Have you ever wanted to influence your boss, your colleagues or even an entire system over which you have no formal authority? If so, then Dan Brown has another message for you, a message borrowed from people such as Martin Luther King and Mohandas Gandhi, who have shaped world events without any authority at all.
Despite being a fictional story, Dan Brown’s novel caused a great deal of controversy, due in part to its attack on the perception of Christianity held by the majority of its followers since the time of Constantine. In fact, leaders of the Catholic Church (sidenote: I’m Catholic) went so far as to call for their followers to shun the book like rotten food. Yet book sales went through the roof, and despite the fictitious nature of the story, people began to question their own beliefs about the real history of Christ. However, my point has nothing to do with religion. Instead, I want to demonstrate how you can employ the same techniques used by Dan Brown in order to expand your own sphere of influence.
Here is how.
Brown places his argument squarely within the dominant values of modern, western society. The book’s reverence of the historically oppressed “sacred feminine” resonates with our contemporary view that there should be equality between the sexes. By highlighting how current realities fail to support the values society claims to uphold, you can make people uncomfortable enough that change happens. Martin Luther King did this by placing his commentary against the backdrop of America’s espoused values of freedom and equality. Gandhi did it by jumping on the emerging wave of support for self-determination.
If you want influence without authority, you first need to get people’s attention. To do this, you too need to speak in their language and frame your arguments in terms of the existing values of the organization. You need to use the very system you seek to change.
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, they are the only thing that ever has.
—Margaret Mead
