This is a powerful book that is relevant and helpful for anyone who is dealing with personal and/or organizational issues. It is very timely given what we are going through now as a nation and as a world community.

The title of this book is "Influencer: The Power to Change Anything." I'll call shenanigans on that subtitle, because this is not a book about exercising personal power. Rather, it's a series of case studies that demonstrate how influence can be used in positive ways to improve the world around us. It's powerful reading, yes. But that's because many of the anecdotes are interesting, and some are quite powerful.

This is a very well-written book, with some extremely interesting stories to share. Dr. Donald Hopkins and his fight against the dreaded guinea worm is a common theme, and it's an interesting story. Another "influence master" detailed started a rehabilitation center for convicts that actually works. Yet another started a small business program in Bangladesh that has given hope to the poor. The stories really stuck with me after I read the book, and they've helped me to think of ways I can influence others in my own life.

Of less value to me was the "six sources of influence" model, which sounds very academic, but lacks the intuitive "oomph" of methods like the "7 Habits" or the "22 laws" that leadership gurus like to bring up. You can actually find all of the information about the abstract concepts on the book's website, and you can read case studies on many of the featured stories on publisher VitalSmarts's site. (This is mentioned in the book as well, so I'm guessing the authors don't mind if people mine their sites for information before reading.)

Still, "Influencer" is a great read, and I'd certainly recommend it to anyone looking for inspiration. The world can be a better place, and this book does a good job of calling out some notable cases. Just don't expect to walk away prepared to change the world -- apparently, it's not as easy as the subtitle would lead you to believe.

I'm not sure why I ordered this book other than that it was free. I am not the type of person who reads self-help or business books and the one or two times in my life that I was forced to do so I couldn't see the point of the book nor did I derive anything beneficial. I have been in sales most of my life and at various points have been known as one of the top salesmen in my field. I've often been asked to share what has made me successful so I have taught classes on selling. It seems to me to be an exercise in futility. I wish it was easy to simply tell some one how to be or what to do and that success will follow. It is my belief that human beings are infinitely more complex than what the business & self-help books portray and they do not change easily, if ever. I am sure that there are people who have benefitted from this class of book but I have never met one and I suspect they are rare. People are what they are and even if you get them excited for a short time they soon revert to their norm.

As far as this book goes it seems neither better nor worse than other books in its class. It relies on telling stories to show people how they might use different behaviours to achieve more influence. I don't think reading this book is going to enable anyone to make a profound change in their lives, just as the past twenty years worth of self-help and business books haven't seemed to make a bit of difference to anyone I know personally or within society in general. There is an old saying, "Those who can, do, those who can't, teach". That's why I don't teach anymore. It's depressing to try and teach something and see that the message sent just isn't ever received because of the fundamental difference in experience, motivation, outlook and thought processes between two different people. I would also offer this thought....the only way you'll change your life or influence others successfully is simply to go try doing it and get better. In other words, there is no magic words/spell/book that is going to change your world. There is only doing, practice, and gaining experience. Save your time and money, skip the book, and go practice influencing others. You'll fail a lot, but then you get better incrementally, and you'll have made progress. It's as unlikely that you'll make progress reading a book as it is unlikely that you'll learn to play the piano by reading a book. People make a lot of money by the lure of a shortcut to be found within the pages of their book but I don't know of any shortcuts to playing a piano or in learning to influence others. I sure didn't see any in this book.

Great book for educators. Should be required reading for all who work with people. Practical and effective information taught in a comprehensive and understandable fashion. Our faculty is doing a group study and application to our school with great results!

Terribly realistic research and data. Contains absolutely practical insights and solutions for use in my leadership development organization. After referring this to over 50 colleagues, the reports back to me are; 'Grateful', 'Glad you thought of me', 'Hit me again', 'Going to put this to use immediately',and more. Phil at http://maximizeothers.wordpress.com

In general, I am not easily impressed by these business books that purport give some great insight into how to make things work. If somebody really had the ability to "change anything" then he wouldn't be wasting time writing books, he'd be out there changing things, if not for the better, then to his advantage. With that caveat in mind, however, I have to say that I enjoyed this book.

There are a couple of reasons why I enjoyed it. First, it is so much better written than most. I don't know how its five authors actually collaborated to produce this volume but it reads very well. It doesn't show the effects of too many cooks. It delivers a series of very clear, easy to follow steps. If it doesn't support itself with a lot of quantitative research, it has a selection of well-chosen anecdotes. The Guinea worm stories and the Delancey Street stories have etched themselves into my memory. I've already shared them with a number of people.

Second, the six sources of influence, the elucidation of which takes up the bulk of the book, are simple to understand and seem very reasonable. In fact, most of us have used or experienced each of the types of influence before. It is the author's cleverness to synthesize them for us. Not only that, that demonstrate how to use them effectively. Ultimately, they make the point that, to have real success in influencing others, you must use as many of the sources of influence as possible, preferably all of them. Too often, change doesn't happen because we don't use all the sources of influence available to us.

Like many books of this type, it wouldn't have suffered any by being a little bit more compact. Still, as someone who works for change in my day to day life, I was able to draw a lot of useful information out of it. Perhaps more useful things than in any book I've ready recently. That's high praise indeed.

When your book has the subtitle "the power to change anything," you really need to deliver tools to let readers effect change. Instead, this book is dry and jargon-heavy, telling what some alleged influencers did, rather than showing how the reader can do it as well.

As a result, it's a marginally interesting read at best, and of dubious value.

A great "how to" book that should be required reading for anyone in management. We've used a couple of the strategies over the years, but not as effectively as a combined and orchestrated manner as we will in the future. This book exposes some of our strategic deficiencies that we are setting out to change. A great guide that could have saved us substantial time and money in the past, and will surely help us in the future. It's an easy & quick read - and great on CD as well.

