How to Maximize Productivity Through Influence

It’s already Thursday again! This edition of my LinkedIn newsletter has advice from the master of influence, Robert Cialdini! As always, this additionally serves as a last minute reminder of my live interviews for my Newsweek show, Better, at 12 pm EDT/9 am PT/5 pm GMT. This week, I’ll be talking with the host of Entrepreneurs on Fire, John Lee Dumas! Join us for a conversation about how to find uncommon success, and chime in on the discussion as we take questions live from the audience! For a calendar reminder about today’s interview, click here.

Don’t worry if you can’t make today’s interview, because we always make a replay available! It’s uploaded to my YouTube page. If you’d like to be notified when the newest episode is available, subscribe to my channel and you’ll receive a notification.

As an author, I am often asked about my favorite books. Invariably, Robert Cialdini’s Influence comes up at the top of the list. His foundational book, which has sold more than five million copies worldwide, is as pertinent now as it was when it was originally released over thirty-five years ago. It has also been expanded and includes new insights into the many ways the world has evolved. Robert shared fantastic insights into the human psyche. The following are a few moments from our conversation on influence, and if you’d like to hear more, and the replay is available in its entirety here.

The power of unity:

“There's a seventh principle [of influence] that we call unity. It's the ability of a communicator to convince an audience that they are one of them. Not just in preferences, styles, or tastes, but has a common membership in a group that they use to define and identify themselves with. I'll give you a quick example of what I mean and how powerful it can be. There was a study done on a college campus. Researchers took a college-aged young woman, had her stand in a very heavily trafficked portion of campus, and asked students passing by to contribute to this good cause. She was getting some donations, but if she added one sentence, she more than doubled the contributions she got. The sentence was, ‘I'm a student here too.’ In other words, I'm one of you. I'm of you. It's not just ‘I'm similar to you in the category of student.’ No, that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about categories that people use to identify themselves with if you were asked, ‘So who are you? What are you?’ The good cause wasn't enough. The similarity of the age of this young woman wasn't enough. She had to say, ‘I'm of you,’ and that changed everything.”

The importance of social proof:

“The principle of social proof says that one way we can reduce our uncertainty about whether we should step forward and make ourselves available to a product, service, or partner with somebody is to look at what our peers are doing. What are the people around us doing in this space? And now because of the internet, we have access to throngs of individuals that we would never have had access to in terms of their opinions, their experiences, and ratings that are available there. That has made the principle of social proof come to the surface in terms of how frequently we can access it. I saw an article that said people who consistently purchase and shop online, 98% of them first check product reviews before they buy it. 98%. We can't get 98% of the people in the world to believe that the Earth is round, but we get 98% piling into this particular way to decide whether or not to be influenced. So social proof, that's the [form of influence] that's gotten the most traction since online platforms have become available to us.”

Subconsciously influencing ourselves:

“There's a lovely study that was done in Montreal. It had to do with a team of people who were making calls from a university there, trying to get alumni to contribute to the university's general fund. They were given a piece of paper that had the tips on it that they should be sure to use when they engaged on a phone call. For half of them, the piece of paper was blank except for the tips. The other half had a picture of a runner winning a race behind the tips. Those people collected 60% more funds because what was prominent in consciousness while they were doing this, was an image of high performance, achievement, and success. That drove them to be more successful in their exchanges with the people on the phone. Now here's the key though for ourselves - put a picture of a runner winning a race on your screen as you're doing something that requires a lot of drive and energy and a focus on success. Here's the best part of it. These researchers did a follow on study, where they looked at where success didn't mean energy and activity and drive but meant the opposite: stepping back and being contemplative, thoughtful, pensive, and thinking hard about a problem. They gave people difficult problems to solve, business problems to solve within a certain amount of time. Half of them had a picture of Rodin's The Thinker on it, where thinking was now high in consciousness as a result. Those who got The Thinker solved 48% more problems. We can do this to ourselves. We can structure our environments in such a way that we will be consistent with a particular kind of image or value that has been raised to our consciousness, and that produces better outcomes for us as a result.” 

That’s it for this week’s newsletter - I hope to see you later today for the interview with John Lee Dumas! You can also plan ahead to join me next week, when I’ll talk with the author of To Be Honest, Ron Carucci, on creating an ethical culture at work. For a calendar reminder, click here.

On a final note, if you’re looking to keep tabs on my side project of mastering latte art, follow my Instagram page, which also features my two feline confidantes, Phillip and Heath.

Wishing you health and success - 

Dorie