Thursday, April 19, 2012

Ask Two Irrational Questions To Motivate People

Motivation and influence is a one of the key functions of managers in companies. When executing new initiatives, if employees are not convinced to follow you in the direction your are proposing, efforts are most likely to fail.

It has been proven over the years that both logic and emotion are big components of motivation and influence.  Suppose you have a situation where the logic has been explained, and people have bought in emotionally.  What other things can you do if your team is stalling?

Some answers are provided by behavioral science, and authors like Dr. Cialdini have proposed useful ideas for influencing people that have been tested with some success.

Dr. Pantalon's ideas to influence are based on asking people two irrational questions, to induce people to take action:
  • How ready are you to, on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 means not ready at all and 10 means totally ready? 
  • If the person picks a number higher than 2, ask, “Why didn’t you pick a lower (yes, lower) number?
Confused?  Read the complete post by Dan Pink.   

If your are interested in Dr. Pantalon's book, it is called Instant Influence.

Sometimes, maintaining the status quo is not an option anymore, so if asking irrational ideas helps you change it, go for it.

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