Strategy 1: 

Influencer Strategy Report

Some Background...

Humans are complex. Any time one tries to change a human behavior, it will not be simple. Any type of change leaders attempt to implement must be intentional, thoroughly-researched, and planned to a "T." As the famous quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson states, "If you want something you have never had, you must be willing to do something you have never done." If your goal is to change an end result but your method is to just try harder or to explain it better, you will end up falling short. Below we will discuss some basic background on influence to coincide with your review of the above influencer strategy presentation.  Said presentation is where I outline how I will use influence strategies in my innovation plan. 

 

First, why talk about behavior? A leader (myself included) is often focused on a result, tracking and coaching those results. That being said, do people use results to determine their actions? After all, results show a trend that has already occurred.  Will having a heart-to-heart will a bottom-dweller about results really change those results?  I and the authors of the book Influencer (2008), would answer that question with a resounding no. People make decisions and take action based on underlying beliefs. Those beliefs, then, influence them to perform certain behaviors. Thus, to really change results, a leader must reach the heart of a specific behavior and make a change there. This is something also discussed at-length in the book The 4 Disciplines of Execution (2012), and is presented in the form of an analogy of a heavy rock. The rock represents a result. We know that we want to move the rock (result); but will having more data make the rock move? Doubtful. You need to make changes to the underlying behaviors, which then serve as a sort of lever to easily move the heavy rock.

 

As noted throughout the page the innovation plan itself, the project’s ultimate goals are to use technology to revolutionize how we train to yield higher knowledge retention and relevancy as well as to introduce efficiency training as a department. The goals will be challenging to reach and there will be difficult days ahead as we embrace these changes.  Because of these and other reasons, these influence strategies are crucial to a successful implementation. 

 

As noted above, I am focusing my attention from this project onto changing the behaviors behind our training comfort zone and the department’s inefficiencies. Is there more than one behavior leading us to where we are today? Absolutely. In any given team, there are probably a dozen or more behaviors which influence the members in a negative way and keep them from being efficient. So how do we know which one to tackle first? We do research to determine what we in the insurance world would call the "proximate cause" - that is, the behavior that is the heaviest influencer of an event (or outcome). We call this one or two heavy influencers "vital behaviors.”

 

To get down to those vital behaviors, I did some searching and researching in the department.   I used a total of four methods to review behaviors in our department, which I outlined in the presentation above.  The culmination of this strategy is a six-sided influence strategy akin to those presented in Influencer (2008).  With planning, the six-sided influence strategy, and a hint of luck we will be on our way to a successful implementation of our innovation plan.

 

References:

 

• Jefferson, T. (2013). If you want something you never had (Quotation). Retrieved from: https:www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collecns/if-you-want-something-you-have-never-had-quotation.

• McChesney, C., Covey, S., Huling, J. (2012). The 4 disciplines of execution. New York: Free Press.

• Patterson, K., Grenny, J., Maxfield, D., McMillan, R.,& Switzler, A. (2008). Influencer: The power to change anything. New York: McGraw-Hill.