The power to change anything

Introduction

As a business leader or manager, your job is to solve difficult problems. Deep-rooted people problems are often seen as the toughest of all.  So how do you get your people to change deep-rooted behaviours? It’s your ability to change what people do, and how they do it, that’s the difference between winning or failing in business. 

Your ‘people’ challenges probably fall short of getting 16,000 ex convicts, with violent gangland drug history, to embrace a productive and law-abiding life. Or what about the challenge of getting millions of people in 21 of the poorest countries to change what they do and wipe out a distressing disease from the  planet? 

The world’s best influence experts  use a formula – 6 sources of influence – to help them change what people do. Follow their proven ‘influencer’ model and you become a winning influencer too… 

You win and your business wins when you improve your ability to positively influence others.  Apply at least 4 of the 6 ‘sources of  influence’ and you set yourself up for successful change and winning ways.  

Successful change is possible when you  obsess about changing what people do and how they do it.  You want specific and measurable, here’s a proven solution for your business… 

1. Improve your people’s motivation, changing their mindset to do what’s needed.
2. Improve your people’s ability to do what’s needed and change their behaviours results but what you must influence is people’s behaviour.

Case study 1: Changes in behaviour and a disease can be wiped out. In 1986 3.5 million people in 21 countries suffered from the largest human parasite –  the Guinea worm. Drinking unfiltered water in these countries meant that the Guinea worm larvae was consumed too. The Guinea worm grows up to 1m in length inside abdominal tissue. When matured, the Guinea worm then excretes an acid-like substance to help achieve its escape from the person through a painful blister.  This pain lasts for up to 4 months!  Just 25 recorded cases in 4 countries by 2016 which is a major win. 

Dr Donald R Hopkins, working with The Carter Centre, changed the behaviour of  millions of people to eradicate the disease. They focused on three behaviour changes  to wipe out the Guinea worm: 

1. Filter drinking water – instead of drinking unfiltered water like they had always done.
2. Stop using the local source of drinking  water to cool the blisters, this stopped the lavae getting back into the drinking water.
3. Speak openly about the worm and hold others accountable for behaviours 1 and 2. 

What Dr Hopkins and his team did was influence the motivation (mindset) and the  ability of the people in these countries to make these three new behaviours a reality.  

Most behaviour change fails because we look for a simple solution…but the world’s best influencers use layer upon layer upon layer of influences to drive real changes in behaviour.

STOP…thinking one simple strategy for influence will solve your complex change issue

START…using the 6 sources of influence to identify what is supporting the wrong behaviours in your business, then get to work…

Case study 2: 16,000 convicts show you the way to winning influence. Dr Mimi Silbert and her Delancey Street Foundation work on changing deep-rooted and dangerous drug, gang and violent tendencies in their residents. Typically the Delancey residents have four criminal convictions, can’t read or write and without the foundation’s help, would undoubtedly return to a life of crime. 

So how has Dr Silbert and her team turned 16,000 ex-cons into stable proactive members of society?  

1. Connect with what motivates each person 

To a gangland criminal ‘grassing on’ a fellow gang member is a death wish.  And yet at Delancey everyone must challenge everyone’s wrongdoings, the total  opposite of the convict’s code. Each resident is accountable for the others’ successes and failures. They’ve turned ‘grassing’ into something the ex-cons believe in by connecting with the idea of doing worthwhile work.  Delancey influences long term change by connecting residents to a deeper motive –  ‘worthwhile work’.  

“This is our family and this is our home. And in our home, here’s what we believe. Here’s what we do. Here’s why. If you turn others in, it helps  them. We do it because we must help  ach other if we want to succeed.” –  Dr Mimi Silbert 

Show your people that the work they do is worthwhile and you get their buy-in to  the change you seek. 

2. Build individual’s skill in small steps 

To become an expert tennis player or violin player, high quality practice with a  coach is essential. So why is high-quality practice often ignored in business? At Delancey skill building is taken very seriously. Time is set aside, and progress is  monitored and recognised.  When helping new residents learn how to set a place in their restaurant, they first practice placing the fork correctly. Only when  the fork works do they move onto the knife.  A commitment to small goals and small  steps is the key to building skill. 

