Rianna Farneti 

Greeny, J., et al., (2013).  “Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change”

Chapter 1: Leadership Is Influence 

The book Influencer: The New science of Leading Change opens up with the chapter

“Leadership is Influence.” This chapter is a short chapter, but it encapsulates important

information for the reader to actually understand influence and know what the rest of the book

will entail. Chapter 1 elaborates on how all leaders that have been noticeably influential have had

commonalities in how they lead people. One takeaway from this chapter was leaders should be

able to influence as well as change behavior. Success relates to leadership because leaders should

consider themselves as being successful when they are capable of changing behavior. The book

states that success is, “the capacity to systematically create rapid, profound, and sustainable

changes in a handful of key behaviors,” (Grenny, et al., 2013, pg. 6). Admitting when there is a

problem and speaking up when there is a problem is essentially how success is started. These

two behaviors are vital to initiating a change in behavior to create success and complete tasks. 

This chapter takes the initial dive into how influencers impact our society and how much pull

their influence can have on people working more efficiently.  Danny Meyer is an influencer that

owns one restaurant in a sea of others in the middle of New York City. in the book, the authors

state, “Although Danny draws from the same labor pool, works in the same industry, buys the

same ingredients, and builds in the same neighborhoods as 20,000 other New York restaurateurs,

he has found a way to differentiate himself from all of his competitors-through influence,”

(Grenny, et al., 2013, pg. 5). Meyer’s restaurants have a reputation that is outstanding and he has

achieved this through his competitive and influential persona.  

Chapter 2: The Three Keys to Influence

 Chapter two of Influencer elaborates on the three keys to being an influencer. The three

keys are focus and measure, find vital behaviors, and engage all six sources of influence. The

first key of focus and measure is about intentionally having clear goals and knowing what it will

entail to reach those particular goals. The authors state, “Equally important, they know that clear,

consistent, and meaningful measures ensure that they’ll actually track their efforts and genuinely

hold themselves accountable” (Grenny, et al., 2013, pg. 16). This idea makes sure that even

though the track to reaching those particular goals may not be perfect, holding accountability for

every step is what will make the biggest difference. Things that are considered unsuccessful

steps/ measures include fuzzy, uncompelling goals, infrequent or no measures, and bad

measures. The CEO of the institute for healthcare improvement, Dr. Don Berwick shows an

example of using successful measures. Berwick simply stated a clear and concise goal that

people could work towards. He stated that his goal was to save one hundred thousand lives by a

certain date and a certain time. This goal was not elaborate or complicated like many may think

it would have to be. Clear doesn't necessarily mean an overload of details. Having a goal that

was clear and concise allowed them to be able to grasp that goal in their mind and work towards

it efficiently. Because Berwick gave his employees a goal that was tangible instead of an

infrequent or non-measurable goal, he maintained his influence over his employees. Berwick

also strived to not include bad measures. Some leaders make the mistake of creating goals that

are measurable but are bad measures. For example, some charities will set a goal for doing so

many services per set amount of time. This is the wrong thing to be measuring. They should be

measuring the results of the services rather than the services themselves. If the measure was in

the results, it would motivate and encourage people to work more toward that goal because it

was more realistically tangible than before.  

 The second key to success influence is finding vital behaviors.  Chapter 2 introduces

finding vital behaviors. When a leader wants to make a big difference and make a successful

change in the environment, changing these vital behaviors is what is important. Chapter 3 will

elaborate more on the importance of these vital behaviors.

Chapter 3: Find Vital Behaviors

The third chapter emphasizes that to change behavior, it has to be a small amount of

behaviors at a time. Changing behavior is not successful if a person tries to change a hundred

behaviors at once. The behaviors that a person does change are vital behaviors. An example of

this is the HIV outbreak in Thailand. Millions of Thai people were affected by the outbreak. This

happened because of a snowball effect that started with an outbreak in a prison which led to sex

workers which led to heterosexual men which then got carried home to pregnant wives. This

chain reaction is what led to this being such a large outbreak. Dr. Wiwat changed this outbreak

behavior by changing vital behaviors. He did this by encouraging all the citizens to start using

condoms in the sex worker industry. This strategy of changing one vital behavior was able to

knock out the outbreak of HIV. Dr. Mimi Silbert, founder of an addiction recovery program, also

using vital behaviors to change behaviors in the people she treats. The two vital behaviors are

requiring each person to take responsibility for another person’s success and requiring that

everyone confronts everyone about any issue/violation they may have (Grenny, et al., 2013, pg.

page43). Changing these two vital behaviors also facilitated change within the residents Dr.

