How to Influence Innovation Better [Yes! And. Blog # 139]

How might you influence to innovate? “If you are going to influence the future you have to master four ways of perceiving things: as they were; as they are; as they might become; as they ought to be.” Dee Hock. Founder of the Visa organisation. Recently I was bag packing in a supermarket with a group of young Scouts to raise funds for the Scout troop. When I first asked people if we could help pack their bags, I was often refused and I learned quickly that it was best to have the children ask them. It seems the sight and sound of a seven year old with a cherubic face melts the heart and influences most shoppers to accept. Influence is as relevant to implementing innovations as it is to fundraising. I read One From Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization by Dee Hock, the founder of the innovative Visa organisation, in which he describes its conception, the issues he had and how he overcame them. It struck me how well Hock influenced people when he had little or no authority. In their book, The Leader’s Guide to Influence, Mike Brent and Fiona Dent provide a very useful model on two axes which I summarise here (see illustration above): On the axis of emotion you influence through Logic or Inspiration On the axis of involvement you influence through being Assertive or Participative I will describe four examples from Hock’s story to illustrate this but first some background. Background Visa emerged from the original BankAmericard credit card programme. Back in the Sixties, Bank of America (B of...

55 Flex Your Style

YES! AND… Creative Gorilla # 55 Flexing your style can help you to relate better to others, influence them more and so help in your creative endeavours I am a man of fixed and unbending principles, the first of which is to be flexible at all times. Everett M. Dirksen (1896 – 1969) US politician How easy is it for you to flex your style? Would your creative efforts improve if you flexed it more? Have you ever driven a left hand drive car? Or for those of you that drive on the wrong side of the road from us in Britain, (just teasing!) a right hand drive car? For those that have, you will probably realise that you have to flex your style. Driving in Spain recently, I realised that I had not even thought about the fact I was driving on the right, the change seemed totally natural. I had flexed automatically, even though it had been some months since I had last driven on the right. Some other analogies which may be more relevant for you could include eating a meal with chop sticks or knife and fork (I’m sitting in an oriental restaurant writing this), swimming alternate breast stroke and front crawl (just had a swim) or, like the Dutch aircrew nearby, switching between English and Dutch at bewildering speed. The driving analogy struck me as I was preparing for a section of a course on flexible communication whilst in Spain. The training related to work done by Robert Bolton and Dorothy Grover Bolton (you can find out more by reading their book People styles...