I’ve just finished reading the second edition of a book by the authors of Crucial Conversations. It’s titled Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change. The book chronicles and documents instances of astonishing change and provides a “recipe” for managing successful improvement initiatives.
Much of what I read was not new, but it was structured in compelling ways. Rather than summarize the key points of Influencer, I’d like to highlight things I found to be particularly interesting (and in some cases counter-intuitive).
Voicing is Important
Here’s my first insight: One of the authors’ key suggested strategies is to “Spot Culture Busters.” In many companies, schools, and government entities, the negative or “unhealthy” behaviors are ongoing because “confronting them openly simply isn’t done.” (p. 57). Does that remind you of “the elephant in the room” and of the importance to voice what needs to be said? (Something we talk about a lot in our Instructional Partners network.)
Voicing is hard, and I often turn to one of the authors’ previous books, Crucial Conversations, for help. In that book, the authors remind us that there are those among us “who routinely hold crucial conversations and hold them well (and are) able to express controversial and even risky opinions in a way that gets heard.” (p. 10)
For me, to have a crucial conversation, I need to think about how I would want to be treated if I was on the receiving end. I also need to apply those partnership principles that fit the circumstances. The key? Being brave enough to voice, and preparing well for the dialogue.
The Fundamental Attribution Error
Did you know that too often we attribute someone’s actions or behavior to “some underlying character flaw?” (p. 83). The authors call this making a “fundamental attribution error,” which is “the belief that people do what they do merely because they enjoy it.”
The authors give two examples of this phenomenon, the first related to the failure of some doctors to wash their hands between patients. Many attribute that behavior to the view: “He’s just concerned about his own convenience.” Or, when we don’t get treated the way we expect by a salesperson or someone at a restaurant, we might infer that they are “just lazy.”
How do we resist making this error? The authors suggest that we look deeper and consider that the problem is “not that these people are incapable of caring for others. It’s that they aren’t thinking about others—at that particular moment.” And, they suggest the following tactics—many of which include partnership principles:
- Allow for choice
- Create direct experiences…give that person the opportunity to directly experience the consequences of their choices
- Employ stories
- Make it a game by using a tip from the conceptualizer of “Flow,” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: turn a unpleasant activity or a chore into a game. “…almost any activity can be made engaging if it involves reasonably challenging goals and clear, frequent feedback.” (p. 109)
Look for the Opinion Leaders
The authors directly address how to successfully manage a major change initiative. This section of the book really intrigued me. What they found in case after case of successful change initiatives is that the change leader understood the importance of engaging a specific group for help, early on.
And exactly who are the early helpers that the leaders chose? Not the identified “innovators” in their midst, because those individuals are often viewed skeptically by others. Instead, the authors suggest identifying “early adopters,” the people who are most often the opinion leaders in the group. Here are the findings:
These important people represent about 13.5 percent of the population. They are smarter than average, and they tend to be open to new ideas. But they are different from innovators in one critical respect: they are socially connected and respected. And, here’s the real influence key. The rest of the population—over 85 percent—will not adopt the new practices until opinion leaders do.” (p. 166).
What a powerful piece of information that is!
As you work to support and influence your colleagues, you might keep a few of these suggestions close at hand. Here, I’ve just addressed three suggestions. What have you learned from your own reading?
What other strategies do you find helpful in advancing improvements in your school or district?
