways to . all the tools they need to filter the water or to care for their wounds in a way that keeps them away from the community water source. Worse still, the layout of the village makes access to the. afford to stay away from work. This forces them to labor in and around the water supply. Quite sim- ply, to put food on the table, they’ll need to fetch water for both their crops and livestock strate- gies all the time. For instance, ask leaders how they’re planning to change their employees from being clock-punchers to qual- ity zealots, and they’ll point to their new training program— the same