Persuasion, Influence, & Innovative Ideas, CIL2010 session

Persuasion, Influence & Innovative Ideas
Rebecca Jones, Partner Dysart & Jones Associates


How to influence your colleagues and your users

Important to Keep in Mind
-An idea or anything new = change
-People don't like change when it involves them, unless there is something in it for them.
-Group = people brought together to work

Discovery, knowledge, exploring, inspiration - words used in mission/vision statements, yet libraries don't really want ideas to inspire or discover or change.

Why are some naysayers?
-Don't see what's in it for them
-Fear
-"laters" or "laggards"

Influencing is built on:
-competence
-clarity
-relationships

Influencing others starts with ourselves
-Presence is the most important part of influencing
-We have to see ourselves as influencers
-We must be clear on what we want to see happen
-We must learn new approaches

"Influence is one of the highest skills that we have as humans" Rebecca Jones

Consider the broader Context
-"Leadership is a process of social influence through which one person is able to enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task." Chemers

Some Underlying Principles
-One in ten Americans tel the other nine how to vote, where to eat, and what to buy
-Passionate, informed, well-connected, articulate people with broad social networks, to whom others look for advice & recommendations
-"talkers"

Effective influencers tend to be:
-"expert" in a specific domain
-"early adopters" or certainly know how to build relationships with early adopters to move change through
-Opinion leaders
-Knowledgeable about the issues being dealt with
-viewed as trustworthy
-with connections

Influence without authority
-Assumptions/everyone is a potential ally
-Clarity/be clear on your goal or objective
-Diagnosis/Understand the other person's situation
-Currencies/Identify what's important at this point for our & them
-Relationships/Develop & deal with
-Influence/Through give & take

Wooing (The Art of Woo)
-Knowing what you want
-Getting it in front of a few people
-Forming, molding & building a snowball
-Following the network
-One idea, one ally, one email, one conversation, one meeting, one presentation at a time
-use their knowledge & connections to help others

Competence
-Know your strengths & weaknesses
-Work to your strengths
-Keep the organizational perspective
-Critical success factor for credibility & expertise

Relationships
-Get to know people, what they do, & keep in touch - regardless of level
-Build trust; it's incremental & fragile
-Must understand your organization's hidden yet important relationships & where the real power lies

"You cannot antagonize and influence at the same time." J.S. Knox

Our language needs to change to make it more streamlined. Presenter never wants to hear the term "bibliographic instruction" again. No one really knows what that means.

Being Part of the Quotient - To move to the decision-making table:
-Clear direction which can be articulated

Clarity
-Be clear on what you want
-Be clear on what you've got & where your lines will be drawn
-Communicate clearly, in the style of the listener

Influencing Styles
-Involving: "pull" communication style matches others'; building collaboration
-Inquiring: "push" listening carefully to identify others' needs & 'currencies'; to give & take
-Leading: "pull" engaging people to share stories & common grounds
-Proposing - "push" presenting possible solutions or a choice of options; structured & rational

Inquiring
-Based on assumption that people are more motivated by what they'll lose
-Requires a good blend of both expertise & credibility - & trust
-Use images & metaphors, not facts & logic

YES!
Core principles that increase your persuasiveness:
1. Reciprocation
2. Authority
3. Commitment/consistency
4. Scarcity
5. Liking
6. Social proof

***This was another good session with lots of information to process.***