I was invited to a webcast featuring the new book by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxwell, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler, Influencer: The Power to Change Anything, McGraw Hill:New York (c) 2008. I left the room convinced I had to buy it and also give it to two managers as belated Christmas presents. I picked those two not because I thought they needed it most, but rather because I thought they would be most receptive. I have now read the book and can recommend it highly to all of you. You can breeze through it, but I recommend that you do as I did and take your time thinking about how their "out of box" solutions might apply in your life and work.

Those of you who have heard me speak about learning through "stories" will appreciate my surprise and delight to find 12 pages devoted to using stories. These pages were at the end of a chapter and started with the subheading "Use stories to help change minds." Many of their examples were short stories. I didn't appreciate how they kept promising "more about that later". But this is still a book to make you think about how you can influence the world.

Parents and teachers will be interested in the findings that the "use praise versus the use of punishment." is a behavior that separates top teachers from poor teachers (p. 33). They also found that "top performers rapidly alternate between teaching and questioning or otherwise testing."

Good book with a good system which takes you through the different steps required in influencing. The one negative is they seem to draw on the same examples over and over again. Sometimes it is hard to tell what the difference is between the various sections. It does get the message across that you can influence anyone to do anything. It also helps lead you into a direction so it is a pretty decent book.

I liked the last part of the book where they gave an example in corporate America where they went in and changed attitudes and behaviors. I would have liked another few examples like this throughout the book.

This book is a joy, and, as the authors no doubt intended, an inspiration. Often, those who try to create change over the long term give up and become resigned to the way things are. Into this stable situation come five authors - Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan and Al Switzler - full of optimism, examples and, best of all, practical techniques you can use right away to create change. It would be easy to say the book is too optimistic, or that it claims too much is possible, but some of its examples show the success of sweeping, ambitious changes. Instead of clinging to a dour but "realistic" view of the world, they invite you to re-examine your influence strategies and analyze your environment for new clues, whether you are trying to change yourself or your employees. The social possibilities are exciting. We recommend this book to anyone who is trying to create social change, and especially people who are open-minded and at ease with new ideas.

I was looking for a book that would help me gain a little more control in the sales job that I do, to try and influence someone to book a suite rather than a generic hotel guest room, I thought this book would help. This book did not explain how to influence people, but simply discussed stories of people who were influencers. Knowing how they did it would have been a much better approach. It didn't help me any more than I already knew.

The Vital Smarts Team provides another great book on how to collaborate and work with others. Choosing vital behaviors and telling a story easily convey how to communicate with Gen A-Z.

We all wrestle with what matters most in our own lives and those of our loved ones--how to insure that we live long and prosper. Many of us also struggle with how to help others discover health, happiness, and even significance. The desire to save the planet is innate; our very own survival depends on it. This book gives us step-by-step procedures we can all learn to induce change in ourselves and others for the right reasons, not through cold-hearted manipulation. This is a must read for anyone dedicated to being or becoming a change agent. The stories it tells of change agent successes throughout the world among different countries and cultures are beyond inspirational because they are real stories of long lasting positive transformations where everyone benefitted.

I was really looking forward to reading this book. The book description really interested me, but I found that once I started reading it, I wasn't that motiviated to finish it. It had good concepts and information, but I don't know if I liked the presentation. Overall it is an OK book.

I found Influencer to be an educational, but common, read. It concerns teaching oneself certain approaches and techniques which will enable you to influence others and improve both your life and vocational performance. Its major detraction, in my view, was that many of its recommendations were rather obvious. Basically, it's a behavior modification book espousing the identification of problematic behaviors and the ways in which to alter them. It's built around the work of social learning theorist Albert Bandura. I have no doubt that the author's approach will prove valuable for many laymen as there's not much here to disagree with, but the book was rather pedestrian in my opinion.

This book was great because of the skills that were addressed. The skills were the methods to influence an organization or a person. It talked about the pointlessness of using verbal logic to promote meaningful change in people. This seemed to strike me because of the act of preaching every week. You certainly can use words to influence people, but these are the supporting acts to the major actions of influence. There are about six various methods or influences on that one can exert to influence positive change. A lot of the influencers are works that a good church would be using. They include modeling, social networks, and truth telling. The book is a must read for elders and preachers because of the advice on influencing. As workers in the church, we are to influence people to be more Christlike. A great read for ministry, from a book that deals with business.

Proving their assertion; "...if you bundle the right numbers and type of influence techniques into the right influence strategy, you can change virtually anything", the authors artfully bundle stories (stories are one of their recommended methods for utilizing influence strategies) and repackage well known behavior control techniques into a bestselling book. Nice work if you can do it, and these authors have done it before and do it again with this book.

Although the contents may not represent new thinking, the stories are riveting, the style is comfortable, and the book is an easy read. It discourages the serenity approach (as in The Serenity Prayer), but does leave one feeling like it is possible to change anything - that may be its greatest contribution. The book is recommended for those facing a challenge that feels just too big to tackle.

Dennis DeWilde, author of
"The Performance Connection"

Good advice -- even though it debunks the Serenity Prayer (which I believe in) -- the book goes on to show alternatives to "resignation" (determined action and intelligent and considerate use of human and other resources) and offers advice and examples of how to approach a problem by involving/enlisting people (co-workers, neighbors, colleagues) with a "See It Through" attitude to inspire their peers and/or subordinates into willingly and enthusiastically creating and effecting solutions.

This verbose (would have loved some pictures to break up the verbal landscape) book gives some very inspirational and interesting examples of how to meet AND overcome what appears to be a terrible problem - as in the chapter "Never Go It Alone", describing women investors in India, rising from total poverty and creating their own wealth by pooling their intellectual resorces and using follow-through to succesfullyachieve their goals.

Another striking example of using influence to effect a solution is in the graphic but attention-getting example of the Guinea Worm problem and the simple but effective ways (The "it takes a village" solution AND the hygienic approches as well) it was eliminated in some villages.

However, this is not a book to read in one sitting, as it demands concentration, but I highly reccomend that the reader go through it from cover to cover, for the ideas it proposes and the examples it gives.

I've been reading and doing workshops since 1989. This book brings fresh intriguing ideas and is written in way that keeps me engaged and at times amused. It isn't a 7 steps to success guide, but then Covey's first book is the only one that I think did that format well. From the examples, I'm able to look at what I want to accomplish and see how apply the same principals. I'm glad I bought it and I'm excited about the working with the ideas.

This is an easy to read and easy to understand book that "may" help you become an influencer. However, before becoming an influence to others, there are necessary and more important steps you need to do - influence your own self.

How? BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION. This tried and tested concept is evident in all aspects of human life in achieving one's goal. From working and work ethics to physical fitness and dieting, you will see this very word applied - "behavior modification."

Naturally before you influence others, you need to change your own ways. It sounds like a no-brainer statement. But surprisingly difficult for others to apply on themselves. This book will help oneself understand their own patterns in life or aspects of such that they need to change. Then and only then after they have seen their own self can they perform a paradigm shift. After this shift, they can now begin to understand others as well. And it's not just about understanding others, but being able to know how to approach them from an angle that will be understood. For it may be obvious to confront a person head on, but that very same person make also take it as an "attack" which will then create a defensive or equally offensive reaction rather than an open discussion of realizations.

This book will not give you instant power to change oneself and influence others. It is a guide to self-realization. If you read it with an open mind, then you are off to a positive start. What the authors will do is help you understand where they are coming from by giving examples of known real-life problems and solutions. In understanding these examples and the concepts they provide throughout the book, then you are able to think about your own in the process and create solutions in the process.

This book is not for everyone. It will be basic for others. While others who seek solutions, it won't solve your own problem magically. It is a guide. For those who can read and approach this book as well as other similar books with an open mind, it's a good start to self-realization.

Despite some of the more negative reviews, I found Influencer: The Power to Change Anything very helpful in my parenting. Children often participate in destructive behaviors and parents often respond negatively. This book put more focus on finding the vital behaviors that make kids act the way they do and change those positively.

Let me clarify that for a moment. This book is not about parents and their kids - it's about behaviors that apply to any situation. Discover those behaviors and change them positively. It can work in business, politics, at home, etc. Few books that focus solely on parenting work even nearly that well.

The examples given were precise regarding the point they portrayed. They aren't likely to be entirely about your exact circumstance, but thoroughly show how these behaviors can be found and what can be done about them. It's a guide only. The details are up to you because only you can determine the behaviors of your given situation.

It's not a parenting book, but as far as parenting resources go, it is the best book in my resource library. It tells you what to find, how to find it, and how to change it with very thorough examples of how it has been done already. I have found that my far more specific parenting books miss the forest for the trees compared to Influencer.

I've spent the last month mulling over what to say about this book - it looks like other folks beat me to the punch. It really is for people who are moved to tears by advice they get from self-help books (in other words, someone who doesn't need much to get them all pumped up.)

It didn't do much for me, but then, I'm a natural-born skeptic. The reading is dry - which isn't of itself a bad thing, since I like scholarly books which tend in that direction. But gawd, there's no upshot to it. All that talk, and here I am, still unmotivated (and apparently uninfluenced.)

Not a bad book to pick up at the library or the buck remaindered table if you're in the sales field. The only thing I could think of when reading this, after all the sales pitches, is now I know why I hated working retail! It was the pep talks that made me want to slit my wrists!

Pro's:

- Several good insights, but they are lodged in a deep thicket of brush
- Good supporting anecdotes

Con's:

- Verbose, jargon filled, repetitive - reads text book like...grindingly difficult to finish and I couldn't - had to set it down.

- Same message could have been delivered in 25% of the pages

- Recommendations not presented with clarity and are not straightforward

- Not much new here. Books falls far short of living up to its pitch

Excellent book with wrong subtitle - we can not change anything (or everything), just ourselves. And this is where influenece and change starts. Influence yourself and you are on good track to influence the others. One raindrop rise the ocean, change of one person changes the world.

What an amazing book! Very inspirational, educational, and motivational. I highlighted something on nearly every page! The authors use stories from their consulting experiences to illustrate how some people have been very successful at influencing the behaviors of others. Two of the examples that they return to again and again are the efforts to eradicate the guinea worm, and the Delancey rehabilitation organization in San Francisco.

The authors demonstrate how to focus on behaviors that need to be changed. They detail how to find the key behaviors that change create a cascade of changes, and then how to build influence to affect these behaviors, pointing out that simple education and oral persuassion techniques do not work. They explain six sources of influence that should all be used together for maximum effect.

Throughout the book I found strategies and ideas that I can immediately see how to apply to a particular problem I have in mind. I highly recommend this book to leaders of every kind, and to the lay person who wants to make a difference and produce results in some area they care about.

Have you ever wanted to know why certain people succeed at making changes, while others don't? This book can help you understand the successful strategies that involve influencing and manifesting change. The authors break down the types of change and influence into six categories, as well as show how these six types are interconnected to each other.

In addition, they provide excellent examples of how these influence strategies have been applied to situations as diverse as parasites in water, to former gang members being rehabilitated. More importantly though, the authors show the reader how to apply these principles to their lives.

I highly recommend this book because it will show you how to change your life.

Great stories of how individuals were able to positively change systemic behaviours in groups of people -- alcoholics, sex workers and other "hopeless" cases. These communication techniques and strategies should help business and IT execs improve performance with their intractable problems.

This is an excellent book that I almost passed on because of the bad reviews. If you want to learn how to change behaviors that seem intractable this book will give you powerful change tools. Influencers will help managers and leaders with organizational change, parents with their children's behaviors. This book isn't about quick fixes, self-help, or even the "persuasion techniques" that salesmen need to close a deal or managers need to get their orders followed. This book is about influencing behavior over the long view. This is an important book.

Let me address the critical reviews that almost "influenced" me to not buy this book. The principle complaints seem to be: the book is poorly written, there are 5 authors, the book mocks the `Serenity' prayer, and lastly it is not a self-help book. The reading level of this book is probably greater than the 8th grade level most books are written at. However the book is well organized, threads its various stories and points throughout and kept me involved to the end. The joint efforts of these authors has produced two other fine books (Crucial Conversations and Crucial Confrontations) so their writing skill and collaboration are proven.

Serenity has become apathy: the acceptance of things that we can change--a substitution for courage. This book calls readers to challenge the status quo and to lead change where possible. Lastly, this is NOT a self-help book. This is not a book for salespeople or others looking for persuasion techniques. If you want to learn about those things read Tipping point, anything by David J. Lieberman (such as "Get Anyone to Do Anything"). Read "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert B. Cialdini or "The Psychology of Persuasion" by Kevin Hogan. This is a book on how to help others.

"Influencers" creates an entire change model based on the fact that people choose their behaviors based on what they believe works and only change after answering two questions: can I do it and is it worth it? Those two dimensions of desiring change--motivation and ability--have personal, social, and structural elements, resulting in 6 strategies influencers can use to leverage change.

The book solves the paradox of having so much information but little change, for example dieting or smoking. We know what to do but we don't do it: we need people who are Influencers. Influencers know that behaviors are not changed through verbal persuasion but through personal experience. When experience can't be had Influencers need to create profound visceral experiences. Change "takes a combination of strategies aimed at a handful of vital behaviors to solve profound and persistent problems" (76). This book will teach you how to do this! If you are the kind of person that reads books like Rick Warren's "A Purpose Driven Life" or John Maxwell's "Becoming a Person of Influence" you will like this book. If you want to be effective in helping others without force or by power you should read this book.

Though I doubt that I am ready to go out into the world and immediately start affecting change, I found this book to be very compelling. Some of the ideas in the book are good common sense when you think about it. If you are trying to lose weight you make it easier to choose good behavior, you might begin to eat on smaller plates, causing you to eat less, not going to the gym across town but having equipment or a pleasurable exercise activity close to home, etc. These are simple things, but when put into practice afford great change. The book goes over small changes like this along with very great changes, which have been employed by successful influence masters, such as Dr. Mimi Silbert, who runs the Delancey program in San Francisco, where she has changed the lives of over 16,000 (and counting) criminals and drug addicts by creating an environment where they have to be responsible for each other and teach others daily as they move up the chain to more responsibility and privileges. This is amazing considering the people in this program are mixed together with people that were previously rival gang members, other races and with varying backgrounds.

Another story in the book that I found extremely interesting is that of Dr. Muhammad Yunus, of Bangladesh. He found a way to supply micro loans to poor women in his home country, when banks would not. Dr. Yunus realized that only a small amount of capital was needed to start a business, but that no bank would loan the money and loan sharks would take a cut of 1000% which caused the borrower to never get out of their indebtedness and never realize a profit. One instance was a woman that made handcrafted stools but was held in poverty because she could not come up with the five cents a day needed to buy supplies. He worked the loans in teams, one person would be supported by four others in the group who would co-sign for the loan and would be basically a think tank, they would go over proposals and put together plans on the business and how they would make it successful. Each of the other four members would eventually also be granted a loan and in turn the others would co-sign for them. As the author(s) say, what then do you expect? These were people not formerly educated, sticking their necks out on the line, well, you get some really good, innovative ideas, because there is no room for half-baked ideas when your livelihood is at stake. Dr. Yunus's amazing success rate is 95%! That's right, 95%, meaning a successful business and also a full repayment of the loans.

Other items reviewed in the book are how to garner peer pressure, how to look at the problem and factors around you that could be influencing behavior and how even the best idea, that is presented by an innovator may just not be accepted because you need an "opinion leader" to be the one to actually garner the acceptance (someone who is respected and people feel at ease with that they know is looking out for their interests).

I am very interested in psychology and how the mind works, so for me I thought that this book was very interesting and enjoyed the way the book was layed out and how humor was used in varying instances.

If you like to understand what makes people tick and would like to understand better the six sources of influence that can affect change you will find this book an interesting read, and who knows, maybe you will be the next one to make a big change in your life or in those around you?

Wow, I was surprised to find such cynical views as I came here specifically to post a good review, a 4.5. First lets start with the complaints.

1. ITS NOT SPECIFIC HELP: They really don't concentrate on specific plans, they concentrate on general principles. YOU have to make a plan from there. But they give you six general principles and much more information.
2. ITS TOO ACADEMIC / NOT ACADEMIC ENOUGH: So which is it? They refer to academic studies but don't bore you with academia. They have pages of footnotes at the end.
3. WRITING STYLE WAS POOR: Yea, for 5 authors I thought it could have been better. It did seem a bit unfocused.
4. IT COULD HAVE BEEN WRITTEN IN A PAMPLET: Not. But it is so valuable I am in the process of preparing a cheat sheet of sorts.
5. IT'S JARGON-FILLED MUMBO JUMBO: I didn't find it so. I found about 20 different insights.
6. IT DIDN'T INFLUENCE ME!: Too bad you expect to be spoon fed.
7. IT ISN'T THE MAGIC PILL I NEED: Then follow the principles in the book into ACTION and stop expecting READING A BOOK to change your life!

In short, the negative reviewers expected a magic pill.

Here are some things I learned:
1. Negative reinforcement rarely works
2. "Willpower" can be taught, and they give examples of how
3. Change behavior first and values will follow
4. Changing just a few "vital behaviors" in a situation usually can make all the difference
5. Actual behaviors are more important to focus on than the goal. Goals usually leave people frustrated. People who focus on the behaviors are the people who reach the goals.
6. So the behaviors are what should be rewarded
7. Most change fails not because of lack of character, but because of lack of a means and skills, and people who consider failures as systemic flaws they can correct are those who move forward.
8. To change people's behaviors you have to change their "maps" of cause and effect--their expecations of the results
9. OK, you are on your own from here, those were just the ones off the top of my head. There are at least 10 more points of equal or greater significance.
10. Guinea Worms are really gross.

I am adding this book to my favorites. This is because if someone followed the principles in the book positive change would be inevitable. People who want to change the office or the home or the world should read it and develop a plan based on the principles.

And dudes, they give you worksheets on their website as a start, so stop griping that they don't tell you what to do.

PS--They are a business entity that wrote the book, so there is some marketing you will find towards the end. They are trying to sell you more...

I will be honest and say that I was unable to complete reading this book. I made it half way and had read enough to know that I had completely and totally lost interest. This book was not very helpful or informative. I echo the sentiments of most of the reviewers here and feel that this book was a complete waste of time. I thought that there would be specific instructions or methods on influencing people, situations etc. but this was not so.

All in all, this wouldn't be too bad if the book didn't influence its readers to think something that it was not.

Not very helpful or informative. This needs to go back to the press and made relevant.

"The Influencer" is a must read for anyone aspiring to lead change. No matter the scope of the challenge--personal goals or multi-national change efforts--the principles in this book are broadly applicable. "The Influencer" doesn't just propose a single, simplistic `silver bullet' approach, but instead outlines a comprehensive framework for achieving meaningful change that lasts. The principles taught are based on solid academic research and are illustrated using inspiring and concrete case studies of people actually changing the world. The authors strike a terrific balance between academic rigor, comprehensiveness, and application. Because of this balance, I found it easy to make the `what's-in-it-for-me' connection. Whether fine tuning my fitness routine or leading the integration of a newly acquired company at work, I find myself structuring my planning using the influence framework and principles explained in this book. "The Influencer" is a great companion to "Crucial Conversations" because each book addresses complementary skills and influence strategies. I enthusiastically recommend "The Influencer"--it will help you change anything.

The basic truth in this book is that we are most apt to be influenced by the modeling of behavior around us. I've needed to lose weight for some time and when a good friend who had been heavy for some years informed me one day that he had lost 40 pounds--I was immediately influenced to get off my can and change the behaviors that were causing me to be overweight. This book takes that truth and teaches the reader how to be an influencer--very practical and contains lessons that one can begin applying to their business and life right away.

I tend to carry a lot of pessimism into a book such as this, partly because I'm exceedingly individualistic, partly because I consider the vast amount of sociological self-help books to be pure hokum, and partly because I know that I am personally way too messed up in the head to be radically "improved" by the contents of a single book. I also have a latent fear that a book such as this is somehow going to be a manifestation of that infernal Who Moved My Cheese? book. Believe it or not, however, I found Influencer to be a valuable read, as it provides a lot of fascinating insight into the workings of the human mind. Whether you call it motivation or manipulation, it is the authors' contention that you can change virtually anything by understanding and implementing the types of techniques and strategies they identify and expound upon in this book.

To be a true "influencer," you have to change your way of thinking, according to the authors. The real secret is not to concentrate on producing the outcome you desire; instead, you must target the behaviors responsible for producing that output. You absolutely have to change behavior patterns in order to yield the results you are after. It takes work, experimentation, etc., but baby steps in the right direction can ultimately lead to giant leaps in virtually any aspect of life, not just business. The authors identify and discuss six sources of influence which you must address in order to bring about and sustain comprehensive change. Success requires deliberate practice, a lot of honest feedback, the setting of mini-goals along the way to keep people motivated, flexibility and mutual collaboration, etc. There really are no magic formulas here; the influence strategy you ultimately adopt must be personalized and comprehensive if you are to succeed. If you don't truly understand the behavior in question or you try to pick and choose between different sources of influence, you will most likely fail in your endeavors.

The authors do a good job of showing why the most simplistic agents of change do not work very well at all. You don't have to be the parent of a teenager to know that lectures rarely yield the desired results. The more you yell and threaten, the less likely you are to get what you want. On the other hand, you would think that incentives and rewards for desired behavior would work well, but the authors show how this strategy can also backfire. So how do you enable these all-important behaviors and forge a workable strategy? The authors boil it down to three things: improving personal mastery through deliberate practice, working with others to build personal capital, and changing the environment. It is amazing how you can influence human behavior just by making even the smallest of changes inside a person's environment. For example, I know that complaints about the slowness of a certain business software program declined significantly after the words "Please Wait" were replaced by "Processing." The program wasn't one bit faster than it used to be, but people thought it was simply because it was no longer prompting them to wait. The authors pack this book full of even more telling examples than this, offering empirical evidence for every recommendation they endorse.

This book hasn't radically changed my life, but it has given me a lot to think about. I would definitely recommend it to a wide range of readers, as it is more of an idea book than a practical guide aimed at a specific audience.

