- Sheet
- S05 of 12
- Part
- Leading people
Influence and driving change
Change fails at predictable steps, and persuasion is a process of learning and negotiating, not a pitch.
01
Readings
John P. Kotter · Harvard Business Review, 2007 (first published 1995)
Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail
Eight steps, in order. Skipping one creates the illusion of speed and never a good result.
- Urgency, coalition, vision, communicate the vision, remove obstacles, short-term wins, consolidate, anchor in culture.
- Each step has a matching error. Declaring victory too soon is one of the most common.
- Communicating the vision is usually short by a factor of ten.
Jay A. Conger · Harvard Business Review, 1998
The Necessary Art of Persuasion
Persuasion works in four steps: credibility, common ground, vivid evidence and emotional connection.
- Credibility comes from expertise and from relationships.
- Frame the goal around what the audience already cares about.
- Back the case with vivid stories and examples, not only numbers.
- Read the audience’s emotions and match your intensity to theirs.
- Common mistakes: the hard sell, refusing to compromise, assuming argument alone wins, and treating it as one shot.
02
See it
Climb the eight steps. Tap a step to see what breaks without it.
Lab 05.ATap a step, or play the climb.
Before you try to persuade someone
Lab 05.BConger: most people skip straight to evidence. The first two steps decide whether anyone listens.
03
Frameworks
Eight steps of change
Kotter
In order. Each step has a matching error.
| 1 Establish urgency | Error: not enough urgency |
| 2 Form a guiding coalition | Error: coalition too weak |
| 3 Create a vision | Error: no clear vision |
| 4 Communicate the vision | Error: undercommunicating by a factor of ten |
| 5 Remove obstacles | Error: letting obstacles block the vision |
| 6 Plan short-term wins | Error: no visible wins |
| 7 Consolidate and keep going | Error: declaring victory too soon |
| 8 Anchor in culture | Error: not anchoring the change |
Four steps of persuasion
Conger
Persuasion is learning and negotiating, not selling.
| Establish credibility | Expertise plus relationships |
| Frame for common ground | Tie the goal to what they already care about |
| Provide vivid evidence | Stories, examples, metaphors, plus numbers |
| Connect emotionally | Read their mood and match your intensity |
Principles of influence
Cialdini, outside reading
Shortcuts people use to say yes.
| Reciprocity | People return favors |
| Commitment and consistency | People act in line with what they said before |
| Social proof | People follow what others like them do |
| Liking | People say yes to people they like |
| Authority | People defer to credible experts |
| Scarcity | People want what is rare or ending |
04
Check yourself
0 of 3 answered.
05
Think it through
- P1Think of a change at work that stalled. Which of Kotter’s steps was skipped?
- P2Who do you have to persuade without authority, and what is your credibility with them built on?