(Another in my series of write-ups about this year's Arts Marketing Association Conference which took place here in Brum last week.)
Oooh, this seminar sounds lofty! (And, errrr, sorry but maybe a bit creepy?*) I chose this session as I decided it’d be useful to go to a more generalised talk, rather than something very specifically geared towards arts marketing. Spoiler: it was a good choice.
[My thoughts are bold and in square brackets.]
Influencing upwards
Mark Wright – Director, People Create
– Mark runs People Create and introduced himself as something of a leadership teacher and troubleshooter; often working with people not necessarily open to learning from him. He works for mega corporates, so a room full of arts marketers seemed quite nice. He used to be a sculptor [!]
– People are getting more physically isolated from each other, while at the same time becoming more socially connected through the internet etc. – which makes for a strange new dynamic.
– According to a quick poll using the AMA app, for people in the room, the biggest barrier to influencing upwards (i.e. immediate bosses or higher-ups in the organisation) was that people find it difficult to formulate their thoughts quickly enough. [It’s a shame this wasn’t expanded upon – it might’ve been useful for lots of folks.]
The context for influence
- Be relevant [Obvious but worth reiterating]
- Be exceptional
- Be unexpected [A bit of a crossover with ‘exceptional’ – something exceptional is by its very nature unexpected isn't it, as it's not the norm?]
- Be visible [Don’t hide your achievements – be proud and take credit for them]
– Mark used the example of a Christmas gift he sent in the early days of his business. Large corporates would send pricey bottles of wine to his clients as a ‘thank you’ for their custom but there was no chance he could do this – it would just be way too expensive. Not just too expensive; he very simply couldn’t afford it. So, he made fudge [or was it cookies?] and got his kids to write personal notes to each client, supplier, associate etc. Awwwww! The gift had a great reaction – and as Christmas approached the following year, people started asking if he’d be doing the same again as they’d loved it last time [They remembered! So he had to make it again …]
Drivers for influence
- Reciprocity [You scratch my back …] – it’s personal, intimate, characterful, and it takes effort. This creates a predisposition towards, and sense of, obligation.
- Commitment – stick with your strategy and build it slowly; there’s no need to jump to an end goal right away.
- Belonging – make people feel it’s okay to take a certain route/decision as others are doing it too.
- Liking – if people like you, influencing them will be much easier. People decide with emotion, then rationalise with logic.
- Authority – if you seem in charge, you will instantly be more likely to influence others. Apparently tall extroverts are perceived to be more intelligent. [So a quiet 5’2-and-a-half” person would have to work extra-hard to appear authoritative? Rats!]
- Scarcity – SELLING FAST! LAST TICKETS REMAINING! etc. You know the deal. A deadline is a driver for influencing – due to fear of competition/missing out.
- Credibility – if folks trust you, of course they’re more likely to take what you have to say on board. Check out the ‘trust equation’:
The more credible someone finds you, the more reliable they know you to be, and the more ‘intimate’ you are with them – meaning human-like in this context, nothing untoward – the more trust they’ll have in you. But only if you’re not super-selfish.
If it’s all about you-you-you and what you’re getting out of it, that’ll cut into people’s trust in a *big* way.
Types of influence
- PUSHING INFLUENCES
Persuading – using logic, data, case studies etc. as proof of what you are explaining. Dismantling the arguments of others.
Asserting – offering rewards, and suggesting negative consequences of not taking action. - PULLING INFLUENCES
Bridging – engaging in conversation and finding common ground. Being empathetic, vulnerable and questioning.
Attracting – sharing a vision and aspirations which describe ideal outcomes. Use of metaphors and stories.
People generally tend to favour one of the above types of influence over the others, but using a mix is most effective – different people respond best to different types of influence. So, cover your bases.
[Which one are you? I’m most certainly a persuading type – I love me a bit of factual evidence! I wonder if that makes me predisposed to being more influenced by others’ persuading?]
– Mark asked us all to create new roles for ourselves within our organisations; we should all aim to become Direktor Grundsatzfragen. It’s a German term which roughly translates as Director of Fundamental Questions. Ask the stuff no one else is asking. [Cue slide featuring an image of an elderly gent with long grey hair and a wise-looking beard. NOTE: Funny pics of old guys get the laughs.]
– He points to a Brazilian psychologist [if I’ve found the right guy, he’s actually Chilean] Marcial Losada’s research which, very quickly explained, shows that high performance teams and individuals are the ones who ask the most questions. Good questions – i.e. open questions – which actually tease-out information. Frequent good questioning leads to improved performance/results.
[I’ve found some further reading about Losada’s project with Barbara Frederickson, aiming to find a mathematical formula for happiness. Zoiks!]
– Okay, so now we were running late. Mark put up a slide saying Apter’s Motivational States but had no time to talk about it, so I wrote it down. [I've subsequently found a link about it: http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Reversal_theory – I can see why we skipped past it; that stuff is going to take some explaining!]
– To sum-up: ask good (open) questions, use different types of influence, be relevant, exceptional, unexpected and take credit where credit’s due. Okay!
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*My fears of a slick snake-oil salesman were unfounded; he seems like a nice guy. Or at least he influenced me to think he was! I even forgave him the fulsome use of clipart …
Having live-polling of the audience via the Guidebook app didn’t work brilliantly smoothly (we were pretty rushed, so the results weren’t discussed) but as an idea to get folks involved, I like it.
Perhaps because this was all new stuff to me, and/or because to was generalised rather than arts-marketing specific, I felt like I got quite a lot of useful, practical stuff from it.
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Up next: (Very brief) Keynote notes on a stupid f***ing lobby experience and an expensive yet loyally-frequently-attended living museum …
In the meantime, you might find my write-ups from the AMA Conference 2013 useful:
David Carlin, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
Kim Mitchell, MoMA
Owen Hughes, Wolff Olins
