How to Influence Anyone, Anywhere, Every Time

Once upon a time …

On a humid, overcast day in March 1975, 24 school students sprawled at their desks awaiting the arrival of the new biology teacher. We hated biology. The previous teacher, who had left for personal reasons (fired), also hated the subject.

Then she arrived.

Miss Knight strode into the classroom with an energy and purpose that blew apart our complacent, wallowing disinterest.

She was carrying a battered leather briefcase. Old school. Belts and buckles. Second World War vibe. She chucked the thing onto a table, which landed with a meaty thud, before turning and glaring at all of us, smiling like Cruella and shouting, ‘Right! Let's learn!’

I was 15 years old. The school was Thomas More College, near Durban in South Africa. I did not know it then, but this moment would change my life.

No surprise, biology became everyone's favourite subject. Miss Knight enthralled, challenged, provoked, engaged and immersed us in biological sciences with a relish and passion I can instantly recall decades later.

After she turned us and every other student in every class she taught around, I approached her after a lesson to thank her for making biology and learning so amazing.

‘Listen to me, young Colin’, she said, fixing her dark eyes on me, ‘it's not about the subject. It's always about the teacher. I want you to watch how I teach and what we are learning. Can you do that?’

We have all had an experience like this at some time in our lives. The curriculum is set at school, the ...