Beth Curl (Hyproformance) & Stella Collins (Stellar Learning)

We open with Beth and Stella encouraging us to reflect on how important influencing is in our roles.

Stella recommends Robert Cialdini’s, book ‘Influencing‘ as a great book, and we explore some of the principles:

1. Reciprocation – If somebody does something for us, we feel compelled to do something in return
2. Liking – We’re more likely to say yes to requests from people we like
3. Authority – We don’t always use the authority that we actually have
4. Social proof – we determine what is correct by finding out what other people think is correct.
5. Commitment and Consistency – when we make a choice and take a stand, we need to behave in line with that commitment and do so consistently.
6. Scarcity – opportunities seem more valuable to us when they are scarce.

We’re now into some more Brain-Friendly learning as we split into 6 groups, go in different parts of the room, and explore one of the principles in more detail. We’re encouraged to look at where we’ve seen the principle used, and how we can use it in our organisation.

Each of the six groups then shares their reflections with the whole group.

My own reflection is that this style of learning is much more interesting, engaging, and sticky than the ‘Powerpoint’ approach (and that this is something that Stella and Beth also want to illustrate in a very engaging way).

(This blog post was live-blogged during the session. I’ve sone my best to capture, in an unbiased way, some of the key points made by the speaker.)