Introduction
Leaders often encounter situations in which people are behaving in non-productive or counter-productive ways, and they need to change their behavior to get better outcomes for themselves and for the organization.
Start with behavior cause and effect analysis, then an empathetic assessment. Then make an influence plan as described here.
Note that if the analysis reveals multiple audiences, you need to create a separate influence plan for each audience, so this step may need to be repeated. In each plan, the primary audience is the audience that you intend to influence.
Terminology, translated to business terms:
The term “positive consequences” could be translated as “benefits” or “advantages” or “potential”.
The term “negative consequences” could be translated as “costs” or “disadvantages” or “risks”.
Identify the approach
To influence a subject audience, you need an approach informed by the following elements:
- External conditions that cause the behavior (these will need to be remedied, to the extent that it’s possible)
- Internal physical conditions that cause the behavior (these will need to be remedied, to the extent that it’s possible)
- Internal mental conditions that cause the behavior (these will need to be remedied, to the extent that it’s possible)
- Real positive consequences for the behavior (these will need to be removed or delayed)
- Perceived positive consequences for the behavior (these will need to be minimized or disputed)
- Real negative consequences for the behavior (these will need to be enhanced, expanded, and emphasized)
- Perceived negative consequences for the behavior (these will need to be maximized and emphasized)
- Incongruity between the primary audience’s attitudes, values, principles, and beliefs and their behavior (these will need to be highlighted)
These elements can be categorized into causes of behavior (external and internal conditions), reinforcements of behavior (real and perceived positive consequences), inhibitions (or lack thereof, of real and perceived negative consequences), and self-awareness (where a primary audience may not realize their actions are inconsistent with their beliefs, or that they have not fully considered the negative consequences).
The idea is to remedy the causes of behavior, to remove or minimize the reinforcements, to increase inhibitions, and to develop and increase self-awareness.
The approach can be a combination of these.
External conditions
The external conditions are relative to the primary audience. If you have some power or control over those external conditions, change them. For example, if the external conditions for middle managers are caused by company policies or executive behavior, you can change that. If they are caused by something outside the company, such as the economy or politics, you may at least be able to change how the primary audience perceives and handles those conditions.
Internal physical conditions
Some physical conditions can improve with appropriate health care, and some cannot. If something can be done, but isn’t being done because the primary audience lacks the time or the money to do it, that might be something you can affect.
Internal mental conditions
Some mental conditions can improve with appropriate mental health care, such as therapy or medication. If something can be done, but isn’t being done because the primary audience lacks the time or money to do it, or because of stigma or fear of being ostracized or judged, that might be something you can affect.
Other mental conditions can improve with training and education, such as attitudes, values, principles, and beliefs, and important qualities such as resilience. If something can be done, consider providing the resources to help people become better.
Real positive consequences
Positive consequences reinforce the behavior and they can be categorized in the following ways:
Rewards, also called positive reinforcement, can be removed or minimized or delayed.
Avoidance of negative consequences, also called negative reinforcement, can be prevented or the disrupted such that the negative consequences are delivered which means the behavior isn’t helping, OR the negative consequences can be mitigated so there is no need to avoid them and therefore no need for that behavior, and it will be easier to change. For example, if employees are not reporting ineffective or abusive managers because they fear retaliation (a negative consequence that could be real if it’s happened already, or perceived if it was merely threatened), executives can mitigate that negative consequence by establishing a whistleblower program that protects whistleblowers from retaliation, thereby reducing or eliminating the threat of negative consequences, and creating space for behavior change (reporting ineffective or abusive managers).
When thinking about a primary audience avoiding negative consequences, it could be fear, anger, disgust, anger, shame, embarrassment, frustration, or any other negative emotion or social consequence in addition to physical and financial consequences.
Perceived positive consequences
These are benefits or advantages the primary audience thinks they will receive as a consequence of their behavior. These can be minimized or disputed.
Real negative consequences
If these can be enhanced, expanded, and emphasized, their significance may exceed the positive consequences and lead to behavior change. However, it’s important to note that when attempting to influence an individual, real negative consequences can cause that individual to be harmed physically, mentally, financially, socially, or in other ways and may lead to that individual no longer being part of the organization, thereby making the influence plan pointless. When attempting to influence an individual, it is the threat of real negative consequences that needs to be enhanced, expanded, and emphasized, rather than allowing the consequences to happen, unless they are minor and will not cause irreparable harm. In contrast, when attempting to influence a large group of people, the impact of seeing one person suffer real negative consequences can be very significant for the remaining members of the group. It would be unethical to intentionally cause harm to one person directly or indirectly for the purpose of influencing others. Therefore, in addition to enhancing, expanding, and emphasizing the threat of real negative consequences, if a member of the group experiences those consequences, their impact can be emphasized including the direct and indirect effects.
Perceived negative consequences
These will need to be maximized and emphasized, especially any that would have an immediate impact.
