Lessons from “Yes” – Part 1

Recently our strategic team at The Journey finished studying the book “Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive” by by Noah J. Goldstein, Steve J. Martin, Robert B. Cialdini.  Between now and Friday, I want to share with you some of my key lessons from the book.

I believe that we must learn to better help people say ‘yes’ to the most important things in life.

Here are a few of my favorite quotes/lessons:

There are six universal principles of social influence –

1. Reciprocation (we feel obligated to return favors performed for us),
   
2. Authority (we look to experts to show us the way),
   
3. Commitment/consistency (we want to act consistently with our commitments and values),
   
4. Scarcity (the less available the resource, the more we want it),
   
5. Liking (the more we like people, the more we want to say yes to them),
   
6. Social proof (we look to what others do to guide our behavior).

…the power of the principle of social proof: When people are uncertain about a course of action, they tend to look outside themselves and to other people around them to guide their decisions and actions.

More from ‘Yes’ on Thursday.  I highly recommend you read and study this book with your team.  You can pick it up at Amazon.com by clicking here.

Tomorrow, watch for the final installment of the series “Slack=Lack.”

Nelson