Like a great many "business" books (or motivational, or "how to increase sales - GO! RAH RAH RAH!!!") kinds of books, Influencer has little in terms of actual practical data, ideas, or theory. It is incredibly heavy on adjectives, "go get 'em!" platitudes, jargon, and contextless examples without any kind of helpful critique/analysis as to why they succeeded, the theory behind them, or how they were actually executed.

I give this four stars, though, because unlike most business/motivational/sales kinds of books, this one actually does offer a tad more meat in comparison. Influencer has also a few powerful examples of success in influencing people.

The basic theory here, which in my opinion is a very sound theory, is that the best way to influence people is to help them a path of small successes that increase their confidence and help them learn to trust the person who wants to do the influencing. But, barring a few anecdotal stories that fit that theory, the book offers nothing in terms of studies done, theory, or backing up by any kind of academic work. But, that's fairly typical for these kinds of books, so I'm not surprised and it was exactly what I expected before I even began reading it.

Like a lot of evangelical Christian books, republican rightwing books (such as Coulter and Limbaugh), Influencer suffers from a serious lack of footnoted "facts" and a far too heavy use of anecdotal stories as universal truths and normative, universal experience.

Still, some of the stories are powerful, especially the story of the woman who has been helping thousands of former criminals find new life as law-abiding citizens. Just don't expect that the author will provide any kind of scholarly look as to why any of these work.

Is it worth reading? In the realm of business/motivational books, this is probably at the top of the list in terms of being written without every sentence being pure jargon and buzzwords, and in terms of offering some stuff that is actually usable.

I continue, though, to await the day when someone writes a book like this with some actual meat and usable analysis/theory that can be practically applied, and change behavior at a deep level, and not just a superficial level.

I'll start by saying that this is a really good book if you want to understand how people influence each other and how to use that information to your benefit. That being said, the beginning of the book can be an exercise in frustration. The authors mention several individuals and how they have influenced others to change whether as an individual or a whole community but they give no details of how it was done. It can leave you wondering if there is anything of practical value in the book. However, if you persevere and read through the book you will find that these questions are answered and you will come away with a much greater understanding of how influence works. By the time you're finished you will understand how to use the principles of influence to change your life and help others make positive changes in theirs. With clear examples of why common myths about influence don't work and why successes do work it is a very interesting read. This is one of the better books on influence that I have read it is highly recommended for business, civic, and community leaders as well as anyone else who needs to know how to get people to take action or think in a new direction.

Influencer changed the way I look at the world. More particularly, it changed the way I look at the problems I face in MY world and opened me to options of how I can change those problems. People spend a lot of time thinking in terms of how to motivate people only from the standpoint of their personal motivation - they aren't doing what you want because they don't care, they're lazy, the don't respect me, etc. The emphasis on the power of social and environmental conditions was revelatory. I've stopped thinking about challenges as inevitable and think more in terms of how I can approach tough issues differently.

The case studies are fabulous and inspiring. I was somewhat distracted that the cases weren't presented start to finish, but as I progressed through the book I understood the reasoning. The authors illustrate principles that build, so the cases wouldn't have demonstrated those points with a start-to-finish recitation at the beginning of the book. I'm ready to read the book again, which will string together the cases and reinforce the key points of the book.

How many times have you found yourself in a seemingly unwinnable situation in the workplace or at home? We all find ourselves facing difficulties from time to time. And often these difficulties stem from human relations. This book, Influencer by Kerry Patterson -- Josheph Grenny -- David Maxfield -- Ron McMillan -- & Al Switzier will help you with just those types of situations.

As a teacher I find some of my most challenging, yet rewarding moments of my job come wrapped up in the fact I work with people. People are always unpredictable, always changing, and always intriguing. The challenge comes in the fact that it is not always easy to lead and influence people to help them become what you know they have full potential to be.

This book was quite useful to that end... Leading people and assisting them to reach their full potential. The authors of this book take the time to practically guide you in learning to influence others.
Near the beginning of this book the point is made that, "You are an influencer." Whether we like it or not, what we do and say is observed and acted upon by others. We have great power to influence the culture around us and the sphere in which we operate every single day.

What I liked best about this book is the common sense approach the authors take. Influencing others can be daunting to say the least. But this book takes the track that influence can be wrought by identifying just a few critical behaviors and helping those you work with to change those particular behaviors.

Too often when we are faced with a challenge we try to deal with the whole gamut of issues involved. Based on the research the author's of this book undertook, that can be an exhausting and defeating approach. When we really analyze a problem and boil it down to the most crucial elements we can work smarter not harder at solving it. When we isolate crucial behaviors and work to change those behaviors, then and only then will we influence those around us. And that is when we cause lasting change.

Another powerful point I found in this book was that people will not change unless they are given opportunity to safely try new behaviors. Modeling of and structured experiences with new behaviors are critical to creating lasting change. I see this in my elementary classroom all the time. Young students need opportunities to try what they are learning to do. And they must have scaffolded opportunities to work with them. Meaning, we those already competent with the skill must give the person we are influencing helping hand... a model... and a support while we are helping them try the new behavior. Without real-life experiences and supported practice the change we are trying to influence will stay in the world of generalities forever.

What's best about this book? The anecdotes and practical real life examples of influence in action will astound you. This isn't just a, "Ho-Hum" self-help book. It is a nuts and bolts approach to helping you make a real and lasting change in the places you live and work. You are an influencer!

This material is universal. The authors define twelve skills that folks should focus on if they hope to be able to improve circumstances around them. Even though I do not have a particular interest in business, I still found this information very helpful. I found it applied to the day-to-day management of life from parenting to charity work to employment.

After reading many self-help books, I find some better able to detail core concepts about change and managment than others. This one does a fine job. The authors point out how ideas of motivation and ability can either kill or escalate one's influence. It's great to realize what factors generate social and individual change.

