The amount of influence workers have isn’t always reflected in their job titles. You can determine your own informal value to others by reviewing the extent to which people – your top internal stakeholders – help you succeed in your job, and in turn, by what you offer them. Start by listing the top 10 employees at any level who help you get things done. Give each a score from one to 10 ...
Read morePeople are being nudged in many ways to improve their behavior. Nudging is any means that gently influences people to form good habits and make responsible decisions so they benefit themselves as well as the wider community. It also has great potential as a form of change communication. This new field of behavioral science influences people in easy and usually cost-free ways. It is based largely on the concept put forward in a book, Nudge: ...
Read moreAdapted from an article by Dr Robert Cialdini. Quoting an expert is a powerful technique in messaging. This conclusion has been apparent in the findings of annual global Edelman Trust Barometer surveys for the past 16 years. Now research in social psychology provides further insights. Asked in the 2020 Trust Barometer survey about when they formed an opinion of a company, most respondents (68%) considered a technical expert would be the type of person ...
Read moreBackground words can be a simple, but convincing means of influence. Robert Cialdini discusses some fascinating examples in his new book, Pre-suasion. One of Cialdini’s discussion points is the way an outstanding US health service even goes to the extent of aligning terms used in internal communication with its corporate healthful values and medical ethics. This highly successful non-profit organization even goes to the extent of avoiding violent metaphors generally taken for granted and ...
Read moreUse the principle of authority - people defer to experts. The application: reveal your expertise; don’t assume it is self-evident. People believe an expert. Research has consistently shown that the opinion of an expert quoted in a major newspaper or on a national television news program can shift public opinion immediately by up to 5%. Also, findings from the 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer survey echoed consistent results from previous years in rating company technical ...
Read moreSome people have the happy knack of persuasion – of getting others to do what they want. They seem to do it instinctively while most of us struggle to sway others to our way of thinking. But psychological research has shown that persuasion is more than instinct – you can use it in predictable ways by appealing to a limited set of deeply rooted human drives and needs. Persuasion is governed by basic principles ...
Read moreBy Jessica Henderson, Account Executive at Painted Dog Research, Perth, Western Australia. Every day we are bombarded with information from television, the internet, social media, radio, and from people we talk with. We accept a lot of information from these sources as true unless we have a reason not to. However, occasionally (and perhaps less occasionally in election campaigns – shades of Donald Trump!), information we have accepted as being true turns out to ...
Read moreTop social psychologists led by Professor Robert Cialdini have found that a vital key to influencing people is to connect with their deep-seated need to affiliate and receive the approval of others. Researchers have found that the most successful persuasive strategies trigger one or more of three powerful human motivations: Making effective decisions efficiently Affiliating with and gaining the approval of others Seeing ourselves in a positive light We are all fundamentally motivated to ...
Read morePersuasion researchers have consistently shown that the most successful strategies influencing the decisions and behaviors of others trigger three fundamental human motivations: The motivation to make effective decisions efficiently. The motivation to affiliate with and gain the approval of others. The motivation to see ourselves in a positive light. In this article we look at the third of these motivations, the need to behave in ways that allow us to be seen in the ...
Read moreOne of the biggest issues facing us as communication professionals is how to gain greater influence within our own organization. Our work is largely intangible, based on strengthening organizational communication links and working relationships at all levels, and so we are often vulnerable to the subjective views of corporate decision makers about our effectiveness. The question is how do we increase our standing within the organization? People can have good potential or may already ...
Read moreBias may seem a vague concept for business, but people's biases cause massive errors in business decisions, including communication decisions.
Testimonials are a classic way to create perceptions of authentic value to customers and clients. Sample testimonial: Other thoughts for
Presenting to senior executives is a daunting proposition. They are extremely busy and have to make many decisions under