Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People's Minds

Vol. #19, 7/20/04
Deanne G. Bryce, author
Andrea E. Sullivan, editor
LeaderStrength Systems, Inc. 2004

Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People's Minds
by Howard Gardner, Harvard Business School Press; (March 1, 2004) Hardcover, $26.95

ReaderStrength Rating:
Focus 2
Build 1
Adapt 3
Overall Rating as a Leadership Resource 2
(Please see "How Do We Evaluate Resources?" in right column)

Every leader is held accountable for results that often come about only if people change their minds about the way things are done or the direction a group is headed. How does a leader change the mind of employees, customers, or other stakeholders and, more importantly, how does a leader change his or her own mind?

With a title like Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People's Minds, and an author as credible as Howard Gardner (the scholar who taught the world about multiple intelligences), I was primed to learn the answer to that question. I anticipated an opportunity to gain some scientific insight and artistic skills I could apply and share with leaders. This expectation was not met.

This book was marketed towards a business audience so, quite naturally, I expected it to read like a business book. In business, because of the pace we move, we look for clear guidance so we can quickly apply the knowledge of scholars toward results and action. Instead of answers and applications, however, the book offers an interesting history of psychology in the twentieth century and a broad view of minds that have changed in the last one hundred years in western industrialized societies.

Gardner outlines seven factors that tend to be at work when minds are changed. There are a combination of factors at play that finally lead to the tipping point of change. These factors are:
1. Reason
2. Research
3. Resonance
4. Representational Redescriptions
5. Resources and Rewards
6. Real World Events
7. Resistances

To further illustrate these factors, Gardner explains that change can happen in a variety of settings - a government or nation, a homogeneous group, change through art or scientific discoveries, formal instruction, intimate or one-on-one interactions and, of course, change within the person when one changes his or her own mind with no apparent persuasion from others.

I recommend the book if you like to think and come to conclusions yourself. If you want clear direction on how to work with people, this book will leave you feeling unsatisfied.

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How Do We Evaluate Resources?

All of the books we review are evaluated on how they support a leader’s progress in applying our working definition of leadership.

We teach leaders to: Focus, Build, and Adapt:

Focus: A leader is able to see a new future

Build: A leader can build from his or her strengths as a foundation, adding on new skills, knowledge, and attitudes to create the new future.

Adapt: A leader is skilled at using feedback from their own thinking, other people’s reactions, and results/information from their environments to self-correct and keep moving toward the new future they envisioned.

Here is our rating system:

Outstanding 4

Good 3

Satisfactory 2

Unsatisfactory 1

Focus- How well does this book inspire a vision of a new future?

Build- How well does this book teach new knowledge and skills?

Adapt-How well does this book assist readers in examining and optimizing their own behaviors?

Overall Rating as a Leadership Resource: We average the ratings in the above three categories.

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Delegate and Empower-October 20
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dbryce@leaderstrength.com • LeaderStrength Systems