Happy Monday!
This week’s book is
Great book to understand that leadership nowadays is all about our influence in others. Here’s my top 10 takeaways:
1. Rationale
When we ask someone to do us a favor, we will be more successful if we provide a reason for it.
People simply like to have reasons for what they do.
2. Variance
The Contrast Principle - If we lift a light object first and then a heavy one, we will estimate the second object to be heavier than if we had lifted it without first trying the light one.
We tend to get biased easily.
3. Reciprocity
People will often avoid asking for a needed favor if they will not be able to repay it.
Reciprocity is the basic currency of social life.
4. Consistency
Once we have made a choice or taken a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment.
Those pressures will cause us to respond in ways that justify our earlier decision.
5. Confirmation Bias
We fool ourselves to keep our thoughts and beliefs consistent with what we have already done or decided.
The drive to be and look consistent makes a strong weapon of social influence, causing us to act in ways that are clearly contrary to our best interests.
6. Perception
People hearing that they are charitable people tend to give much more money to charity.
The mere knowledge that someone viewed them as charitable caused them to make their actions consistent with another’s perception of them.
7. Herd
What those around us think is true of us is key in determining what we ourselves think is true.
Whenever we take a stand visible to others, a drive to maintain and look like a consistent person arises. The more public a stand, the more reluctant we'll be to change it.
8. Loss Aversion
People seem to be more motivated by the thought of losing something than by gaining something of equal value.
Homeowners told how much money they could lose from not installing solar are more likely to install them than those told how much money they could save.
9. Scarcity
Convincing someone of an item’s scarcity will increase its immediate value in their eyes.
Not only do we want the same item more when it is scarce, we want it most when we are in competition for it. The joy is not experiencing a scarce commodity but possessing it.
10. Complexity
Because technology can evolve much faster than we can, our capacity to process information is increasingly inadequate to handle the surfeit of change, choice, and challenge, characteristic of modern life.
We have created our own deficiency by constructing a radically more complex world.
These were my top 10 takeaways on Influence. What do you think?
Let’s follow the conversation in Twitter.
“Influence is the compass, persuasion is the map”.
— Robert Cialdini
Until Friday,
Andres Marin