Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change, Second Edition

by Joseph Grenny

Change agents don’t use stories to aim vicarious models only at audiences in the developing world. Readers may not be aware of how effectively the same methods have been deployed in the United States. Before David Poindexter (the founder and former president of Population Communications International) and his colleagues exported serial dramas to Africa, Poindexter met with Norman Lear—producer of popular TV sitcoms such as All in the Family and Maude. As part of their agenda to reduce population growth, Poindexter, Lear, and others routinely injected family planning messages into their programming. It was no coincidence that in 1972, with 41 percent of those watching TV in America tuned in to his show, Lear created an episode (“Maude’s Dilemma”) in which the star—a middle-aged woman—announced that she was considering an abortion. This was the first time this topic was inserted into a primetime plot line, and it wasn’t included by accident. Love it or hate it, it was part of a systematic plan of using compelling stories (complete with vicarious models) to influence social change. And according to public opinion surveys, it did just that, as have dozens of other programs that have since made use of poignant stories.

compelling stories and vicarious models