Silbert took care of. 

Both doctors used the 80/20 rule. This rule states that, “80 percent of your results come

from 20 percent of your efforts,” (Grenny, et al., 2013, pg. 44). Both doctors determined what

the vital behaviors were by using four strategies. Noticing the obvious is the first. This means to
analyze which behaviors are clearly important but underutilized when changing a behavior. The

second strategy is searching for crucial moments. This means to look for times in an overall

behavior that could be altered to make a difference in success. The third strategy is to learn from

positive deviants. This means to analyze people that are in a similar scenario as you are in and

have succeeded and finding the how and why they succeeded. The last strategy is spotting

culture busters. This strategy is finding what behaviors neglect the cultural norms or are taboo. 

The last part of chapter three analyzes the six sources of influence. Each source has its

own chapter in the book where it is elaborated on more. The six sources however, are focused

around “Am I motivated?” and “Am I able?” personal motivation, personal ability, social

motivation, social ability, structural motivation, and structural ability are the six sources of

influence. 

Chapter 4: Help Them Love What They Hate

Chapter four “Help Them Love What They Hate” analyzes the first source, personal

motivation. The question of “Is the vital behavior intrinsically pleasurable or painful?” is

answered with personal motivation.  (Grenny, et al., 2013, pg. 78).  The analogy of the Guinea

worm disease is used to support this idea. The only source of relief for people with this disease is

to soak the infection in water that will cause more infection. This is related to the first source

because the idea that good behaviors are bad and bad behaviors are good is analyzed. This idea

exists because most of the time good behaviors don't have the reputation of being enjoyable. If

people don't want to do something, how do we influence them to start?  

At the addiction rehabilitation center, Terri is a felon that didn’t usually care about her

status at the center and didn't have much motivation to progress. After time had gone by, there

was a noticeable change in her attitude. She started having a more positive mood and showing
emotion at ceremonies where she received praise for her new accomplishments. This happened

because of the influence that was successful within the program Terri was in. This is because

Terri was more in tune with her emotions as the influencers used four tactics to change this

behavior. The four tactics are allow for choice, create direct experiences, tell meaningful stories,

and make it a game. The first tactic allows people to have autonomy in the choices they make.

The second tactic of creating direct experiences gives people the opportunity to grow by directly

performing actions that they will fail or succeed at with the chance to get better. This motivates

people and leads to higher motivation. Telling meaningful stories is taking experience and

persuasion to create an emotionally appealing speech to facilitate emotional appeal. The last

tactic of making it a game is setting challenging goals. The authors state, “Dr. Csikszentmihalyi

has discovered that almost any activity can be made engaging if it involves reasonable

challenging goals and clear, frequent feedback” (Grenny, et al., 2013, pg. 109). Creating a

game/challenge has been a noticeable difference to influencers when trying to change behaviors. 

Chapter 5: Help Them Do What They Can’t

Chapter five discusses how influencers are successful by helping people achieve a goal

when they have the mindset that they can't. When people believe the idea that they can't do

something, one may think there is no room for improvement even though that isn't true. Personal

ability is the source that is discussed more in depth throughout this chapter.  The first concept

behind personal ability is will power and the knowledge to reach willpower. The book provides

an example about children being presented a marshmallow. If they didn’t eat the marshmallow,

they were able to have another. The children were labeled as one of two things: a grabber or a

delayer. The researchers stated, “Children who had been able to wait for that second

marshmallow mature into adults who were seen as more socially competent, self-assertive,
dependable, and capable of dealing with frustrations…” (Grenny, et al., 2013, pg. 118).  This

example is a prime explanation of how practicing will power will support influence. Using will

power will allow people to grow their own skills and have meaningful conversations with people

that aid in their growth towards being successful.  Deep concentration on growing skills is

important to the influence being successful as well as feedback to ensure that the skills are

growing. “This immediate feedback, coupled with complete concentration, accelerates learning”

(Grenny, et al., 2013, pg. 128). This concept allows for people to grow and be held accountable

for their growth throughout the process of perfecting their skills.  The next concept is dividing

big goals into smaller goals to make them easier to work towards. It also allows people to grasp

ahold of what they are accomplishing and they can internalize the growth. It also prevents the

measures being taken from being bad or infrequent. Overall, setting these small goals still

contributes to the overall goal, but it is more attainable through small steps. People also have to

be prepared for setbacks. Even though they are working hard towards a goal, having buoyancy is

important to keeping the pace of growth towards changing behavior. If this doesn't happen,

people can become discouraged and hinder their progress towards making a change in

behavior.   

