Here are two important insights from the influence masters we studied:

1. Your world is perfectly organized to create the behavior you’ve got. Almost every persistent problem we face is over-determined. There’s no single cause. It’s a conspiracy. We need to educate our eyes to see the multiple causes that are conspiring to keep us stuck. Once we see all the causes, we have a better chance of success.

2. Overwhelm overwhelming problems. Don’t ask what one influence strategy will work. Build your own positive conspiracy of causes. Marshal enough of the six sources of influence to over-determine success.

Denise Wilfley and her colleagues, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, demonstrate these principles in an interesting study of childhood obesity published this week in The Journal of the American Medical Association. Read a nice summary of their work

The Study: Wilfley and her colleagues were looking for ways to prevent yo-yo weight loss and focused on children ages 8 to 12 who were severely overweight. First, they put the kids on an effective diet and exercise program for five months. What interested me most is that they required at least one parent to participate with their child. I bet the parents’ involvement had an enormously positive impact because it’s an application of source 3, social motivation, and source 4, social ability, from the six sources of influence model. 

After the kids achieved their target weights, they were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: 1. no follow up, 2. social facilitation follow up, or 3. behavior management follow up. 

The social facilitation follow up also focused on source 3, social motivation, and source 4, social ability. Children were encouraged to engage in more active social activities and to eat healthier foods on play dates.

The behavior management follow up focused on source 2, personal ability. Children were taught how to monitor their weight and to take action whenever they saw an increase.

The Results: 
First: Failing to follow up fails. The kids in the no-follow up condition regained all their weight plus more. Second: Both of the maintenance approaches worked, but their effectiveness tapered off over the two-year follow up. And third: there were dramatic, long-term successes for those kids in the social facilitation group who experienced few social problems—meaning, that the social facilitation worked especially well. 

The Take-Aways: We all hope that once a problem is solved it will stay solved. But that is rarely the case with persistent and resistant behaviors. Business leaders often ask me whether improvements we’ve achieved will last. My refrain is, “Only as long as we make them last.” 

Some positive behaviors, like reading, may be difficult and unrewarding at first, but become intrinsically rewarding as our skills improve. Sometimes these intrinsic rewards are enough to support the continued behavior, but not usually. Usually our achievements need personal, social, and structural support or we’ll backslide.

Wilfley says her next study will combine the best elements from the social facilitation and the behavior management follow ups. In other words, she’s adding together several sources of influence. I’m willing to bet that the more she overwhelms the problem with multiple sources of influence, the more success she’ll see.

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Posted by David Maxfield on October 10, 2007 8:56:00 PM MDT #