Author: Robert B. Cialdini
The author’s two core words in this book are influencing and persuading. And persuasion and influence also happen in the opening sentence of the first chapter of the book alone: “Once, like a sort of secret agent, I infiltrated trainings of all kinds of professions specializing in getting us to say ‘yes'” and admit it, who doesn’t make the connection between “secret agent” and “persuasion” and “exciting”? With just that, the author convinces the reader, in my opinion, to read through at a rapid pace.
But even after reading this book, as with many others, you’re not an expert, ‘practice makes perfect’ also in this story. But then the reader is lucky: the book is written so captivatingly that you immediately feel like getting to work with it and experimenting with it, because admit it, who doesn’t want to masterfully persuade and manipulate others in their environment?
To play along, I will tell what I took away from it, and what I find useful for its use in risk management awareness work.
One thing that stuck with me after reading the book comes in chapter 2: privileged moments. The goal here is to exploit the moment, which is special due to events in the environment, to your advantage. An example of this for many organizations is the terrorist attacks of March 22, 2016. That was the perfect moment to develop a strong crisis management team and risk management and BCM operation par excellence.
The third chapter focuses on the importance of attention and focus: to get a good evaluation, you should not only focus on the good qualities, but mainly focus on YOUR product. Because what has the focus is important, even if there are far better products. That focus returns as a topic in the next chapter, where risk analysis is used as a means to focus management on risks. In my opinion, the risk register in the form of a report is more suitable, but it helps to ensure that management does not steer the organization blindly.
A few chapters later, there is another tidbit that helps me raise awareness: the phenomenon of asking for advice from employees of the organization, which can be done individually or in a working group, for example. Pay attention here. Do not ask for their opinion on security and safety (because that creates a situation of their opinion versus yours, and thus the wall us-them) but ask for their advice and definitely use the word ‘advice’ itself. So, don’t ask ‘what do you think’ or something like that because then the conversation ends without real cooperation. Once you have let them give their advice, ask them to put it in an email. According to psychological experiments, an action, which can be any action in addition to orally giving that advice, leads to a longer-lasting commitment. It is important, however, that the advice is demonstrably taken to heart. This gives an extra boost, turning the employee into an “accomplice.”
Lastly, the phenomenon of “location-based memories” remains relevant. For example, doctors are very difficult people. When asked to wash their hands between every two patients in the 19th century, to reduce infections, many did not do it. However, placing a reminder at the location of patient treatment made them do this action more often. Simply because they were reminded. In the right place. I suspect that posters can be more effective if they are placed in the right places. In the workplace rather than in the lobby or the company restaurant.
The book is the author’s second book on persuasion. His first book on this subject was titled “Influence.”