It is also possible the primary audience may not have fully considered the negative consequences. Recall the negative consequences of this behavior for the primary audience and on other people, both direct and indirect. These could be consequences that have already happened or consequences that could happen or will happen in the future. There may be some negative consequences or potential negative consequences that simply don’t outweigh the positive consequences, or there may be potential or time-delayed negative consequences that the primary audience hasn’t fully considered. For example, someone might be aware they could be imprisoned for a criminal act, but might not have fully considered they could lose their job and their family. They might not have thought at all about the negative consequences of their behavior on others.
Incongruity between the primary audience’s attitudes, values, principles, and beliefs and their behavior
These will need to be highlighted. If the primary audience was not self-aware, that newfound self-awareness may be an effective inhibitor of bad behavior.
Evaluate the approach
Thinking about the elements of the approach, when they are implemented the situation will either change for the primary audience, or the primary audience will be presented with an offer to make a change. Either way, the primary audience will be considering new behavior and the same set of factors that led to the bad behavior will affect the new behavior (but now with different consequences or mitigations):
- External conditions that cause the new behavior (possibly with some things removed and other things added, or the promise of change)
- Internal physical conditions that cause the new behavior (possibly somewhat or fully remedied, or the promise of remedy)
- Internal mental conditions that cause the new behavior (possibly somewhat or fully remedied, or the promise of remedy)
- Real positive consequences for the new behavior (possibly new rewards for new behavior, or the promise of rewards)
- Perceived positive consequences for the behavior (possibly new rewards for new behavior, or the promise of rewards)
- Real negative consequences for the new behavior (these need to be removed or minimized)
- Perceived negative consequences for the new behavior (these need to be removed or minimized)
- Incongruity between the primary audience’s attitudes, values, principles, and beliefs and their behavior (the new behavior should be congruent)
The primary audience will then evaluate the rewards against the risks. The degree to which the primary audience is likely to change behavior is directly related to the relationship between these elements:
- Very likely to change (moderate to high reward, low risk, consistent with values and beliefs)
- Likely to change (moderate to high reward, low to moderate risk, consistent with values and beliefs)
- Somewhat likely to change (low to moderate reward, low to moderate risk, mostly consistent with values and beliefs)
- Unlikely to change (low to moderate reward, moderate to high risk, somewhat consistent with values and beliefs)
Persuasive Argument
The argument is the conceptual framework for persuading the primary audience to change their behavior.
The main argument is the reason the primary audience should behave a particular way. When the primary audience is engaged in the desired behavior, that would be a change from what they are currently doing. It’s important that main argument is not be about the change itself. The main argument should be about the desired behavior. When the primary audience is engaged in the desired behavior, the change will happen.
The main argument articulates what action is desired, how it benefits the primary audience, and how it satisfies the primary audience’s needs. This should be expressed in one or two sentences.
A format for the main argument can be “{desired behavior} will result in {benefit} and {satisfied need}”. For example, “Immediately reporting customer complaints will allow the product team to make changes quickly and will earn you recognition as being an important team player.”
A supporting argument is used to provide facts or evidence, address causes and effects, and talk about the primary audience’s needs. A supporting argument increases the primary audience’s motivation to accept the main argument by providing reasons to believe and support the main argument.
Supporting arguments are more effective when using facts and specific examples. The consequences identified earlier are usually a good source of supporting arguments. For example, if you need employees to wear their protective equipment at all times when they are on the factory floor, an main argument might be that it’s required by safety regulations, and a supporting argument might be that 95% of injuries last year were due to people not wearing their protective equipment and were preventable.
Appeal
An appeal is the reason the primary audience should listen to and accept the argument.
Here are some persuasive appeals, and there may be others:
Authority and legitimacy
An appeal to authority and legitimacy uses law, tradition, loyalty, expertise, or popular support.
An appeal to laws or rules can work if the primary audience recognizes the authority behind those laws or rules. For example, in the United States, an appeal to the freedom of speech generally relies on the authority of the Constitution an by extension popular support of the Constitution, while an appeal to the laws against defamation relies on the authority of the federal or state government that enacted the law.
An appeal to reverence can work if the primary audience has a deep respect for someone, such as a political leader, decorated soldier, religious leader, historical figure, or athlete.
An appeal to tradition can work if the primary audience likes to continue doing things the way they’ve been done before.
An appeal to loyalty to a specific cause can work if the primary audience values loyalty to that cause, such as family, friends, community, or country.
An appeal to expertise can work if the primary audience recognizes the expertise of someone who is speaking to them or being quoted or cited.
An appeal to morality can work if the behavior can be associated with something good or bad. For example, “drinking alcohol at work is wrong” or “letting a coworker drive tired is wrong” or “taking from the tip jar is wrong”.
An appeal that is closely associated with highly valued concepts or beliefs and their associated emotions may be convincing without being supported by fact or reason. The concepts of patriotism, love, peace, freedom, and honor typically don’t need explanation themselves and can be associated with a desired behavior. For example, the military might use the concepts of patriotism, freedom, and honor to encourage enlistment, and a community group might use the concepts of love and peace to encourage attendance.
Inevitability
An appeal to inevitability uses the certainty of an outcome (either positive or negative).
