Page 37 - The Power to Change Anything

26 INFLUENCER

social niceties was long past. If the problem was born in a
brothel, the solution would be found there as well.
After continuing his search for a solution, Wiwat surmised
that if he could persuade 100 percent of the country’s sex work-
ers to demand that their clients use condoms, he could nearly
stop the spread of HIV in Thailand. That became his primary
strategy. He’d find a way to get every single sex worker to com-
ply with the condom code. And much to the surprise of the
world’s epidemiologists, Wiwat’s plan worked.
Later we explore how Dr. Wiwat successfully influenced
sex workers to follow the plan (no easy task). The takeaway we
want to focus on now is the fact that by carefully searching for
and targeting a vital behavior, Wiwat was able to break from
traditional untested methods and find something that actually
succeeded.

SEARCH FOR BEHAVIORS

Wiwat’s work teaches our first search principle: When faced
with a number of possible options, take care to search for
strategies that focus on specific behaviors. Once Wiwat settled
on the exact behavior he wanted to influence (condom use),
he knew precisely what he needed to motivate and enable
others to do.
It turns out that all influence geniuses focus on behaviors.
They’re inflexible on this point. They don’t develop an influ-
ence strategy until they’ve carefully identified the specific
behaviors they want to change. They start by asking: In order
to improve our existing situation, what must people actually do?
It’s important to note that this concept is lost on individu-
als who misunderstand the meaning of the word behavior.
Consider Henry Denton, who is currently trying to lose weight.
He decided to lose a few pounds after overhearing his grand-
children speculate about his demise. One of them said: “He’s
so fat, he’ll probably die of a heart attack pretty soon.”