Having the ability to grow emotional skills as well as complex skills is also important.

The “hot/go” system and the “cool/know” systems are also important to survival. The “go” is

relevant to when a person is confronted with a situation that feels threatening to them. The

“know” system is relevant to actually processing information to make viable decisions rather

than just doing the bare minimum like the “go” system.  Emotional control is imperative to the

success in controlling these systems. If people do not learn to recognize and control these

systems, personal ability is not met because of the lack of self-control.

Chapter 6: Provide Encouragement

The main idea of chapter 6 is the concept of social motivation and the importance of

encouragement. One takeaway that influencers have noticed is the influence/power that only one

person can have on another. This power can be positive through social support by “providing

encouragement, coaching, and even accountability during crucial moments,” (Grenny, et al.,

2013, pg. 146). The authors analyze how to use this strong power in three different ways. They

are comprehending the power of one, working with opinion leaders, and creating the new norms.

Stanley Milgram found that the biggest influence took place when one person in a group took

initiative to stand up to authority and open the eyes of people around them. The book elaborates

on this idea by giving an example about a CEO that wasn't approachable and one employee that

made a change named Ken. The CEO knew his unapproachableness was a problem and asked for

feedback. The only person to say something was Ken. This prompted the CEO to commit to

making changes and it also facilitated conversations between the CEO and other employees. This

shows how all it took was one person to show the group their efforts were valid if they would

speak up as well. This established social motivation because the CEO showed that he could be

trusted and Ken led by example. 

Another way influencers increase social motivation is by involving formal and opinion

leaders. Making sure a formal leader like a CEO is teaching, praising, and holding people

accountable for working towards the vital behaviors that were previously mentioned. This is

because formal leaders hold power over those that look up to them. Opinion leaders must also be

considered. These people aren't formal leaders but still hold respect from people around them.

Because these people are trusted, it can be important to discover who those people are in a group

and utilize them to the influencer’s advantage. 

 Creating new norms is the last tactic mentioned to facilitate social motivation.  A great

way to encourage change is to introduce new norms. Two different methods are mentioned to

begin creating new norms. They are making the undiscussable discussable and creating 200

percent accountability. These two methods will replace any long-term norms that are damaging

the environment without being noticed. This will prompt people to talk about norms that are

causing this damage and talk about new ones that will help people thrive. This idea supports that

rather than people staying quiet about the things that bother them, they should open up and

discuss it so it can be fixed. When new norms are put into place, holding every single person

accountable is just as important as the norm itself for it to not become as damaging as the

previous norms. 

Chapter 7: Provide Assistance

Chapter seven discusses social ability. Influencers must recognize when people need help

to keep progress moving forward. When they see what needs are being neglected, they can either

enable or assist. Social capital is viewed as being a means of assistance. This means people are

using social capital by changing the terms “me” into “we” within organizations. This allows

people to view their organization as one rather than individuals working against each other. This

allows for people to feel supported in their skills if they don't hold the capability to do it all by

themselves. This shows how interdependence is a vital concept important for the success of an

organization. Risk is another concept that is important when assisting people. The addiction

rehab center mentioned previously notices the risk of employing people with a record of past

mistakes. Social capital and assistance are two things Dr. Silbert uses to influence the people

who work for her. Each person holds the other accountable for all of their actions. Rather than

one person directing people how to act, they support each other and hold each other accountable
regardless of their record of previous mistakes.  Outsiders also have an effect on social ability.

Outsiders can give feedback that people within an organization may not see or recognize. This is

helpful because it aids in growing into an organization that helps all people rather than just a few

individuals. The author states, “We must give ourselves up to the larger cause and act for the

good of everyone else, or the plan will fail” (Grenny, et al., 2013, pg. 211-212). This notion

relates to the case of the HIV outbreak. If people didn't hold each other accountable and have

100% compliance, the outbreak would not have been stopped. 

Chapter 8: Change Their Economy

Chapter 8 looks more into how “things” can motivate people rather than just human

factors. “Change their economy” is a phrase that is used in chapter 8. This analyzes how rewards

and incentives can work together with social motivation and personal motivation to elicit change

in behavior. The book states that before people can connect rewards and incentives with

behavior, we must first make sure the behavior connects to intrinsic value. They then will make

sure that social support is present in the organization. Once these things are checked off,

extrinsic rewards and incentives can be used to elicit a change in behavior.  The book illustrates

an example of this with a little girl being given $5 every time she reads. When that reward is

taken away, she doesn't want to read anymore. This is an example of the “over justification

hypothesis.” This leads a person to believe if they are receiving rewards for a behavior they

already enjoy, they will think they shouldn't be enjoying that behavior like they are and decrease

that behavior. 

