Page 56 - The Power to Change Anything

3

Change the Way

You Change Minds

There are three kinds of men, ones that learn
by reading, a few who learn by observation,
and the rest of them have to pee on the electric
fence and find out for themselves.

—Will Rogers

nce you’ve identified the behaviors you want to
change, you’re ready to do what most people are look-
Oing to achieve when they buy a book on influence—
to convince others to change their minds. After all, before
people will change their behavior, they have to want to do so,
and this means that they’ll have to think differently. But as you
might suspect, when it comes to profound and resistant prob-
lems, convincing others to see the world differently isn’t easy.
In fact, others are very likely to resist your attempts to reshape
their views. They may tenaciously hold onto outdated, irra-
tional, or even crazy opinions.
To get at the heart of why people resist efforts to influence
their view of the world—despite massive amounts of discon-
firming data—let’s return to Dr. Albert Bandura. He set out to
create a theory of why people do what they do so that he and

45
Copyright © 2008 by VitalSmarts, LLC. Click here for terms of use.