It’s Time to Wield Your Social Influence
From the Voices on Project Management Blog
by Cameron McGaughy,
Lynda Bourne, Kevin Korterud, Peter Tarhanidis, Conrado Morlan, Jen Skrabak, Mario Trentim, Christian Bisson, Yasmina Khelifi, Sree Rao, Soma Bhattacharya, Emily Luijbregts, David Wakeman, Ramiro Rodrigues, Wanda Curlee, Lenka Pincot, cyndee miller, Jorge Martin Valdes Garciatorres, Marat Oyvetsky
Voices on Project Management offers insights, tips, advice and personal stories from project managers in different regions and industries. The goal is to get you thinking, and spark a discussion. So, if you read something that you agree with--or even disagree with--leave a comment.
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Date
by Cyndee Miller
We’ve all been there. You’re sitting in a meeting. Someone throws out an idea. It’s weak. Actually, it kinda stinks. Yet somehow, it spreads like wildfire when others—perhaps you—had ideas that were objectively better.
Even out of the context of conference rooms, the phenomenon begs some fundamental questions: Why do people dress the way they do, buy the cars they do, even like the music they do? The answers may lie less in the products themselves and more with the context surrounding them, according to Jonah Berger, PhD, author of Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces That Shape Behavior.
Say you’re buying a car. “You’re more likely to buy a car if it’s on sale or if you need a new one. That’s obvious,” Dr. Berger said in his day two keynote as PMO Symposium®. “But if your neighbor bought a new car, you’re also 8 percent more likely to buy one.”
That right there is what he dubs social influence. It isn’t random. It’s not luck or chance, he said. It’s a powerful tool—but only if it’s done right.
Let’s go back to that meeting, for example. It doesn’t have to go down like that. If you’re looking to shape group decisions, Dr. Berger would prescribe speaking first and then building consensus by making it visible.
He also recommends taking the Goldilocks approach. “If it’s too different, people don’t want to adopt it. If it’s too similar, people don’t want to change.” The sweet spot? “If you can be optimally distinct, you’ll be more likely to change behavior,” Dr. Berger said.
This motivation business is nuanced stuff.
Say you’ve got a team that’s struggling. It’s natural to wonder why it can’t be more like that other team, the one that’s killing it. Just keep that comparison to yourself. Being down one point at the half in a basketball game, for example, can give a team just the kick in the @#$% it needs.
Indeed, Dr. Berger says teams down one point at halftime are actually favored to win games. But if a team’s down 15? Forget about it.
The idea is to harness proximal peers. “If you’re too far behind, you’re going to be demotivated,” Dr. Berger says. So if there are eight divisions within the PMO, don’t compare the bottom-performing unit to the top one.
And I bet you thought social influence was just for celebs and politicians. Maybe it’s time to try it out in the real world.
Posted
by
cyndee miller
on: November 09, 2016 11:41 AM |
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Comments (4)
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Hi there Cyndee! Great article!
Very useful insight as PMs not also manage projects, they manage people as well
Ronan O Rourke
Retired Executive Manager, Water & Drainage Operations| Retired
Bray, Ireland
Thanks for this article. I am interested in the motivation needed when the team 'is one point behind' at half time. Sometimes I think what matters is to motivate the team no matter how far behind at half time. For example, telling the team that the other team managed to score well in the first half and we can do that in the second. Is that motivation or is it manipulation (or is it brain washing)? The social influence of everything we do is interesting.It is possibly overlooked and could be included as a 'soft skill' in most businesses
quite a convicing reason why social influence has to be strong
Influencing is an important tool to motivate by others or in comparison to other.
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