The authors of the book Influencer state that complex problems will not yield to simplistic solutions. Only by addressing all of a listener’s possible motivators and abilities can the influencer expect to have a positive impact on outcomes.

The authors give special attention to the consequences of a failure to persuade people to act morally and ethically. How do influencers persuade individuals to take the moral high road rather than pursue the far easier path of moral disengagement, moral justification, displacing responsibility and other dehumanizing and minimizing behaviors?

They suggest that influencers connect behavior to moral values so the listener can see the consequences and connections which otherwise might remain hidden from view. Everyone must challenge everyone.

A recent public service announcement, on the dangers of reckless driving among teenagers, shows a “Spokesperson” popping out of nowhere to warn the teen driver about the risks of speeding and driving recklessly. The catch-line is that there is no such thing as a “Spokesman” -– that each person must be prepared to speak up on his or her own behalf. Otherwise, there will be no voice for driving sanely.

Story-tellers can spot human consequences of immoral actions and help the listener reconnect his/her actions with the likely and inevitable human costs. Stories can create dimension and scale of possible impacts of risky behavior.

Complex problems are complex because they have deep intertwined levels: personal, social and structural levels of possible action or inaction. The authors demonstrate how motivation and ability to influence or changes varies at each level.

Another example of how complex problems are difficult to address is how advocates on behalf of increasing the number of women on boards focus only on the structural level: building “the business case” for women directors as part of a worthy corporate governance strategy. The arguing that “corporations must change” or “corporate leadership must change.” Ironically, the structural levels are most entrenched and thus the least likely to change.

Telephone companies have huge infrastructure investments in place from years of building out their telecommunications connections and are resistant to writing those sunk costs off to make room for new, probably faster and more efficient, systems. So too, our corporate hierarchies and ways of doing business have huge sunk investments made in their organizational skeletons which they are unlikely to change, absent major catastrophic motivations.

The second tier, societal change, is only slightly less rigid. Mainstream media fixates on a view of women as merchandise, consumer or as a cultural stereotype of motherhood, homemaker and comforter; rather than intelligent, educated, strategic decision-makers or investors looking to maximize economic returns. Entertainment, reflecting social and cultural mores, perpetuates these views of women as highly-influence-able discretionary consumers.

It is only at the last level, that of personal choice, where we might find opportunities to persuade individual women to pursue board-careers by story-telling that brings forth for their consideration the experiences of other successful, accomplished and satisfied women directors.

Story-telling, example-setting and lesson-learning is what we do in the male dominated professional environment. We teach men in law using the legal case method: they must read and analyze legal cases and present their findings before their peers and professors; they must present their own judgment and interpretation before others and face the prospect of being challenged in a very public forum. We teach men in business school using the business case study method: they, too, must use the best and worse practices of other’s experiences to understand how and why they succeeded or failed.

How well do we use the case study method to teach women to think, analyze and interpret? How well do we foster the use of practical case study tools to help women to understand and challenge, in a public forum, and to debate the merits of actions or inaction by other women in leadership? And, more importantly, how open and receptive are women to reading and learning from the experience of other successful women in leadership?

Story-telling can include the case study method, individuals reading about the lives and careers of other exemplary individuals and the media’s presentation of everyday efforts and success of contemporary role models. Story-telling is an intimately personal experience. That is how we motivate ethical behavior. That is also how we might motivate more women to consider board-worthy careers.