2. I N F L U E N C I N G W I T H O U T A U T H O R I T Y
Participant Handbook
3. Table of Contents
Introduction .............................................................................. 1
Lesson Overview...................................................................... 1
Target Audience....................................................................... 1
Lesson Goal and Outcomes..................................................... 1
Lesson Goal.................................................................................... 1
Lesson Outcomes ........................................................................... 1
Lesson 1: Influencing Without Authority ................................... 2
Introducing the instructor and the participants ................................ 3
Icebreaker....................................................................................... 4
Lesson objectives ........................................................................... 5
What is influence?........................................................................... 6
What do you know about influence? ............................................... 7
External barriers to influence .......................................................... 8
Internal barriers to influence............................................................ 9
Overcoming the barriers................................................................ 10
Step 1: Assume all are potential allies .......................................... 11
Step 2: Clarify your goals and priorities......................................... 12
Step 3: Diagnose the world of the other person ............................ 13
Step 4: Identify the relevant currencies; theirs and yours.............. 14
Step 5: Deal with relationships...................................................... 15
Step 6: Influence through give and take........................................ 16
Case study.................................................................................... 17
Problem......................................................................................... 18
Step 1: Assume all are potential allies .......................................... 19
Step 2: Clarify your goals and priorities......................................... 20
Step 3: Diagnose the world of the other person ........................... 21
Step 4: Identify relevant currencies; theirs and yours ................... 22
Step 5: Deal with relationships..................................................... 23
Step 6: Influence through give and take....................................... 24
Introduction to simulation .............................................................. 25
References.................................................................................... 26
4. D E S I G N C U S T O M I Z A T I O N
1
Introduction
You always come across situations where you have no real authority over key
stakeholders but have to influence them to get your work done. You know what needs
to be done and know how to do it, but you can’t get you boss, colleagues, and even the
people who report to you to do “the right thing.” This lesson prepares you to do just
that, “making people do what you want them to do.”
Lesson Overview
This lesson is delivered as a blended training program which is divided into two parts.
The first part is an instructor-led session which is followed by an online assessment.
The lesson is designed for 2 hours with 10 minutes buffer provided at the end.
Target Audience
This lesson provides essential influencing skills for all types of employees in an
organization. They can be business analysts, sponsors, managers, or executives.
Lesson Goal and Outcomes
Lesson Goal
When presented with a situation where you must get your work done by another
individual with a higher authority, you will be able to influence or persuade the
individual to do it with a step-by-step influence strategy.
Lesson Outcomes
After completing this lesson, you will be able to:
Explain the purpose of influence.
Identify the barriers to influence.
Influence your colleagues using an influence strategy.
Lesson
1
8. 5
Lesson objectives
After completing this training, you
should be able to:
Explain the purpose of influence.
Identify the barriers to influence.
Influence your colleagues using an influence
strategy.
9. 6
What is influence?
What is influence?
The power to get your work
done.
You influence:
Friends
Colleagues
Managers
What is influence?
Influence is the power to get your work done.
You live in a global village. There are very few jobs where a person works completely
alone. Most of you are dependent upon others, and you are important to your
colleagues as well. Hence, there will be scenarios where you need to influence your
friends and employees from other departments, that is, people you can not order or
control. You will also come across situations where you need to influence your
manager and others above you.
Some common scenarios where you may need to influence others are:
To sell important projects
To persuade colleagues to provide needed resources
To convince your boss to respond to issues that may not appear important to
him
10. 7
What do you know about influence?
What do you know about
influence?
Ask and get it
Think how to get it
Give and get it
You already know a lot more about influence than you realize!
Sometimes, you just ask what you need, and if the other person or group can
respond, they will.
Sometimes, you have to work a little harder to figure out how to get what you
want.
Sometimes, you instinctively understand that when someone helps you, you
are expected sooner or later to somehow pay them back.
11. 8
External barriers to influence
External barriers to influence
Power differential
Different goals and objectives
Incompatible performance measures
Rivalry
Convincing a friend is easy, but how about convincing somebody you do not know?
You may feel lost when you think of ways to convince somebody you does not know
or who is superior than you. There are barriers to influence which are external to you;
that exist in your business environment:
The people that you want to influence and you are separated by a large power
differential.
The people that you want to influence have different objectives from yours,
leading to different priorities, and you cannot find a common ground.
The people that you want to influence have incompatible performance
measures and rewards.
The people that you want to influence are your rivals or feel competitive and
don’t want you to succeed.
12. 9
Internal barriers to influence
Internal barriers to influence
Lack of knowledge
Attitudes
Fear
No focus
However, more than often, the barriers are inside the person who wants to influence
others.
Lack of knowledge on how to go about influencing when you are not sure of
the objectives
Presence of attitudes that may blind you to important objective information
Fear of the other person or group and how they might react
Inability to focus on what you need and how the other person could benefit
from that
13. 10
Overcoming the barriers
Overcoming the barriers
Relationship exists
Relationship does not exist
How do you overcome these barriers?
We will start from the assumption that influences are about the person being
influenced getting something valued in return or avoiding something disliked for
willingness to give what is requested.
This give and take concept is not so much easy as it sounds. When you already have a
good relationship with the another person, you just ask, and if the colleague can
respond, he or she will. There is no need for a conscious diagnosis of the situation and
thinking through the appropriate approach. But there are other times when it is not so
easy to influence the other person (for example, influencing your superiors), and a
more deliberate and conscious approach is needed.
14. 11
Step 1: Assume all are potential allies
Step 1: Assume all are potential
allies
Influencing someone else – especially someone who seems to be "being difficult" – can
make you feel upset, nervous, or unsure. Begin by assessing whether you could form an
alliance with the person. Try to discover where there might be overlapping interests.
This same mind-set of assuming the other person is a potential ally also applies to your
manager.