I also appreciated the examples. I liked the examples of large scale social change. The examples of criminal reform and erradicating disease taught me a couple of things. First, individual behavior can create large-scale, critical change and secondly, because that principle holds true, I may have the ability to influence those around me if I choose. This is practical, useful information is for anyone trying to perform well at their job, balance family demands or simply survive soccer carpool. I found this information really, very helpful.

Yes, you heard me right. According to the authors of this book the prayer is a trap and I think I agree with them. The prayer reads:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

When Reinhold Niebuhr wrote these lines over six decades ago, I'm sure he didn't think his prayer would give solace to those would give up. But that's exactly what his prayer seems to encourage, giving up. Instead on accepting things one cannot change, one should try and make a difference, one should have the wisdom to try and make a difference. If everybody accepted the things they thought they couldn't change, the world would be a pretty dismal place.

Once the authors take their readers past the Serenity Trap, they give plenty of examples of people who didn't accept the things they couldn't change, instead they changed them. The authors not only give good examples of how an Influencer (someone who instigates change) works, but they show you how to be an influencer as well. And if I have any influence over you, dear reader, I'd like to influence you to order this book, you won't be disappointed.

Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne

It's a well-written book, but not terribly exciting. It does have good basic information about behavior modification techniques, providing examples of where the techniques have worked, how and why they have worked. The book sites case settings and ties them in throughout the book with various examples. The book also explains types of influencers that do NOT work in certain situations and why (i.e. why lecturing someone would not work in a specific situation.)

The concept of the book is: 1) here are the behavior influencers that have successfully worked; and 2) YOU can use them successfully to achieve certain behaviors (as others have). This book may be particularly useful to supervisors, coaches, teachers, or others who have a need to motivate others. There are 258 pages of information.

The book begins telling you that you have learned to follow the well-known prayer, ". . .[grant me the] SERENITY to accept the things you cannot change, the courage to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference." So, basically, we try to fix a chronic systemic problem a few times, then give in to the serenity and accept that we cannot change this problem/behavior/thing/etc, and most of us only lack the proper SKILL to be the catalyst for the change. The book studies cases of those who did NOT fall into acceptance of serenity and what they did to successfully influence others. One such successful influencer used throughout the book is Dr. Mimi Silbert, founder of Delancey. Through various therapy and socialization techniques and through her skills in behavior modification, praise, etc, Dr. Silbert has taken "thieves, prostitutes, robbers, and murderers" who are "nasty, racist, violent, and greedy" and gotten them to totally change their behaviors, become employable productive citizens and actually care about each other's success. She states that "most were gang members and many are third generation gang members". "Some have been homeless for years and most are lifetime drug addicts". She states that within hours of joining Delancey, they are working. "Of those who join Delancey, over 90 % never go back to drugs or crime." You will see examples from Delancey throughout the book.

The book explains 6 vital behaviors, which apply across ages, gender, geography, etc., the first vital behavior being reward vs. punishment. Top influencers reward positive performance frequently, while non-influencers criticize and condemn. Of course, the book continues in more detail.

Notable is also that at the end of each chapter is a summary of the concepts covered in the chapter, making it easy to assimilate what you just read in each chapter and easy to return and reference the high points of each chapter.

I thought that this book was great. It nicely packages a bunch of good and important info not readily available elsewhere (some of which stems from the authors' own work), and it tells you how to apply this info. It's not simply content with leaving you amazed at all the sexy info/research. It tells you what to do with it.

A very rudimentary outline is (a) it presents a framework/plan for how to go about producing change (of basically any form) in the first couple chapters. For instance, it shows you how to break down complex and confusing problems into more manageable, precise problems (e.g. finding the "vital behaviors"). And (b) in the main body, it presents various strategies for getting these problems solved (i.e. generating positive influence), along with a framework to organize these strategies. Here is where you can create your specific plan of attack (e.g. select a domain of influence and see what the research has shown about how to go about influence within this domain). Finally, interspersed throughout are a bunch of cool examples from people who have been successful at changing badness into goodness. The end product is a compendium of what have to be some of the best ideas out there for producing change. Moreover, these ideas are presented in a step-by-step, organized manner.

However, I think it should be noted that the major strength was not a set of task-specific techniques, but instead, the presentation of a framework for organizing and selecting which specific techniques will work best. The book promises to give you the "power to change anything", and the plan they give you is correspondingly general. It's not really a diet book or a book focused on specific persuasion techniques, and they don't present a set of results supporting public policy A over public policy B. What they present instead is a (research supported) plan to follow for organizing and selecting the set of specific techniques that will best get the job done. And a broad perspective like this is especially helpful in our kind of information-overload world.

Basically, it combines the "amazing research tales" of Blink with a real plan for application. And in so doing, it delivers in a very realistic way on what it promises in the title. It presents what has to be one of the best general schemes out there for trying to effect change.

For anyone who is seriously interested in enlarging his/her influence, Influencer is a must read. We live in a challenging age of over communication making true persuasion more difficult than ever. Most of us primarily rely on words whether it is talking to our children, blogging into cyberspace, giving speeches to employees, pleading with our bosses, or trying to sell our service, our product, or ourselves. But, as the author points out, words alone are weak.

Today, there are simply too many voices and too few listeners. But this book brings together a framework for action that when followed promises some amazing results. I found the worldwide research on influencing behavior changes on some of our toughest problems both fascinating and inspirational. I also enjoyed the documentary style of writing where story threads were spun throughout the entire book. The author's humble admission of some of their failures is also refreshing.

What makes this book most valuable to me is that it answers so many questions brought up by the Tipping Point. The Tipping Point is fun reading, but it's like relying on the Daily Show for all of your news. Influencer offers the substance of influence and will be useful to anyone who is serious about making a difference. It has obvious uses for our political leaders whose scope of meaningful influence has dissolved faster than a sand castle at high tide.

