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Summary: Guru of Multiple Intelligences
Review: I saw Howard Gardner speak at an event a few years ago and it was terrific. He is a very experienced psychologist who understands the mind and persuasion. He's also famous for his work with multiple intelligences, the same field that considers the impact of emotional intelligence on our success. I bought this book with "The Emotional Intelligence Quickbook" which was also excellent. Together these skills are a great way to change minds!
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Summary: Major disappointment here
Review: I waited in anticipation for this book to be released. The topic, coupled with Mr. Gardner's strong c.v., led me to believe that this would be a seminal book. Sadly, it was difficult to get beyond Mr. Gardner's entrenched political bias shown (reflected in the minds of many Harvard professors) in his illustrations in one chapter after another. We've all heard it before: George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan as simple-minded, latter stage former prime minister Margaret Thatcher as arrogant. If I wanted a book on politics, well that's another matter. How about Mr. Gardner changing his own mind!
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Summary: Anecdotal
Review: I'm disappointed with this book. Gardner spends the first few chapters seemingly laying a foundation for what's to come, then squanders it with essentially a bunch of anecdotes. It really seems less like an integrated, well-researched theory than "My opinion, by a famous psychologist." Quite often it feels as though he's stretching his "7 factors for changing minds" to fit his anecdotes. It also feels as though he's casting around for stories to throw in. "Oh, hey, I had a friend who changed people's minds! Why don't I include him?" And so he does. I had the distinct impression, as other readers seem to, that he wrote this book under duress, or because he and Harvard Business Publishing thought there might be a willing market. Unfortunately, I was part of that market and I've now learned to trust their brand a little less next time.
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Summary: More than one intelligence
Review: I've seen Howard Gardner speak and he really taught me a lot about there being more than IQ to success in life. He is famous for his work with multiple intelligences which considers the impact of emotional intelligence. I bought Changing Minds with the recommended title "The Emotional Intelligence Quickbook" and it was a great combo. Good recommendation Amazon!
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Summary: An Outline Of A Theory
Review: In this book, prolific and influential Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner sketches out a framework for thinking about changes of mind. In chapters 1-3, Gardner introduces seven factors that influence changes of mind. Remaining chapters provide examples from different levels of society: national, institutional, educational, interpersonal, etc. A lot of ground is covered very fast.
Readers who buy the book in hopes of getting practical tips on how to influence others, are likely to be disappointed. It is really more of a theoretical (though easy-to-read) outline than a practical how-to book. Although it is issued by the Harvard Business School Press, and written (as Gardner says in the preface) for a business audience, there are very few actual business examples in the book.
The book deliberately ignores the more-harmful ways of changing minds such as propaganda, fanaticism, fear, and terror. This is unfortunate, since in today's world the defence against harmful ideology takes on the utmost importance. Also neglected, although briefly mentioned, is the increasingly pervasive effectiveness of rhetoric in so many areas of life: politics, advertising, culture, business, and law, to name but a few. Finally, the book would have benefited if it had made contact with the emerging science of mimetics, the study of "how ideas colonize minds."
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Summary: Fabulous Book
Review: Many of the wonderful thinking techniques in this book remind me of one of my favorite books, "The Little Guide To Happiness". You are what you think about. That is the essence of "Changing Minds". Except it's told in a fresh and different way.
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous Book
Review: Many of the wonderful thinking techniques in this book remind me of one of my favorite books, "The Little Guide To Happiness". You are what you think about. That is the essence of "Changing Minds". Except it's told in a fresh and different way.
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Summary: Valuable insights
Review: Most of Howard Gardner's work is written for an academic and education audience. This book, like his earlier Leading Minds, is directed primarily to a business and general audience. I regard Leading Minds as one of the best current books on leadership and Changing Minds adds very useful insights into how to be effective in one of the key activities of a leader.
The core of the book is concerned with identifying the seven factors at work in changes of mind and how they are applied in situations ranging from dealing with small homogeneous groups through to dealing with large and very diverse groups. In the course of the book, he appeals to the concept of the 'schooled' and the 'unschooled' mind (a person who is vey sophisticated in some fields may judge issues outside those fields in an 'unschooled' way), which he introduced in Leading Minds. He also refers to - and updates - his now famous concept of multiple intelligences,with the advice that one is more likely to be successful in mind changing if several intelligences can be appealed to (think of the power of a song - words and music - compared with plain text).
The book provides a very valuable guide for those concerned with gaining acceptance for and implementing change.
For a somewhat different - and also very useful - perspective, it is worth comparing this book with Hultman: Making Change Irresistible.
Gladwell: The Tipping Point also provides a different but complementary perspective on the factors and agents in acceptance of a new idea, fashion or concept. He focuses on what it is that causes an 'infection' to move suddenly from a few isolated cases to a full-blown 'epidemic'. The book contains useful reflections on the skills and situations required for this to happen.
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Summary: Seven Levers to Influence Decision-Making
Review: One key to success is the ability to influence people's thinking. Whether one is attempting to introduce a major organizational change or convince consumers to switch brands, the ability to change people minds is an important business process.Howard Gardner, a Harvard psychologist who specializes in cognitive theory, offers us insight into what happens when one changes his or her mind. In order to change someone's mind, Gardner writes, one has to produce a shift in that person's perceptions, codes and the way he or she retains and accesses information. There are seven levers to change, he says. 1.Reason.
2.Research
3.Resonance
4.Re-descriptions
5.Rewards
6.Real World Events
7.Resistances. Gardner explores how these levers are employed in six realms. 1.Diverse Groups - such as a nation.
2.Homogeneous Groups - corporations, universities.
3.Culture - Changes effected by art, science or scholarship.
4.Classroom
5.Intimate Gatherings - one-on-one meetings, family gathering.
6.Changes within one's mind. This book is enlightening and compelling. It offers insights into the methods one can employ to influence others and oneself.
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Summary: Dissapointed
Review: Since this book was published by HBR, I really expected it to have a lot more to do with changing business thinking. What I found, however, was what seemed like a psych text book that was applied to business as an after though. I found it to have little practical value.
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