Each Individual Has the Power to Influence Positive Change

As acute and critical care nurses gathered in Chicago for NTI to reflect on reclaiming priorities, keynote speaker Ron McMillan challenged the nearly 9,000 in attendance to think beyond the individual and believe that each person has the power to influence behavior that can change the world.

Ron McMillan

By focusing on the results first and working backwards, by targeting desired behavior to change what people do, and by using a multi-faceted approach to designing solutions, each individual can affect profound and lasting change, McMillan said during the keynote session yesterday morning.

“The most important capacity you possess is the ability to influence behavior – in yourselves and in others,” McMillan said.

Affecting Change is Difficult

Many individuals attempt to affect change, but are surprisingly ill-equipped to alter behavior, either in themselves or in others. McMillan began his talk with the shocking claim that, “we should all admit that we are poor at influencing.”

This was no blanket assumption. According to McMillan, who has been researching the effects of change for his latest book, Influencer: The Power to Change Anything, cited statistics to underscore just how difficult it is to alter behavior: 85% of all corporate change fails; two-thirds of criminals are rearrested; nine out of 10 corporate budgets balloon beyond their limit; and one that should hit home close to nurses, two years after coronary bypass surgery, 90% of patients return to their old lifestyle choices that caused their coronary condition.

Lastly, to show that even changing one’s own behavior is a challenge, McMillan shared this statistic: dieting is a $40 billion dollar-a-year industry, but 19 of 20 dieters lose nothing but their money.

“As dieters, we do not even know how to influence ourselves,” McMillan said.

Rethinking Influence

The most egregious error individuals make in attempting to influence, according to McMillan, is believing that change can be affected through verbal persuasion, notably by explaining the ramifications of behavior we attempt to change. This strategy is evident in the “just say no” anti-drug campaign and abstinence only education. However, as evidenced by ongoing substance abuse problems and teen pregnancy in the United States, these strategies fail more often than they succeed.

“We naively think that if people know the consequences, they will change their behavior,” McMillan said.

Instead, McMillan encouraged attendees to start with the result they want to attain and target the specific behavior that would achieve that change. Lastly, to truly affect change, the influencer should implement a multifaceted strategy to influence the behavior.

McMillan said his research has shown that many of the most successful influencers have adapted their principles from renowned psychologist Albert Bandura. The most effective strategies, he said, influence motivation and ability on a personal, social and structural level.

A case study in this type of influencing is an on-going commitment to bettering healthcare called “Silence Kills.” The initiative is sponsored by Vitalsmarts, an organization that McMillan helped establish, and that partners with AACN to develop change initiatives.

The initiative is successful, according to McMillan, because it urges each individual to take a share in initiating behavior change, even if that means confronting those that act as an impediment to change. The underlying principle of this proposal is at the heart of McMillan’s message: it is the individual that acts beyond himself or herself with a specific goal in mind that can positively change the world.

The Keynote Session was cosponsored by Covidien.