Page 11 - The Power to Change Anything

X Authors’ Note

in organizations. As we pored over the rather massive body of
literature, we learned there were embarrassingly few examples
of leaders who had been successful at influencing employees
to act in new ways. Most of the influence books and articles
we found sounded as if they had been penned by prophets of
doom rather than professors of change.
But this didn’t make any sense. It wasn’t as if behavior
change was a new topic. For more than five decades social sci-
entists and skilled practitioners had amassed an impressive lit-
erature that demonstrated that influence efforts, when based on
sound theory and implemented by a knowing practitioner, had
routinely led to lasting improvements. Perhaps it was time we
located these individuals and shared their methods.
When we eventually tracked down the best of the seasoned
influencers, we received our third and final nudge to write this
book. Their work was simply too intriguing not to share. The
journey to find them took us far beyond our corporate roots to
points scattered all over the world, but the trip was well worth
it. From Bangkok to Boston, we found quiet but tenacious influ-
encers who had solved world-sized problems in world-class
ways—solely by influencing how people behave.
We were ultimately compelled to write this book when it
became clear that the influence strategies every one of these
impressive change agents employed were based on the same
set of theories and principles we had been applying in organi-
zations for over 20 years. These are ideas we learned at the feet
of renowned scholars and that we now introduce as a unified
theory of influence.
We apologize for our procrastination. At long last, meet the
influencers.