Page 161 - The Power to Change Anything

150 INFLUENCER

tening to the wildly popular show Tinka, Tinka Sukh (“Hap-
piness Lies in Small Things”). In this poignant TV drama, a
beloved young girl dies in childbirth after being forced into an
early marriage. After vicariously experiencing her death, audi-
ence members wrote over 150,000 letters in reaction to the
episode. Listeners were so affected by what happened to the
young girl that 184 Lutsaan villagers placed their thumbprints
on a large public poster in honor of their fallen heroine in a
gesture of solidarity and support.
“Of course I will not marry off my daughter before she turns
18,” one listener told Dr. Arvind Singhal, who was commis-
sioned to study the effects of the serial drama. “Prior to listen-
ing to Tinka, Tinka Sukh, I had it in my mind that I need to
marry off my daughter soon. Now I won’t, and I tell others
as well.”
Since Tinka, Tinka Sukh always featured an epilogue dur-
ing which a respected person from the community asked ques-
tions, made a call to action, and encouraged public discourse,
the show made double use of opinion leaders. The comments
from the respected figure combined with the actions of the
beloved characters made excellent use of social support as a
means of promoting change.
To see how to work with opinion leaders, independent of
other influence strategies, let’s take a look at what Mao Zedong
did some 40 years ago. A terrible human being in most respects,
Mao understood a thing or two about leveraging social influ-
ence to accomplish a bit of good.
On June 26, 1965, Mao lit a fire under the Chinese Min-
istry of Health, citing its poor record in improving health prac-
tices in the far-flung rural regions of China. Rather than wait
for the stodgy ministry and medical institutions to solve the
problem, Chairman Mao engaged 1.8 million change agents
in the cause.
When deciding who would make up his population of
change agents, he didn’t go with existing health specialists.