Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

At first glance this appeared to be a dry, but relevant, book on persuasion that came up in my search for the book Influencer, a past favorite that I was looking to revisit. I started listening to it, and found it to be dated, with pre-Millenial examples.

Having said all of that, I was surprised to find myself fascinated by this book. It moved at a decent pace, and had relevant insights. I am a sucker for social science books, so that might play into my opinion quite a bit, but I appreciated the content and the presentation. I found the cult references to be fascinating, and that the reciprocation principles hit too close to home. This is a great read for anyone in sales or marketing, but really is a great read for anyone who can stay engaged with it.

The writing voice was a little dry, or at least academic, at times, but with my original expectations being low, I'm going to give this one a rare 5 stars.

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So I liked this book, so that earns it 3 stars, apparently. The concept of how to make ideas stick strikes me as universally useful, and within my capability. I am a believer of the research surrounding fact-filled, distant communication vs compelling, story-based, emotional communication, so I think that most people could benefit from this book. I say "could" because to me it had a major flaw. I felt that it was written in the very style it was suggesting us NOT to use. At the end it was a checklist of features that should make your idea sticky, but I can't remember, nor can I envision how to apply, that checklist.

What is interesting is that I can see how they tried to avoid the traps they identified. They used many stories themselves, many of which I can recall even though it took me a while to read the book. But those ideas are generally not connected to the ideas they were promoting. I don't know which checklist item I am supposed to attach each story to. Just like a bad class in school, I will need to sit down and study and memorize to get those ideas to "stick", but the whole thesis of the book is that if you structure the message right, that isn't necessary.

Example: Jared and Subway. I like this story (despite Jared's subsequent fall from grace). I remember that it was supposed to promote the idea of identifying sticky stories, but that is it. How do I do that? I don't remember, and the key part of the Jared story, the challenger theme, has nothing to do with THEIR objective: to teach me how to find stories.

Example: Simplicity is an important part of a sticky story, but in the end, their concepts read more like a textbook than a sticky idea. The checklist has more bullet points than I can remember, so when it came time for the information to "stick" I'm overwhelmed by the data (curse of knowledge) and I'm ready to shred the book and never look back.

This is all very familiar, because this is very close to how I felt about their other book, Switch, which is about change. I really preferred Influencer, by another set of authors, to Switch because Influencer introduced similar information, but with a visual model that simplified it for me. I plan on re-reading Influencer again soon, but even without the refresher, I can still visualize the general look and feel of that graphic, and it calls to mind various parts of their book. I feel that this is something the Heath brothers could benefit from, and, well, make their books more sticky.

What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast by Laura Vanderkam

What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast by Laura Vanderkam
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

So at first glance, it may look like I’m cheating with this one. It almost more of a pamphlet than a book. However, if I’m counting the Wheel of Time books one at a time, averaging around 800 pages per book, I’m certainly entitled to a few shorter additions as well.

So as for content, this book is very predictable. Here comes the spoiler: Successful people get up early and have good habits, like exercising, meditating, and religious worship. They do the most important things first.

So now that you know what the entire book says, here is why you should still read it. In its own strange way, written by journalist, it works as a motivational piece. I think it would be impossible to read this and not think about what you do in the morning and set your alarm a little earlier the next day. It is just too direct, and the benefits too appealing. I don’t even know that the author is “selling” the concept, it is just obvious when you hear the data that taking control of your mornings is a good idea. I think most of us would come to that conclusion without reading the book, but we lack motivation. This is the recipe for adding something good in your life, and a great January pick.

Now, while I like good motivation, I can’t give this more than 3 stars. There just isn’t enough there, but I still think you should consider it. It will take less than an hour to read, I promise. I would also suggest following this up with Influencer, a book about making lasting change. The connection there should be obvious.

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard by Chip Heath
My rating: 3 of 5 stars


So this is not a bad book, but has the misfortune of a competing title that addresses the same issues in more depth and with a more specific framework in roughly the same amount of space. I do like that it talks about change as a simple 3 step process, but Influencer just gives a better tool set. I don't know offhand which one was published first, but they share several of the same examples. Perhaps some borrowing is going on, but that is not material to me since I am focusing on my personal usefulness of the material. If you want to read a book on change, read Influencer. If you've already read Influencer and want a different vantage point on essentially the same principles, then Switch is the book for you.

If I were to call out a nugget of wisdom from this book, there is a useful sections that comes to mind. I really liked the part about action triggers. Just making the decision, setting goals, and structuring the environment doesn't guarantee success in your change effort. Adding some other features to the effort will increase your likelihood of success, and one of those is attaching required activity to outside triggers. An example is attaching a planned action--such as homework--to a specific date, time and place in relationship to an unavoidable event, such as Christmas morning.

Finally, this book does break with my common observation about business books being one third too long, with the last section of business books usually feeling like useless filler to hit a page target. This book gives great tips, examples and applications of the content at the end of the book. A small thing, but nice. Unfortunately, I think the first part of the book could have moved faster, but you can't have it all.

Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change by Joseph Grenny, Kerry Patterson, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler

Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change by Joseph Grenny
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It has been a while since I have handed out five stars, so I am excited to be writing about Influencer. It isn't that it is a perfect book, but the ideas in this book about how to bring about real changes are 5-star ideas. I was able to think about past successes and failures in organizational change efforts and see why I got the results I did.

While all of the sources of influence are important, I have to say that the idea of structural ability was especially meaningful to me. Is the physical world around me set up to support my change efforts, or is it sabotaging my goals?

I recommend this book to everyone as a must read.

Five stars.