3. Harness moral support from peers and colleagues 

Criminals run in packs. Packs that support  and encourage illegal, immoral and anti social behaviours.  So at Delancey they have created “…an environment where formal  and informal leaders relentlessly  encourage positive behaviours  and skilfully confront negative  behaviours. …residents find that change is the path of least  existence.”   You make this source of influence payoff for your business when you identify and recruit influential individuals to support your  cause. 

4. Build skill together – strength in numbers 

Grameen Bank is a highly successful  business loan company that gives micro  loans to help (100 million) budding business owners escape poverty. Their success is partly because they apply strength in numbers. A micro loan is only  granted if 4 friends co-sign for the debt. This gets friends to strengthen the business idea and support the borrower’s efforts. 

At Delancey Street new residents are assigned to a dorm of 9. Each person is also assigned to a separate support group of 10. Residents also work in crews with crew bosses who are also peers.  How can you encourage positive group  support within your business? 

5. Use recognition, rewards and  accountability to promote good  behaviours 

Delancey Street rewards good behaviour  not just results. Good behaviour means residents quickly move from grunt work to more interesting  work. They move from 9 person dorms to a 5 person room, then to their own room and  eventually to their own apartment.  Delancey have turned small rewards into an art form, one behaviour reward heaped upon another. But they only use incentives after they’ve put the other forms of influence to work. What sort of reward system can you create to support the changes in behaviour within your business? 

6. Change the structural environment to promote good behaviours 

As suggested in the brilliant book, Influencer: The Power to Change Anything “…things are far easier to change  than people, and… things can then  have a permanent impact on how  people behave.” 

You can make small environment changes and have a big impact. Move people,  move desks, use white boards to track performance, hide the biscuits!  Almost every heroin addict that comes to Delancey comes through the horrors of  withdrawal. Because they are in a dorm with 8 who don’t use heroin, another 50 on the same floor who don’t, and another 200 in their building who don’t, the structural environment makes it easier to stop, and  makes it harder to continue using. 

FOUR HELPING HANDS FOR YOU…

Your skill at influencing others will determine the success of your business. Focus on behaviour and several sources of influence:

1. Be clear on the behaviours you don’t want
2. Work out which of the 6 sources of influence are supporting the ‘wrong’ behaviours
3. Be clear on the new behaviours you do want
4. Work out how to make the 6 sources of influence support the new behaviours you want

“It sounds good in theory but my people will fight tooth and nail every change we  introduce!” 

Mimi Silbert hears the ex-cons ‘whine like crazy’ too. But at Delancey Street there’s a saying:  “You can hate Chinese food, but not until after you’ve had Chinese food.”  

What’s wrong with just testing something?  So what if they whinge and whine, get them to test it or watch others test it.  Delancey Street focuses on getting people to trial new behaviours rather than just talk about them. If serial criminal offenders can test new behaviours then your people can test new behaviours too can’t they? 

“Why does it have to be so complex. Surely there’s a  simpler way to get people to  do what needs doing?”   The simple first step is diagnosing the  behaviours (what people are doing) that are causing your problem. Then you can work out the changes in  behaviours you need to get the results you want.  But behind each behaviour you’ll find many and varied forces at play. Many forces  supporting current behaviours and many forces preventing the new behaviours you seek. Go for a simple fix and you do what many have tried and failed before you. Or you can do what successful influencers do and use  4, 5 or 6 of the listed positive influences to change current behaviours. 

Do what they do at Delancey Street.  Do what they did to eradicate Guinea  worm.  Use several layers of influence one on top of the other. 

“How do I know the 6 sources of influence can work for me and my business?” 

When next faced with challenging behaviours or disappointing results why not test the 6 sources of influence? Make sure you bring at least 4 of the 6 sources  to work on your challenge (rather than thinking 1 or 2 might work).  

STOP thinking one simple strategy for influence will solve your complex change issue  

START using the 6 sources of influence to identify what is supporting  the wrong behaviours, then get to  work… 

Your next steps: 

Put the six sources of influence to work for you and your business.  Remember to diagnose the wrong behaviours first and also work out which of the 6 influence sources are driving the ‘wrong’ behaviours.  

Then focus your efforts on the new behaviours needed for change and bring  4 or more of the 6 sources to work for you. 

Start by working out what actions are holding you back. The focus is on behaviours (what your people are doing). Some behaviours are holding you and your business back. Find them!