Last night, 4th March 2009, I was fortunate enough to be invited by the Chatered Institute of Management to attend an “Influence Masterclass” being given by Bob Cialdini at the Royal Society of Physicians and sponsored by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES). To explain why the UKCES had decided to invest tax payers money on a subject with such tenuous connections to its goals, Chris Humphries the current CEO took the podium.
Chris Humphries’ presentation focused on how far the UK is likely to fall behind the rest of the OECD (organisation of economic co-operation and development) over the next 10 or so years in areas such as employment and productivity. He showed how the UK was becoming a nation of haves and have nots with the South East for example having high employment and productivity but the North of England possessing neither. The audience was too polite to point out we were performaning better than his homeland of Australia!
The answer is to train our people more often and more effectively and his hope was that if people with training needs for themselves or their teams could learn how to influence and persuade budget holders better we would be more likely to achieve those goals. A worthy goal but for anyone who had read either one of Cialdini’s books on the subject of persuasion they would have already known there would be little to go on.
Once you get over the fixed facial expression and nasal American accent, Cialdini delivers a good presentation. Whilst there was little different from the research described in his books, he brought the examples to life and his stories and anecdotes meant I left able to share some of the learning with colleagues quite easily.
Cialdini focused the presentation on three of his six principles of “Ethical Influence”. The six are:
- Reciprocity – if you do something for someone they will do something for you; but you have to offer up first.
- Scarcity – something increases in value if it is shown to be scarce or rare
- Authority – people are convinced more easily by people they see as authority figures.
- Consistency – if someone publicly commits to something they are more likely to stick with that idea
- Consensus – People are more likely to be influenced by similar actions of a group of their peers
- Liking – no surprise here, but people are more easily influenced by people they like
We heard a little about each area and in depth about scarcity, authority and consensus. The area of authority was really interesting and the use of the word “but” was revealed as crucial for establishing trust. Cialdini explained that most people in a pitch when trying to get their point of view across, front end the benefits and then, to establish that they are honest, throw in a couple of limitations at the end. For example I might say that Foviance is a world leader in usability and customer experience consulting ‘but’ we don’t do graphic design.
Cialdini argues that people will only hear and retain the information after the ‘but’ and that all we have to do is switch the order of what we say to be more compelling. So, what I should say is “Foviance doesn’t do graphic design, ‘but’ we are world leaders in usability and customer experience consulting. In order to be an authority that you are likely to believe when I say this, I can improve my chances by having a colleague introduce me and say a little about my credentials. What Cialdini is quick to observe is that his techniques only work where there are genuine arguments and honest benefits, ‘but’ you can’t have everything can you.
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