The Influential You
This blog entry is about you using the influence tactics you learned in this module to affect situations in your everyday life outside of class. Specifically, choose three of the influence tactics (or principles of persuasion) from the learning materials. For each, think of a real-life situation coming up in the next few weeks where the tactic could be useful. Indicate the tactic/situation matches and for each, answer:
- What is your goal in the situation?
- How will the influence tactic help you reach that goal? That is, why this tactic?
- Put some context around it. How will you approach the person you want to influence. Script out a few sentences of how you'll apply the tactic.
1. In the next few weeks, it is likely that I will have to negotiate approval for additional travel for a new project we are working on in my department at work. The project has enabled us to gain some attention throughout OH with many schools and there is an opportunity to present the work that we have done on a national scale. I will need to convince my director that this trip is worthwhile and could land us more return on investment for future opportunities with regards to funders and school partners. The goal is to network with others beyond our direct impact area (Northern KY/Greater Cincinnati) to work on the scale up and dissemination goals we have for this outreach work. The goal in the situation is to make a good case for attending this additional conference to present the work and to fund the trip.
2. I feel that the best influence tactic for this situation will be rational persuasion. Rational persuasion will enable me to utilize the logical arguments that this conference will provide additional networking with new potential partners that we have the chance to bring on board and the funding we could obtain from these connections.
3. I have a bi-weekly meeting with my director and this is a great time for me to bring up this opportunity. I would start by showing her the content of the conference and mention that if we could work with our partner in this new OH project to put together a session proposal that it's likely we would receive great feedback and potentially bring on new partners. I would have the cost figures for the conference travel on hand and show these in comparision to other travel we have taken in the past with the argument that it is actually less than we spend on some with a greater chance to reach to more partners.
Situation 2: Negotiating Meat Sales with a New Restaurant Partner
1. I have a lunch meeting scheduled with a new restaurant that recently opened in Newport that is very interested in partnering with my farm to utilize our products in an effort to bring farm to table fare to their menu. My goal is to get this restaurant to come on board as a new partner with them buying sausage and pork roasts to use on their menu. They mentioned using chops but at the current time the two other restaurants we partner with are really taking the majority of the chops we are able to produce at the current rate. Having a restaurant taking cuts of meat that we are not selling as fast will enable a great return in profit for our meat business and allow us to foster more growth.
2. In this situation I feel that utilizing inspirational appeals will go far for sealing the deal. I have a great case for appealing to folks that by buying locally grown meat it is far better for the environment and at the same time it does a great deed in supporting locally grown products because it gives back to the small farmer versus large corporations. In this, appealing to the notion of the restaurant owner that wants to bring more locally sourced ingredients that are sustainably produced will certainly go far.
3. I would start out the meeting by introducing myself and telling them a little about our farm (I have already sent them links to the farm webpage and farm Facebook page. Next, I would start the discussion of how superior our product is to that which is commercially produced, noting taste, tenderness, and the overall impact my product makes versus large scale production. I would also talk up the benefits of buying local and supporting small farmers such as gaining popularity among consumers that support these efforts, supporting local economies, and finally supporting environmentally sustainable farming.
Situation 3: Developing New Budgets for Outreach Projects at Work
1. In the next few weeks, we are partnering with the Greater Cincinnati STEM Collaborative to develop a grant proposal to fund a new outreach project with greater Cincinnati schools. In this situation, we will need to rely on each others' expertise to develop a proposal that will be approved by the grant funder. In addition to this, I must also convince our partners that our budget will need to be increased beyond what it was for the project in this pilot year. With the additional travel distance and additional teachers/schools served, we must increase the budget for our expenses.
2. This situation would certainly benefit from rational persuasion and inspirational appeals. Mainly because both would allow a solid argument to be made for the needed increase in the budget while at the same time appealing to the fact that the work we do is very worthwhile and making a remarkable impact on the schools we serve. If we used tactics that were pushy or came across as too hard I think that it would be ineffective and strain the relationship with our partners at GCSC.
3. When we have our meeting in two weeks to work on this proposal, it is my goal to bring to the table the feedback I have been receiving from the teachers in this year's pilot project. This will set a precedence that the work has been worthwhile and needs to continue. Next, I plan to discuss the fact that this project has added additional travel and expenses beyond what we expected due to the distances we had to travel to the schools in OH and the extra work we invested in getting this project off the ground. If we plan to expand the project next year, it only makes sense to expand the budget to support that work.
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