Because of this concept, it is important to choose specifically when rewards and incentives will

be used. As an influencer, one should make sure that the rewards are given in a timely manner

and have a vital behavior to satisfy that the persona doesn't already enjoy doing. The rewards can
be small and rewarded often. The author elaborates on this idea by talking about his friend that

takes connecting flights through an airline just to get “frequent flyer” rewards. Small rewards

may be just as effective but an important idea to the effectiveness of rewards is that there is value

behind what a person is receiving. This may mean that receiving a gold star might add to the

company branch's goal to get so many gold stars. Having earned one of the gold stars adds value

to the gold star because that person will feel valuable to the branch's success. Again, this will

only apply if social and personal motives are present as well. Influencers also can reward small

improvements in behaviors on the way to a big behavior change. This is because sometimes a

behavior change may take a large amount of time. If a person doesn't feel that their working

towards this behavior change is being recognized, they may backslide. 

The concept of punishment also exists. In this part of the text, the authors explain clearly

when the appropriate time to administer punishment is.  The authors state, “When you reward

performance, you typically know that the reward will help propel behavior in the desired

direction, but with punishment you don’t know what you’re going to get,” (Grenny, et al., 2013,

pg. 238). If a punishment is used incorrectly, people might rebel rather than propel towards the

correct intended behavior. If the punishment is used poorly and does not propel good behavior,

the relationship between the two people might be damaged for no reason. One common way

punishment is used is by the phrase “placing a shot across the bow.” This means that a warning

is given that punishment is near if the behavior does not change. If this approach is used, it

should be given in a clear manner so the receiver of the warning knows exactly what the warning

means for them and what is expected of them. This was used in a real life scenario when a police

station in North Carolina warned a group of criminals exactly what would happen if they got

caught, what jail was like, how long they would be there, and how their lives would be after they
got out. This is a good example of how to clearly lay out what punishment will be for a behavior

so there is not any confusion in the future.  

Chapter 9: Change Their Space

Chapter 9 is the last chapter on structural ability and it's about changing up their space.

This chapter is different from others because it talks about how strictly the aspects of the

physical environment might affect behavior. This could be the temperature, sounds, smells, or

anything else that is a physical characteristic about the environment. The authors elaborate on

this idea with the example of a busy restaurant in the 1940s. Waitresses and chefs are arguing

with each other over the timing of orders. This issue is solved with a swivel device that the

waitresses place their orders on so the order of orders wouldn't get confused. This would not

have been solved with a conversation between the chefs and waitresses. This problem was solved

with an actual physical object rather than any human interaction. The authors state, “More often

than not, powerful elements from our environment remain invisible to us. Work procedures, job

layouts, reporting structures, and so forth don’t exactly walk up and shout in our ear,” (Grenny,

et al., 2013, pg.253). This is why paying attention to environmental details is equally as

important as human interactions. The next step in making sure the space is up to par is making

the invisible visible. “Provide actual cues in the space around you to remind people of the

behaviors you’re trying to influence,” (Grenny, et al., 2013, pg. 16).  This means to make people

aware of the behaviors they are doing. This doesn't necessarily mean to tell them to change their

behavior but simply make them aware of what they are currently doing. Dr. Wansink did this by

giving two groups a can of stacked chips. The experimental group had a colored chip every 10th

chip while the control group had all the same color chips. The control group ate more chips

because they were not reminded of and as aware of the amount of chips they ate. Analyzing
timely and accurate data is also important for influencers to be successful Dr. Donald Hopkins

looked at data carefully when he was deciphering through the Guinea worm parasite. Dr.

Hopkins approached leaders with over 650,000 recorded cases of the parasite infection. This data

was new to the leaders and opened their eyes to how seriously the situation was.  For data to

have as big of an impact as this did, the data itself has to be fresh, consistent and relevant. 

Space: The Final Frontier is a section of the chapter that elaborates on the importance of

proximity. The term propinquity is introduced as how close you are to another person related to

proximity.  The authors state that the closer a person’s office is to their authority, the better the

relationship the two will have. The addiction rehabilitation center uses this concept. Silbert put

enemies in the same dorm together. This caused people of opposite gangs to form relationships

and console each other through tough times. This is a prime example that propinquity can

facilitate relationships and according to previous chapters of the book, relationships are crucial to

change behavior. 