Will Marre'
Founder of American Dream Project

I was both fascinated and inspired with Influencer. I consider the concepts and strategies in the book to be a well-charted road map to succeeding at change.

After reading and re-reading the book, I have already begun to see practical application in my life. One of the profound ideas that I have taken to heart includes targeting just a handful of behaviors (what the authors refer to as Vital Behaviors). The idea that by changing just two or three bad habits or behaviors can make all the difference in whether you succeed at change is reassuring--if not inspiring. This concept makes challenges that once seemed intimidating and unattainable now manageable and achievable.

And, the six source model is literally a researched formula for succeeding at changing those vital behaviors. It makes so much sense that problems cannot be solved with one influence effort alone, (I don't know why this concept didn't occur to me before) but that by using several motivational and enabling forces you can actually succeed where you've been falling short time and time again.

The inspiration came by way of reading the moving case studies of people who are targeting both vital behaviors and applying them to the six sources of influence to solve some of the world's most devastating problems. These case studies propelled me through the book and showed me, literally, that any effort--even enormously devastating problems--can be solved.

Influencer leaves you with nothing to chance and everything to gain when it comes to making important and necessary changes.

Not only did I enjoy reading Influencer, but I am also reading it through a second time. This book is extremely easy to understand for people like me that don't usually read or comprehend books about business, communications, etc. Complex ideas are broken down into clear, defined steps that I have already applied in various areas of my life. Thank-you VitalSmarts for providing your research to the masses and helping me recognize that I can be an influencer everyday.

Or maybe, "power-laden conceptual frameworks for strategy-centric holistic approaches for outstanding synthesis of excellence in organizational best practices." Yeah, it's like that.

A number of reviews discuss this book as self-help. This is inaccurate, as this book is about change agency, about the process of identifying and isolating the subtly powerful aspects of large problems, and devising and enacting measure to address those problems. But from the front cover itself, I was highly skeptical. First, "influence" isn't really what I would expect. I guess it's kind of Zen in that the reed bends in the wind, but stands tall in the...well, you get it. The subtitle is "The Power to Change Anything." Sorry, but no, no one has the power to do that, except maybe Oprah. But, she's not mentioned in this work.

Though the book touts itself as for anyone facing any challenge, this is not a book for anyone. The approaches and methods offered here are rather complex and in their best presentations address major issues. This content is for the mid- and senior-level manager who has the intellect to identify problems, the vision to devise possible solutions, and the drive to attempt to make them happen.

This book is the seminar made word. The way it's written, from the first sentence of the first page, instantly conjured in my mind the guys and gals in matching Dockers? Flat-front Classic Fit Original Khaki with Individual Fit(tm) Waistband and embroidered polo shirts, up there on that Marriott ballroom dais, all excited to tell me all about how their $450 eight hours of slogans and statements and charts was going to make me lose weight, improve my relationship with my kids, and maybe even cure a horrible foreign disease. This book is corporate, and it's obvious. I do get the impression, though, that their seminars probably are pretty good, maybe even entertaining.

From the very first page, I felt like I was being talked down to. Maybe it's the mental image of the seminar leader on the stage, actually talking down to me. And maybe it's the tone of the opening pages, where I'm told that I basically have to have challenges (read "problems") that have stumped me, that is, if I'm "like most people." I'm told that I ascribe things to bad luck, and that I've been (foolishly) lulled into a torpor of failure--"the serenity trap"--if I'm choosing to move past things I have determined I cannot change. And, by page six, if I'm really any good at all, I'll choose their powerful Influence over my sorry serenity. Sorry, authors, but this opening bordered on insulting to this reader.

Within 30 pages, the mental image formed. I was reading this, and into my head popped the classic Monty Python "How To Do It" sketch. The Pythons spoofed inane children's shows, and it went something like this: "Okay, how to cure the world of all known diseases. Well, first of all become a doctor and discover a marvelous cure for something. And then, when the medical profession really starts to take notice of you, you can jolly well tell them what to do and make sure they get everything right so there'll never be any diseases ever again." To my reading, this is the just spirit they attempt to create. It's noble, albeit naive.

This book is about creating and leading change. But, those exact words are to my reading never used. Instead, new and innovative jargon has been substituted for the long-extant institutional, trite, boring, and already comprehensively covered writing on this subject. So, you get terms like "build in resilience" and "watch for divisive incentives." I can't help but see this as rhetorical hucksterism, a narrative three-card monte, where I already know the subject, but think I'm getting something new because the words are different. And if you're not paying attention, you're sucked in.

(I did like the bit on punishment, though, very much.)

What this book is really about is major-change problem solving. It's been done to death a thousand times over. But, of course, old tomes on identifying and changing patterns don't sell too well. You've got to repackage, make the old new, do more with less, etc. It's about identifying problems, defining terms and scope, determining causes and their contributors through research and observation, and then devising and enacting programs to test and enact workable strategies. This is not new; the terminology here is the thing that's new.

They use rhyme and alliteration, rhetorical gimmicks to make their concepts stick. Like "much of prowess is practice" and "much of will is skill." I also saw many of their descriptions of massively complex issues as oversimplified to the point of distortion, like disease origins and mitigation, and criminal rehabilitation. Their summaries gloss over huge, highly meaningful details.

For my money, the Malcolm Gladwell books The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference and Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking are far and away better and more insightful works on identifying and making change. This book is about process, which is helpful, where the Gladwell work is about the much harder aspect, really identifying and getting to the roots of problems. These books are more fun to read, have a more engaging and flowing narrative, and to my reading are far more int