I

have never been so influenced by any book more than Stephen Coveys The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. One of the most significant concepts that Covey introduces is that there is something called a Circle of Concern things which influence us, within which there is a Circle of Influence things over which we have an influence over. What we must as humans who want to be effective must do, is act within our Circle of Influence, meaning that we must exercise our four unique human endowments self awareness, conscience, imagination and independent will, and change things we can, an that we must smile at situations we cant. In other words, accept serenity. Also, Covey does enlighten us about what we must do; however, how we must do, is left to our own imagination. I was inspired to read this book because it begins where Covey ends! This book is radical in the fact that it tells the reader that accepting serenity is kind of a sin, and that we can indeed change things which apparently, seem to lie out there in our Circle of Concern. It takes a clinical approach to diagnosing the problems we have, and find solutions to them without the burden of having to invent them, that the solutions are already there, we just need to go and grab them. So I read on.

Influencer
The Power to Change Anything

Quotes, Questions and Comments

by Sarvashreshtha Patel

Quotes and Comments

People tend to be better copers than influencers. In fact, were wonderful at inventing ways to cope.

When I observe my 3 year daughter closely, I feel that one of the most basic of human traits is to constantly investigate, experiment, act, reflect and re-act. This is the foundation of human learning and civilization. This is how a child becomes an adult. In the process, however, we become exposed to our own limitations and confuse them with the bounds of possibility. When we grow up, we nurture our young ones into this mentality giving them the parent part of their personality. I believe that most people dont go the further mile to change things because of the influence of people who have tried to change things but have failed. What they then learn is not how to change their realities but how to accept them and cope up with them. In essence, what people do is learn how to cope up situations that may have been limiting for other people than their own selves.

Confusing outcomes with behaviours is no small issue. In fact, when you look at most failed influence strategies, youre likely to find at least one example of means/ends confusion. A few months back, I was endowed with a task of counseling a group of students who were identified as problem-creators in classroom proceedings. After having talked to them at length, I discovered that they did not pay attention in class, which is why they were not able to solve their assignments, which led to their teachers reprimanding them, resulting in a general unrest and indifference towards academics, which eventually resulted in distraction and disruptive behaviour. What they also admitted was that they wanted to learn, be like their goody-goody classmates, but somehow were not able to. I had just one prescription for them. Always be ready with a pen and notebook, and take notes of what the teacher is teaching. Now the students knew exactly what they needed to do in order to pay attention in class, and the problems associated with them just vanished. It did require me to constantly follow through for some time, but the outcome was miraculous. What I told them is what they needed to do in order to ensure that they paid attention, rather than loads of advice and the commonplace instruction Pay attention in class. This works!

Positive Deviance can be extremely helpful in discovering the handful of vital behaviours that will help solve the problem youre attacking.discover and study settings where the targeted problem should exist but doesnt. Third, identify the unique behaviours of the group that succeeds.

I once read somewhere that during his initial life, Dale Carnegie was so depressed that he attempted suicide. But just as he was about to do so, one thought struck him. What is that successful people do? He aborted the idea of suicide and set upon a journey to discover the answer. The result was one of the most powerful influence books in history How to win friends and influence people. When we narrow our focus to the few people who are exceptions to a general rule, and identify what they do in order to succeed, we can be profoundly influenced. What is even more significant is that we can become influencers ourselves by modeling the behavior of those few successful people.

When it comes to altering behavior, you need to help others answer only two questions. First: Is it worth it? (If not, why waste the effort?)And second: Can they do this thing? (If not, why try it?)

When I recall the instance where I was able to influence those students who were potential problemcreators, I feel that the students took my advice because I was able to show them the benefits of notetaking. Note-taking helps you sustain attention in class, and those notes can be referred to when trying to solve an assignment. Additionally, they help you improve your image before the teacher. Also, the students were able to accept that note-taking was easy. They did not have to have any prior preparation or special skill sets in order to take notes. All that you had to do was have a pen and notebook with you at all times, and the urge to write would do the rest.

Many of the profound and persistent problems we face stem more from a lack of skill (which in turn stems from a lack of deliberate practice) than from a genetic curse, a lack of courage, or a character flaw.

When I think about the meetings we have in our workplace, I begin to realize why they have been so ineffective. Often, they end up in arguments, misunderstandings, differences and indecision. Now that we have gotten into the habit of using protocols and a facilitator, we find that meetings and short, precise and productive. In fact, out own effectiveness as educators has profoundly increased due to the use of protocols in meetings. It may take us time to get used to them, but we not very far off from a situation where meetings would not be possible without a protocol and a facilitator.

When it comes to creating change, you no longer have to worry about influencing everyone at once. If you preside over a company with 10,000 employees, your job is to find the 500 or so opinion leaders who are the key to everyone else..Rely on them to share their ideas, and youll gain a source of influence unlike any other. It is not difficult to realize that an innovation, no matter how good it is, cannot be successfully adopted without social acceptance and behavioral change. So when you have a great idea, whom should you begin with in exerting your influence?

If you examine and understand the law of diffusion of motivation, youll realize that the opinion leaders in any population are the innovators and the early adopters. So if you want mass acceptance of an idea by the early majority and later majority, you cannot have it until youve achieved the tipping point shown above. If you talk about what you believe, youll attract those who believe what you believe. Those people will be smaller in number, but they are the real opinion leaders. Rather than constantly finding ways to motivate people to continue with their boring, painful, dangerous, or otherwise loathsome activities, they find a way to change thingsthey also use things to make the wrong behaviours more difficult to enact. If you want to change human behavior, it is imperative that you work on changing things that eliminates human choice entirely. Consider the use of bar codes in a supermarket. It is now possible for attendants to process an increased number of purchases without any errors. Additionally, they are not stressed out.