Failure to do that by assuming the other person will be an adversary rather than an ally
prevents accurate understanding, leading to misperceptions, stereotypes, and
miscommunication, and can create a self-fulfilling prophecy.
15. 12
Step 2: Clarify your goals and priorities
Step 2: Clarify your goals and
priorities
You need to think hard about your objectives, so you won’t get side tracked into
pursuing secondary goals:
What do you require?
What are your priorities among several possibilities?
What are you willing to trade off to get the minimum you need?
Do you want a particular form of cooperation on a specific item or would you
settle for a better relationship in the future?
Would a short-term victory be worth the creation of hard feelings, or is the
ability to come back to the person in the future more important?
Too often, the person desiring influence does not sort personal desires from what is
truly necessary on the job, and creates confusion or resistance.
16. 13
Step 3: Diagnose the world of the other person
Step 3: Diagnose the world of the
other person
Determine the organizational situation of the potential ally that drives much of what he
or she cares about. These forces usually play an even greater role in shaping what is
important to them than their personality. If for any reason you can’t ask that person
directly, examine the organizational forces that might shape goals, concerns, or needs.
17. 14
Step 4: Identify the relevant currencies; theirs and yours
Step 4: Identify the relevant
currencies; theirs and yours
This is most important part of our influence strategy. Identify the things that people
care about. We will call them currencies. To make trades, you need to be aware of as
many things as people care about and all the valuables you have to offer. There are 5
types of currencies:
Inspiration-related currencies
Task-related currencies
Position-related currencies
Relationship-related currencies
Personal-related currencies
Most people care about more than one thing (for example, prestige, money, being
liked). If you can identify several applicable currencies, you will have a wider range of
possibilities to offer in exchange.
18. 15
Step 5: Deal with relationships
Step 5: Deal with relationships
In this step, you need to analyze what kind of relationship you have with this person. If
you know him or her well and you are on good terms, you can directly ask him or her
for what you need.
If you are not on good terms or you are a complete stranger, then you need to focus
on building trust and building a good relationship before you move on to the final step.
To do this, take time to get to know the person you are interacting with. Make sure you
use active listening techniques when you are speaking with him or her. Also, develop
your emotional intelligence skills, which will help you recognize not only your own
feelings but the feelings of those around you.
19. 16
Step 6: Influence through give and take
Step 6: Influence through give and
take
Once you feel you know what your ally wants or needs and you have determined what
you have to offer, you can make "the exchange" and put your findings into action. You
can use a win-win negotiation to do this.
Make sure that when you make the offer or exchange, it is done in a way that builds
trust. Show respect, empathy, and understanding to the other person. Show your
gratitude to them for helping you, and keep looking for ways to help others.
21. 18
Problem
Problem
Eric is the head of the CRM function of his organization. He wants implement a new
software package that will streamline the customer feedbacks, recording, and response
processes. However, he needs the help from his colleague, John, to solve a problem.
John is the lead software developer.
The problem is that John is extremely busy with his own projects, and has so far been
unwilling to help.
22. 19
Step 1: Assume all are potential allies
Step 1:
Assume all are
potential allies
Eric knows that John could be an ally; they've always gotten along in the past. The only
reason that Rob is unwilling to help is because he's "snowed under" with his own
projects, most of which have tight deadlines.
23. 20
Step 2: Clarify your goals and priorities
Step 2:
Clarify your
goals and
priorities
Need
John’s
help for
half a day!
Eric takes a moment to clarify his goals. Why does he need to influence John?
This is simple: John has the expertise that Eric needs to overcome a problem he's stuck
with. His goal is to gain John 's help, perhaps for half a day, to solve the problem.
24. 21
Step 3: Diagnose the world of the other person
Step 3:
Diagnose the
world of the
other person
Eric looks at the professional world that John, who works full time in IT, works in
daily.
Eric knows the IT department is deadline driven. John is often under immense
pressure to troubleshoot problems as they come up but also to deliver major projects
that have quick turnaround times. As a result, John frequently stays late and comes in
early to meet all his demands.
25. 22
Step 4: Identify relevant currencies; theirs and yours
Step 4:
Identify relevant
currencies;
theirs and yours
I need more
resources to
help me!
Eric believes that John's currency is task-related. What he needs most is another set of
hands to help him complete some of his current projects. If he could catch up, he
would probably be willing to help Eric with his own project.
26. 23
Step 5: Deal with relationships
Step 5: Deal
with
relationships
Eric is already on good terms with John. They do not talk often since they work in
different departments, but they have chatted a few times in the hallway, and Eric would
consider John a friend.
27. 24
Step 6: Influence through give and take
Step 6:
Influence
through give
and take
Eric decides on his exchange. He is going to offer John a full day of his own time to
help him catch on his projects. In return, he will ask for half a day of John's time to
help him with his own project.
When he approaches John, John looks surprised at the offer. But, he accepts
immediately. Eric shows his appreciation by showing up early on his day to help John,
and working hard the entire day. When the time comes for John to help Eric, the same
holds true: John shows up early, and the two get the problem figured out by lunchtime.
Eric then takes John out for lunch to show his gratitude.
28. 25
Introduction to simulation
It’s your turn now…
What follows is a simulation where you try to influence and make your idea accepted in
a real-world situation. Good luck!
29. 26
References
References
Cohen, A. R., & Bradford, D. L. (2012). Influencing up. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.
Fisher, R., & Sharp, A. (1999). Getting it done: how to lead when you're not in
charge. New York: HarperPerennial.
Cohen, A. R., & Bradford, D. L. (1990). Influence without authority. New York: J.
Wiley.
The Influence Model. (n.d.). - Communication Skills Training From
MindTools.com. Retrieved August 21, 2013, from
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/influence-model.htm