The next part of chapter 9 discusses how influencers make tasks easier on other people.

Because people are always trying to take shortcuts and make things easier, influencers try to

make the task as easy as they can while still completing the task correctly. Influencers also

“make the wrong behaviors more difficult to enact,” (Grenny, et al., 2013, pg. 16).  The scenario

of the Guinea worm parasite is brought into conversation. Dr. Hopkins knew that if a simple

solution was created, it would be eliminated. They found a material that could filter the worms

out of water. They then started making clothing for women out of this material so they could

filter out the worms from their water. The problem was then solved by a simple creation that

made it easy for people to help solve the problem. 

Chapter 10: Become an Influencer

 The last chapter of the book acts as a summary for what has been discussed in the

previous chapters and what there was to learn. The authors state, “when it comes to influencing

human behavior, the sky’s the limit,” (Grenny, et al., 2013, pg. 289). This is because there are

possibilities through human interaction and the physical environment that people can alter to

elicit a change in behavior. One can truly be a successful influencer by focusing and measuring,

finding vital behaviors, and engaging in all of the sources of influence.  

A successful influencer again takes the time to carefully focus and measure the behaviors

in question. They must decide what behavior goal they are wanting to reach and how they will

measure that change in behavior. Then, an influencer will decide what the vital behaviors are

behind the large behavior. This means they will pick a few behaviors they want to start with to

work towards the change. The last step is to use all 6 sources of influence to facilitate change.

The influencer should figure out what sources are critical to the change in behavior and utilize

those sources to drive progress towards a common goal.  

Conclusion

This book helped me realize many things about being an influencer. It made me realize

that being an influencer isn't about getting people to follow you or listen to you but it is about the

wellbeing of others and helping them change their behavior to reach their full potential. This is

regardless of if this is in a prison, rehab, organization, club, or church. This mindset and the

concepts reviewed in the book can be applied. When discussing the interdependence of change,

leadership, and persuasion I learned one main thing. Taking the role as an influencer is not a job

to be taken lightly. The people looking up to you are looking for you to be a leader and lead by

example to facilitate that change that is needed. This can be by doing the behaviors you are

striving for or by forming human relations to correctly persuade people to change behavior.
Persuasion was also represented by emphasizing accountability in the environment. The

addiction rehabilitation center was able to hold accountability so well because the residents were

persuaded that that was the most effective way. 

One concept that Influencer related to that we discussed in class would be the

characteristics of a leader/ good manager. One characteristic that was mentioned was integrity. I

believe this book encapsulated integrity by placing emphasis on being clear, concise, and correct

in how they approached changing behavior.

To Sell Is Human related to Influencer in many ways. One comparison that I noticed

about both books was the mention of buoyancy. Even though both elaborated on the topic, the

books viewed them from different perspectives. To Sell is Human wanted the person doing the

persuading to understand buoyancy so they didn't give up on their efforts. Influencer’s approach

on buoyancy was more about the people that were being influenced. It talked about how making

sure they don't lose their sense of buoyancy is important to the growth and change of behavior.

Both books used the term correctly but from different perspectives.  Learning from both books

about buoyancy set in a “never give up” mentality. Having the ability to slightly change what my

approach is and trying again is what I gained by analyzing the term in both books. This boosted

my confidence simply by knowing what perspective I look from, the path to whatever I am

trying to accomplish will not be perfect.

A concept I will use to become a better persuader and influencer is the attention to detail

that was mentioned. Making sure not to use bad measures is actually something I appreciate

because of my experience in psychology studies. Viewing how important correctly

analyzing statistics and measures are for influencing people helped me internalize the importance

of them in many areas other than influencing. Also [paying attention to the vital behaviors and
working on a few behaviors at a time is important to me because of my history in applied

behavior analysis. Now that I have knowledge on how to influence people in my environment, I

will use these concepts more.  

The lessons I learned from Influencer will help me in my professional life in psychology

in many ways. Like I just stated before, a future in psychology is a field that truly embraces

influence and persuasion in a correct and ethical way. Learning from the book how to influence

on a grand scale as well as a personal scale will apply to my career in therapy and counseling. I

also will take lessons away from influencers in my role as a mother one day. Influencing

behavior to mold my children into being well functioning members of society is critical. Overall,

I now realize the importance and power influencers have.