Influence Without Authority

Many people have influenced us in positive ways, and we are deeply indebted to them. A number of colleagues read portions of the manuscript in draft form and made helpful suggestions, including J.B. Kassarjian, Lynne Rosansky, Les Livingstone, Jan Jaferian, Farshad Rafii, and Roy Lewicki. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Barry Stein, Richard Pascale, Jerry Porras, and Jean Kirsch provided useful stimulation over many years. National Training Laboratories gave us the opportunity to develop and test our ideas in a series of workshops for managers. Many wonderful friends and clients provided the rich examples we have used, but regrettably, most must remain anonymous to preserve confidentiality. We thank former students Tom Greenfield, Marianne McLaughlin, Spencer Lovette, and James Wiegel, and good friend Leslie Charm, for their contributions. In addition, our students and clients have been a continuous source of learning. Our editor, John Mahaney, went far beyond the call of duty in helping to shape this book, and we’re almost sorry for all the grief we give him. We very much appreciate the perspective he brought. Sydney Craft Rozen and Louann Werksma buffed our prose, and Nancy Marcus Land’s cheerful wisdom made the production process more than bearable. Tom Hart gave us valuable advice on contract issues. We want to thank Sydney Cohen for preparing the index. We are very grateful to Babson’s Vice-President for Academic Affairs, Gordon Prichett, the faculty nominating committee, and Ex-President Bill Dill, for choosing Allan to be the first occupant of the Walter H. Carpenter Chair. The selection was perfectly timed to permit concentrated writing effort just when the book needed it, and we literally couldn’t have finished without this opportunity. Although the miracles of word processors let us do most of the typing ourselves, several people at Babson were incredibly helpful in producing draft after draft of the manuscript; for their support we thank Margie Kurtzman, Jim Murphy, Sheila Faherty, as well as George Recck and his angels of computer mercy, Ara Heghinian, Scott Andersen, and especially John Walker, who promptly and patiently rescued lost files and answered countless questions. The Graduate School of Business at Stanford also provided valuable support. Our extended families have also played an important part in helping us, not only by their encouragement but also by the lessons on influence they teach as we interact with them. For their contributions to our ongoing education, we are forever grateful to our wives, children, parents, brothers, inlaws, aunts, uncles, and cousins—a veritable army of informal.