Six Sources of Influence

If you need to be a change agent at work, or make things happen in your life, Six Sources of Influence is for you.  I wrote up a post on Six Sources of Influence on my Sources of Insight blog.  The Six Sources of Influence was my favorite part of my Influencer Training here at Microsoft.   The focus of the training was to improve my skills at analyzing and executing change, especially for persistent or resistant problems.  I'm a fan of the model and I'm using it almost daily.

The power of the Six Sources of Influence is that rather than get stuck in a default pattern or a one-trick pony routine, you can get a better lens on the situation by evaluating the six sources.  To visualize the model, think of a simple two-column table of motivation and ability, sliced in 3 parts: personal, social, and structural.  You can then walk the model to figure out the key leverage points or centers of gravity.  Instead of lucking into success, you can target your time and effort to actually produce more effective change and get results.

Check out my post on Six Sources of Influence and take it for a test drive.