360 Degrees of Influence: Get Everyone to Follow Your Lead on Your Way to the Top

CHAPTER 6Setting the Stage: Strategically Influencing People’s Decisions

Now that you’ve got all of your decision making figured out, how do you go about influencing the decisions of others? It would be nice if the best way were by basing arguments on solid evidence that met all the central demands of the issue or problem at hand. Yes, it would be nice to tell you that reason and evidence matter more than anything—but you’ve probably figured out that that would be untrue.

Reason and evidence do matter a great deal and having them on your side via diligent research and preparation can make influencing easier. But if you don’t consider all of the other variables at play in the decision-making process, you are likely to be pushed aside in favor ...