Six weapons of influence ( First 2 of 6)

Once you get used to doing nothing, you find that there is no energy left to become successful - Dr V V Rao

While endeavoring to execute our dream effectively and efficiently, the six weapons of influence understanding and practicing will fetch you to new heights. This week I will discuss about Social Proof and Reciprocation hereunder can be leveraged in our day to day life: [Michael Porter]

Principle #1: Reciprocation:

Reciprocation recognizes that people feel indebted to those who do something for them or give them a gift. All of us are taught we should find some way to repay others for what they do for us. You probably already use this principle, but it is much stronger than you suspect. 

You can build a sense of indebtedness in someone by delivering a number of uninvited ‘first favors’ over time. For example, if a colleague helps you when you are busy with an important health issue, you might feel obliged to support her ideas for improving their family. You might decide to buy more from a supplier if they have offered you an aggressive discount. Or, you might give money to a charity fundraiser who has given you a flower in the street. For example, according to the American Disabled Veterans organization, mailing out a simple appeal for donations produces an 18% success rate; but, enclosing a small gift in the form of personalized address labels boosts the success rate to 35%.

Principle #2: Social proof

When people are uncertain about a course of action they tend to look to those around them to guide their decisions and actions. They especially want to know what everyone else is doing – especially their peers. Once people have made a choice or taken a stand, they are under both internal and external pressure to behave consistently with that commitment. When you can get someone to commit verbally to an action, the chances go up sharply that they will actually do it.

For example, before starting your next meeting, ask each person to commit to following the posted agenda. Then, if anyone goes off on a tangent, just ask them to explain how it fits the agenda. If they cannot, they will quickly fall back in line. One more example, we are more likely to work late if others in our team are doing the same, put a tip in a jar if it already contains money, or eat in a restaurant if it is busy. 

Here, we are assuming that if lots of other people are doing something, then it must be OK. Mass approach is the belief for a quality and sustainability. One researcher went door to door collecting for charity and carrying a list of others in the area who had already contributed. The longer the list, the more contributions it produced. We are particularly susceptible to this principle when we are feeling uncertain, and we are even more likely to be influenced if the people we see seem to be familiar to us. That is why commercial advertisements often leverage moms, not celebrities, to advertise household products.