The Involvement Plan

An involvement plan is the part of the social plan that describes how you want others to help you. This is where the heart conversation of transformation becomes important. Often we think that our plan should be supported because it is rational or logical. But research shows that people sometimes do not necessarily make rational decisions. In their famous research, Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky describe the biases and heuristics that guide a lot of decision making.⁴ For example, while we would like to think people make rational, calculating decisions, Kahneman and Tversky found that people take cognitive, or mental, shortcuts when making decisions. While we will not dive into the research on biases and heuristics, knowing that there are biases out there opens the door for smart, strategic leaders to persuade others to get what they want. Robert Cialdini, an expert on persuasion, suggests that mastering the art and science of persuasion is an important skill for a leader.⁵ If leaders want people to implement their plan, then leaders will have to persuade them as to why their plan should be implemented. Now by persuasion we are not suggesting trickery, manipulation, or any unethical techniques. But quite a bit of research suggests that understanding how influence and persuasion work will help leaders become more successful in getting support for their projects.⁶

The use of persuasion as a technique to gain support for an idea is not new. In the 1950s, Solomon Asch created a series of studies where individuals were persuaded to say that what was actually the shortest line in a group of three lines was the longest line.⁷ In the 1960s, Stanley Milgram created a series of studies where individuals were persuaded to provide (what they thought were) electric shocks to other individuals who were giving wrong answers to a question.⁸ Today scholars have extended the research on influence by identifying a number of successful influence strategies. For example, the “that’s not all” technique is when you offer something and then immediately offer the same thing but with more benefits or a lower price.⁹ The “disrupt then reframe” strategy is when you say something in a strange way, such as “the price is 200 pennies,” and then reframe how it is said, such as “that’s $2.”¹⁰ The “foot in the door” strategy is where you make a small request immediately followed by a larger request.¹¹

Here, however, we want to discuss six general persuasion strategies that we think you can use to get others involved in your transformational plan.¹²

Affinity

In general, people will support you if they like you. But considering the people on your list, how do you get these individuals to like you? One way is to search for similarities between you and the other individuals. Another way is to find something to compliment the other people about. So imagine there is a person on your list who you know is in the negative column. It could be the case that you don’t need their support, as their power base is so limited that they are not a threat to your plans. But if that isn’t true, then you will need their support, and you have to find a way to turn their negative view into a positive one. We suggest you try to find something that you have in common with that person. It does not have to be a big similarity. Maybe your kids go to the same school, are in the same grade, or like the same hockey team. This works because if this person sees that you are similar to him, it then becomes easy for him to like you, given you both share something you might enjoy. The second action is to offer genuine praise. Similar to finding similarities, it does not matter the size of the praise but only that it is genuine. You can say things like, “That is a nice tie,” “It was really helpful that you stayed late to work on this project,” and, “I really like how you keep your desk clean; it shows professionalism in your work.” In coaching circles, this is often referred to as a praise sandwich; people are more likely to accept feedback or criticism if it is sandwiched between two praise statements: For example, I could use this technique while coaching my son’s basketball team. I would first say something positive: “You are playing really good defense.” Then I would add the instruction or critique: “Try not to leave your feet when your opponent head fakes.” Then I would end with something positive: “I am glad you are hustling for rebounds.” You can do the same thing at work: “I can see you are dedicated to your job; I really need you to focus a bit more on the details of your memos, but I am very appreciative of the extra time you are putting in at the office.” For gaining support on your project, you can use a similar praise sandwich.

Reciprocity

Reciprocity means that for whatever you want from someone, you have to give something similar. Try this experiment: Go up to the first person you see and say something like, “Nice shirt!” Hopefully the person you notice will actually have on a nice shirt. We would imagine one of two things will happen. Either the individual will reply by saying you also are wearing something nice, or they will provide a general thank-you. Saying something nice in return is evidence of reciprocity at its strongest. However, simply saying thank you still provides some evidence of this persuasion mechanism. In this case, the old maxim is true: Better to give than to receive. At work, this concept could translate into helping your colleagues out on a project of interest to them before you ask for their help with your project. A friend of ours used to call this “bread on the water.” Imagine a fisherman standing in his boat, trying to fish. He could spend all his time with his fishing pole trying to catch fish. What my friend suggests is that the fisherman should put some bread on the water, as the fish will come up to eat the bread. If you put enough bread on the water, eventually the fish will get accustomed to coming back to the spot where the bread is, and then you will have more then enough fish to catch. Basically, you never know when you will need someone’s help in the future, so it is always a good thing to help others whenever you can.

Social Proof

People are willing to support your project when they know other people who are similar to them have also supported your project. Have you ever wondered why after you purchase something (usually a big-ticket item like a car) you tend to see more of it around? This is because you are subconsciously worried you made a bad decision. Maybe you think the car you purchased is a lemon, or you feel stupid because you think you might have paid too much. But as soon as you drive off the lot, it seems like everybody has that same car. This is social proof. You are looking for ways to justify your purchase, and seeing others with the same item has helped in your justification. The same process can work for you as a leader. Jack and Jill are on your list and Jack has already supported your project. If Jill knew that Jack supported your project, Jill is more likely to support it, too. Jill is even more likely to support the project if she is friends with Jack.

Consistency

People are likely to follow up with actions that are consistent with prior behavior. This is where techniques such as the “foot in the door” and “that’s not all” help in persuasion efforts. Often leaders think they need total buy-in to a project from the very beginning. What this technique suggests is that you can start off with minimal support, as that little support will grow over time. There are three ways to make initial support grow: The first is to make the support or commitment to the plan active and not passive. In the vision chapter (chapter 4), we talked about having people within the organization imagine themselves in the vision using their five senses. This is an active exercise where people have to give voice. This is a much more active process than if the leader handed out a description of the vision on a sheet of paper and then did all the work of explaining it. Having colleagues and subordinates in the room nodding their heads is not nearly as effective in gaining their support as having them speak about the positives of the project. The second way you can grow support is to have those you want support from make their commitment to the project publicly. Here, getting people to stand up in front of a group and say how they see the vision and why they see the vision as a positive direction for the organization will foster support for the plan. The last way is by making the support voluntary. If people feel forced or compelled to support the plan, they will only work because of the threat and not because they think the plan is a good one. Thus it is better to receive a little support voluntarily, actively, and publicly than to receive a lot of support by coercion in private.

In our work as consultants, we used to do an exercise called “stand up for energy.” Typically, the project would be for individuals in an organization to create an individual work plan. After the participants developed their parts, we would ask for volunteers to come to the front of the room and share their plan. The rule for sharing, however, was for the participant to only share what he was truly committed to as opposed to reading everything on his list. The exercise was over for each individual when the other people in the room would voice their support of the colleague by standing up. This exercise caused two things to happen: First, the people standing up were more willing, when they went back to work, to help out their colleagues, as they had demonstrated their support by standing up. Second, the person speaking about her project was more likely to actually execute the project because she had communicated it out loud.

Authority

By authority, we do not mean the use of positional power. Rather, what we mean is that people will willingly follow the advice of someone else if they think the other person is some type of expert or authority on the situation. Thus if you want others to support your plan, you can communicate why you think the plan is best. Perhaps you could talk about a course that you took that helped you create this plan, or you could share details of a meeting that you had with your boss (or boss’s boss) that provided insights into the plan. This will help those on your list see that you might actually know what you are talking about and be more willing to support your plan.

Scarcity

Scarcity suggests that demonstrating what might happen if the project is not implemented is more effective in getting support than describing the benefits of implementing the plan. We will talk more about this principle in the next chapter when we describe the burning platform.