The primary audience must either have sufficient proof that the outcome will occur, or must have a preexisting belief in it.
An appeal towards a positive outcome can work if the primary audience has seen some evidence that it’s coming, or believes in destiny.
An appeal away from a negative outcome can work if the audience fears it and is certain it will happen if they don’t change their behavior. For example, if you drive a vehicle while intoxicated you could crash and die.
Acceptance
An appeal to acceptance uses the natural inclination to want to be part of a group. In psychology this is called the “in group”.
An appeal towards acceptance can work if the primary audience believes that doing the desired behavior will cause them to maintain or gain acceptance, or that not doing the desired behavior will cause them to be ostracized, and that the identified group is important to them for acceptance.
People prefer to say yes and to comply with the requests of those they like. This might be linked to a hope that by being agreeable, the people they like will in turn like them, which is a kind of acceptance.
Conformity and social proof
An appeal to conformity uses the natural inclination to belong or conform to group standards. Peer pressure is an example of the conformity appeal.
An appeal to conformity can work if the primary audience feels strongly about who they would be conforming with.
Social proof is the technique of giving evidence of other people doing the behavior and achieving positive outcomes.
Nostalgia
An appeal to nostalgia uses the tendency to remember the events or circumstances of the past in a good light, such as “the good old days”, and suppress the negative feelings about it.
An appeal to nostalgia can work if some aspect of the past is highlighted and linked to the desired behavior, such that doing the desired behavior will help the primary audience return to those times.
Exclusivity and scarcity
People place greater value on things that are rare or more difficult to acquire. By obtaining those things to the exclusion of others, people may feel like they have a higher social status, possibly linked to thinking of themselves as valued more or privileged more than others.
An appeal to exclusivity and scarcity can work for a primary audience who is interested in higher social status and in gaining exclusive privileges.
Reciprocity
When someone grants a favor, whether invited or uninvited, people typically experience a need to repay that favor.
An appeal to reciprocity reminds the primary audience that they have received a favor and stirs up the need to repay it by engaging in the desired behavior.
Consistency and integrity
The desire for consistency is a prominent motivator of behavior. People want to look and be consistent, and avoid appearing inconsistent to others.
Inconsistent behavior creates a tension in the mind that people want to avoid, or if they feel it they want to resolve it, so they can feel good about themselves. Often the tension arises from saying or doing things that are inconsistent with a person’s values and beliefs.
An appeal to consistency and integrity can work when the primary audience has values and beliefs that align with the desired behavior, especially if not engaging in the desired behavior would be inconsistent with those values and beliefs. Or, if the desired behavior is to simply stop doing things that are harmful, an audience can be reminded that doing those things is inconsistent with their values and beliefs, so stopping the undesirable behavior would be consistent with their values and beliefs.
Self-interest
An appeal to self-interest uses the natural tendency to seek gains and avoid losses. It can directly address the direct and indirect positive consequences of engaging in the desired behavior, and the direct and indirect negative consequences of not engaging in the desired behavior, for things that affect the primary audience itself (as opposed to affecting others).
Techniques
A technique is a specific method of presenting information.
Message
The message is one or two sentences that is the essence of what you need to communicate to the primary audience.
If you have a persuasive argument for the primary audience about changing behavior, the message carries that argument. Keep it simple.
Sometimes it is delivered plainly, spoken face-to-face, and sometimes it is delivered as part of a finished product such as an email or letter.
Planned Actions
Sometimes you can influence someone just by talking or delivering a message. Other times, you need to take action to either set the stage for a conversation, or to change the conditions that affect the behavior.
For example, if you want employees to save for their retirement in a company 401(k) plan and you don’t already have one, one of the actions you can do is to set up the plan. Your overall plan might be to talk about retirement, take action to set up the plan, and then talk about enrolling in that plan.
Each planned action should contribute to either changing the conditions or to a persuasive argument that will be part of your message.
Accessibility
You need a way to reach the primary audience. This could be directly or indirectly.
Directly means you can communicate with the primary audience directly, like a meeting or an organizational announcement or an ad in a magazine. Indirectly means you can communicate with a secondary audience that can deliver the message to the primary audience, for example through their managers.
Media
The choice of media will be constrained by the accessibility of your primary audience.
If your primary audience is all employees, and all of them have email, you could choose email as the medium and send out a message to everyone (either individually or as a group). If employees aren’t checking email all the time, for example if they are in retail or manufacturing, you may have identified their managers as a secondary audience and the email might be to the managers, who will then be expected to have face to face meetings with the employees.
If your plan involves a secondary audience, make sure it includes both the medium you will use to deliver the message to the secondary audience, and the medium the secondary audience will use to deliver the message to the primary audience.
Execution
Put your plan into action. Develop the final product. If you have any planned actions, make them happen. Then deliver the message.
Measurement
You need a way to measure if your influence plan is having the intended effect. If the entire effort started because of poor performance on something you’re already measuring, you could expect to see improvement on that item you were already measuring. However, you might still benefit from exploring how to measure the change in behavior another way, because that might reveal a new performance indicator that you didn’t have before.