Page 163 - The Power to Change Anything

152 INFLUENCER

They always observe and judge your influence strategy—that’s
what they do. Then they will give your ideas either a thumbs-
up or a thumbs-down. And since they’re respected and con-
nected, they will exert their widely felt influence and decide the
destiny of your influence strategy—whether you like it or not.
If you’re interested in engaging opinion leaders in your own
change efforts, the good news is that finding them is quite easy.
Since opinion leaders are employees who are most admired
and connected to others in the organization, simply ask peo-
ple to make a list of the employees who they believe are the
most influential and respected. Then gather the lists and iden-
tify those who are named most frequently (typically ten or more
times). These are the opinion leaders. Once you know who
they are, enlist them and partner with them in your efforts to
institute change.

Enlist Social Support to Influence You

On a more personal note, if you’re trying to change something
within your own life, co-opt the power of those who have an
influence on you. If it’s true that we’ll electrocute a stranger
because a guy in a lab coat says, “The experiment requires that
you continue,” what could we get ourselves to do if we could
only find a way to marshal the social support of our actual loved
ones and friends?
It turns out, quite a lot. For instance, research demonstrates
that those who simply receive e-mails from a friend checking
on their progress with smoking cessation, dieting, or exercise
do a much better job of sticking with their plans than those who
receive no inquiries. (This means that our friend Henry needs
to enlist the emotional support and encouragement of his
wife, coworkers, and loved ones if he expects to live a healthy
lifestyle.) When diabetics involve a loved one in their disease
maintenance, compliance soars. Social psychologists learned
long ago that if you make a commitment and then share it with