Page 27 - The Power to Change Anything

16 INFLUENCER

us understand how to use one of the world’s best tools for help-
ing others willingly change their minds.
Switching our attention to Ithaca, New York, we see Brian
Wansink explore how the physical world can either help or
hinder people in their quest to shed unwanted pounds. By
learning how Wansink and others enlist the “curious power of
propinquity,” we are able to apply the same methods to, say,
propel your kids to read more books, or encourage coworkers
to collaborate.
To learn how to develop one of the most important of all
influence methods, we travel to Atlanta, Georgia, and meet Dr.
Donald Hopkins and his staff at The Carter Center. Their work
across Africa and Asia teaches us how to identify a handful of
vital behaviors that help change the habits of millions of peo-
ple. In this case, he and his colleagues help change the dan-
gerous water-drinking habits of millions of remote villagers.
Hopkins’s work on applying principles of “positive deviance”
helps us all understand what it takes to discover a handful of
high-leverage behaviors that drive virtually every change effort
we’ll ever undertake.
Try this for a challenge. Since 1986, Dr. Hopkins and his
team at The Carter Center in Atlanta have focused on the erad-
ication of the Guinea worm disease. The Guinea worm is one
of the largest human parasites (it can grow to three feet long),
and it has caused incalculable pain and suffering in millions
of people. When West Asian and sub-Saharan villagers drink
stagnant and unfiltered water, they take in the larvae of Guinea
worms, which then burrow into abdominal tissues and slowly
grow into enormous worms.
Eventually the worms begin to excrete an acidlike sub-
stance that helps carve a path out of the host human’s body.
Once the worm approaches the skin’s surface, the acid causes
painful blisters. To ease the horrific pain, victims rush to the
local water source and plunge their worm-infected limbs into
the pond for cooling relief. This gives the worm what it