7 Best And Most Effective Types Of Influence…From Ask Lewis
Tips to get what you need with poetry and humor at the end…
Influence is a general term used to describe any event or process where one entity (be it a person, corporation, government, religion, media organization, etc.) can change either directly or indirectly another entity’s thoughts, feelings, or behaviors.
Where there is power, change is precipitated. With human beings, this change will generally take place concerning a belief, an attitude, the possession of physical wealth, spirituality, and/or the use of influence in its various forms or levels.
A specific level and type of wisdom and effective behavioral patterns are unique to each of these stages of influence.
When a person has not developed the appropriate understanding or behavior patterns for each stage they will feel out of balance with life. They may exhibit dysfunctional behavior, poor interactive social skills, and even emotional difficulties. In such a situation, a positive, loving, life-affirming influence is needed. If not it is likely that poor and even destructive choices may be made.
One of the reasons influence even exists is because of the way that people define reality. We may want to know reality or think we know reality, but in reality, we only get glimpses of our perceptions. We cannot know objective reality or know one true reality. It is beyond ordinary human capabilities to do so. Instead, we have experiences — internal images, sounds, and sensations — and react or respond to these experiences for the most part through our sense representational systems — taste, smell, hearing, seeing, and touching. These templates of reality define our behavioral patterns and give these behaviors meaning.
But these meanings are not reality. They are in a sense the stories we have created to give meaning to our experiences. Our reality is no more than these stories we have created. Interestingly, different people will create different stories though the same event happened at the same time to both of them. This is a reflection of the truth that one person’s reality is another person’s illusion.
In all situations where influence is involved, there is a person or group utilizing influence and a person or group being influenced. Anyone skilled enough to shift another’s reality template can ultimately wield influence and anyone open to change can be influenced.
Concepts of truth that arise any place other than through our ruthless introspection are always suspect. In human networks, especially social networks and in networks designed for information technology definitions are created, managed and feed into the system. Each of us needs to be careful of what seems true for most important of all is who is managing truth. In the past, it was usually a religious organization a media organization, or the government that managed this. The media was probably the most dangerous of the three since if you put too much power in the hands of a private company they can monopolize the idea of “truth” in ways more insidious than religion or government. Why Because you need to engage in some form of commerce to survive, and whoever can figure out what you are likely to buy can slowly and subtly feed you what you want anyway and add the concept of what is true to what you are consuming.
One can never know what is going on if one chooses to be intellectually lazy. You’re never going to get the best information by just Googling it or going on Wikipedia.
What I call “low-hanging fruit search algorithms” are not designed for depth, they are designed for efficiency. Most serious searchers may look at these sites to get ideas but usually move on to more detailed and reliable sites as quickly as possible. In fact, From the algorithm’s perspective, the optimal result to answer a question may not even reflect accuracy. Google looks at the headline of an article or blog for a particular search. Then it will look for popular postings. So theoretically one might type in “Moon Landing” and end up on a conspiracy theory site that claims the landing never happened.
Ultimately search engines whether Google Bing or others are not designed for accuracy or truth.
I often say that the difference between a liar and bullshit is that a liar would rather not lie but feels that they must for some specific benefit. Bullshitters are Indifferent to the truth. An idea is what it is to the bull shit artists and whether is it grounded in fact or belief is irrelevant. The liar know that what they believe is not true. The bullshittier doesn’t care. They lack a concern for truth or even reality. They want what they want and bullshitting is a way of getting it.
In order to be able to master the art of influence you must understand the role that systems play in all aspects of human existence including the systems used by liars, cheaters, and bullshitters.
Part of what it means to be human is to be an expression of complex internal and external self-organizing, systematic processes. The external processes take place between the surrounding environment as well as with other human beings. Our internal chemistry, skeletal and muscular systems, families, towns, states and countries, and cultures all form an interface of complex systems and sub-systems all interacting with and mutually influencing each other. No part of these systems can be isolated or separated from any other part of the system. These systems naturally seek to achieve optimal states of balance or homeostasis. It is in seeing where balance and homeostasis are evolving that influence can be applied most effectively.
In this day and age, it is wise to have privacy concerns. Still, most of these concerns refer to cases of government or employer data gathering. Yes, if you are that influential there is a good chance you are on someone’s radar and you are likely to be monitored through some computer technology or electronic tools. It’s the price one pays for being famous, powerful, or influential. All this snooping has altered the social landscape. Still with enough skill and street smarts one can anticipate and even learn how one is being snooped.
The Takeaway
There are 7 primary types of influence. These are…
- telling,
- selling,
- consulting,
- collaborating,
- authoritative (direct Trumpian),
- permissive (passive Aikido Mind — Re: Obama)
- Hypnosis (waking or trance-based)
A Poem on Influence
When we say “I want it all”,
Soon will come a hard fast fall
For meaning comes from introspection,
Not from mental insurrection,
So meditate, and contemplate,
And soon you’ll see,
Things will arrive to where they are meant to be
A Joke-Pun About Influence
They say you shouldn’t trust the media because that influences how you see the world…
In reality, you can’t trust light bulb manufacturers because they only show you what you want to see.
This story is an excerpt from my course “How to Become Really Wealthy”
©Lewis Harrison, all rights reserved.
@drrawson
@yanabostongirl
Before you go…
I am Lewis Harrison, a successful entrepreneur, and advisor to philanthropists. I am also the award-winning author of over twenty books on business, leadership, personal growth and strategic thinking. For over a decade I was the producer and host of the show “What’s Up” on NPR-affiliated WIOX FM in New York.
Now, aside from writing on Medium, and connecting personally with my readers, I teach seminars and speak on personal development, and life strategies throughout the world.
Here are links to three of my best-selling business books:
