Monday, 25 August 2014

story telling: creating narratives around climate change

Remember the severe flooding in Devon earlier this year?
Jay Doubleyou: the issues around flooding: living on the coast
And the huge debate around climate change?
Jay Doubleyou: the issues around flooding: climate change

A new book out suggests we'd rather not know what's more than very probably going on:
Amazon.com: Don't Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change (9781620401330): George Marshall: Books

Don't even think about it: Why we are wired to ignore climate change

By George Marshall

Published August 22, 2014

To create proximity we need to EMPHASIZE THAT CLIMATE CHANGE IS HAPPENING HERE AND NOW. In particular, we should BE WARY OF CREATING DISTANCE by framing climate change as a future threat for people far away and, especially, as a threat for nonhumans, however cute they might be.

Whatever the findings of psychology experiments with their weird experimental subjects, we need to remember that not everyone wants to protect the status quo, especially if they are already struggling against economic and social injustice. So we need a NARRATIVE OF POSITIVE CHANGE, in which our adaptation to climate change does not just protect what is already here but also creates a more just and equitable world.

We interpret climate change through frames, which focus our attention but limit our understanding — they allow us to exclude or ignore meanings that lie outside the frame. Most of the factors that enable us to ignore climate change derive from attempts to limit its meaning; that it is an environmental issue, a threat or an opportunity (but not both), a wellhead problem or a tailpipe problem (but not both). So, RESIST SIMPLE FRAMINGS and BE OPEN TO NEW MEANINGS.

Because climate change is a wicked problem, it can easily become defined entirely by its own framings and the solutions we propose, and policy makers can easily become locked into the simple one-off solutions that solve tamer problems. We all need to ENSURE THAT A WIDE RANGE OF SOLUTIONS IS CONSTANTLY UNDER REVIEW — a process that planners call iterative risk management.

Frames define battlegrounds, and so limited frames can lead to false debates. Arguments that renewable energy brings greater energy security encourage the expansion of domestic fossil fuels. Arguments that the low-carbon economy will bring jobs become vulnerable to evidence that the high-carbon economy might bring more jobs. As the cognitive linguist George Lakoff says, NEVER ACCEPT YOUR OPPONENT'S FRAMES — "don't negate them, or repeat them, or structure your arguments to counter them."

Climate change is a narrative, shaped through social negotiations and transmitted between peers. People form their response to the narratives, not the science, and so it always needs to FOLLOW NARRATIVE RULES, WITH RECOGNIZEABLE ACTORS, MOTIVES, CAUSES, AND EFFECTS. People will be inclined to follow the most compelling narrative, so be careful: DON'T LET THE NARRATIVE TAKE OVER the way we think or talk about it.

What is clear is that this is a fast-moving issue and everything will change. At present, climate change exists largely as a narrative of anticipation shaped by familiar experience and existing frames. But momentous shifts are under way in the world's climate systems and carbon cycles, which will, within a single lifetime, make climate change entirely real, salient, and unavoidable.

Above all, it is critical that we CLOSE THE PARTISAN GAP between left and right by opening up climate change to conservative framings and ownership. This should start with AFFIRMING WIDER VALUES, which, it is well established experimentally, makes people far more willing to accept information that challenges their worldview. This requires communicators to reverse the normal flow that converts the science into people's values and begin by understanding and validating their values first and then come up with the ways that climate change can speak to those values.

Don't even think about it: Why we are wired to ignore climate change | GreenBiz.com

It seems to be about 'framing' and 'narrative':
Jay Doubleyou: how to spot media bias
Jay Doubleyou: positive power and influence

These are big subjects when it comes to communication:
Framing (social sciences) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

frame verb (EXPRESS) - definition in the British English Dictionary & Thesaurus - Cambridge Dictionaries Online

Framing (social sciences) - definition of Framing (social sciences) by The Free Dictionary

Here are a couple more examples:

Is a pound of stones heavier than a pound of feathers? Of course they both weigh the same, but the decisions people make are remarkably susceptible to how choices are presented or framed.

Now scientists are pinning down the centers in the brain related to how this "framing effect" can influence decision-making. The findings could have a big impact on economics, among other things.

"Classical economics assumed humans are fundamentally rational and never really considered emotions quite important, but this shows emotions are embedded in our brain when it comes to making decisions," said Benedetto De Martino, a cognitive neuroscientist at University College London.

'Framing effect' influences decisions - Technology & science - Science - LiveScience | NBC News

Exactly what it means to ''frame'' issues seems to depend on which Democrat you are talking to, but everyone agrees that it has to do with choosing the language to define a debate and, more important, with fitting individual issues into the contexts of broader story lines. In the months after the election, Democratic consultants and elected officials came to sound like creative-writing teachers, holding forth on the importance of metaphor and narrative.

Republicans, of course, were the ones who had always excelled at framing controversial issues, having invented and popularized loaded phrases like ''tax relief'' and ''partial-birth abortion'' and having achieved a kind of Pravda-esque discipline for disseminating them. But now Democrats said that they had learned to fight back.

The Framing Wars - New York Times

So, then, how is the climate change debate 'framed'?

Here is the author George Marshall talking about speaking linking what people see and what people believe.
Click on the interview with Rob Hopkins:
George Marshall on communicating climate change following extreme weather events | Transition Network

See also:
Why our brains are wired to ignore climate change - The Washington Post
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Sunday, 24 August 2014

story-telling: what's next...

With some stories, it's not necessarily clear where they're going...
Can you guess exactly what's next?
I may have been reaching a bit with this premise,...
noobtheloser.tumblr.com/tagged/behindthegifs
Backstories for Gifs!

And another example of 'I'm not sure where this is going'...
Again, what's your prediction?
This Is The Most Passive-Aggressive Office Battle We've Ever Seen - CollegeHumor Post

Here is a Roald Dahl story - a 'take' on a traditional fairy story...
How should it finish?

Revolting Rhymes_ Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf.mp4 - YouTube
Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf... Roald Dahl
Revolting Rhymes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
RoaldDahlFans.com - Poems - "Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf"
Once upon a time, there was a man who liked to make up stories ... - Commentators - Voices - The Independent

What about this story from Norway read by Jarvis Cocker...
Where is it going?
BBC Radio 4 - Something Understood, The Spoken Word

Here are a couple of good story-telling websites and some good resources:
Story Arts | Storytelling in the Classroom
Story telling: the language teacher's oldest technique | TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC

See also:
Jay Doubleyou: fight club: how many film genres in one film?
Jay Doubleyou: story corps - listening to america
Jay Doubleyou: story-telling
Jay Doubleyou: stories and drama
Jay Doubleyou: Hans Christian Anderson
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Friday, 22 August 2014

as others see us - british council

Following on from a couple of blog entries
Jay Doubleyou: "drunk stupid brits"
Jay Doubleyou: how others see us...

... the British Council has produced a report:

As Others See Us

Culture, attraction and soft power

July 2014

This report is based on a survey carried out among 18-34 year olds overseas (China, India, Brazil, Germany and the US), as well as their UK contemporaries, which sought to identify the factors that make a country attractive to them as well as the factors influencing the UK’s attractiveness specifically. It also compares the world’s biggest economies in terms of attractiveness, particularly the culture, education and people dimensions.

As Others See Us | British Council

And following on from another couple of blog entries
Jay Doubleyou: positive power and influence
Jay Doubleyou: how to negotiate

... the British Council produced another very interesting report:
Influence and Attraction | British Council

From the Independent:

Boozy, ignorant, intolerant, but very polite – Britain as others see us

The UK is full of heavy drinkers with bad eating habits who are ignorant, intolerant and too nationalistic – so it’s just as well that we are also very polite.

It might sound like a stereotypical list of national traits, but these are the views of more than 5,000 young adults from five different countries who were asked to give their opinion on modern Britain by the British Council.

Its report As Others See Us, published today, shows that the UK is struggling to overcome certain long-held negative perceptions about its poor weather and cuisine, which are viewed as its least attractive features. Culture and history are seen as its best qualities, with its best-known cultural icons cited as Shakespeare, the Queen, and David Beckham.

Worryingly, it seems that the UK is right to be worried about its binge-drinking culture and the loutish behaviour with which it is associated. Asked to name British people’s worst characteristics, 27 per cent of those surveyed ticked “drink too much alcohol” – a figure which rose to 34 per cent if the person had actually visited the UK and experienced the drinking culture first hand.

Other commonly cited negative traits included “bad eating habits”, “too nationalistic” and “ignorant of other cultures”, with “intolerant towards people from other countries” also ranking highly in the league table of ignominy.

But it was not all bad. Asked to name British people’s best qualities, 46 per cent mentioned politeness and good manners, while others ticked “educated and skilled”, “friendly” and “respect the rule of law”. The British sense of humour completed the top five. In general, perceptions of the UK improved among those who visited the country.

“They say ‘to know us is to love us’ and this survey shows young connected people around the world generally do,” John Worne, director of strategy at the British Council, told The Independent. “But they also still believe the stereotypes – bad weather, hard drinking and most unfairly of all, bad food.

“The evidence is that the more we can attract people to actually visit the UK, study here or do business here, the better and more fully they appreciate us. That matters to our future prosperity and standing in the world.”

Overall, the UK fared well for overall attractiveness, finishing second in a list of 15 countries behind only the United States and on an equal footing with Australia, which the report’s authors described as an “excellent ranking”.

Asked to name someone associated with current UK arts and culture, survey participants mentioned musicians such as Adele, the Beatles, Paul McCartney and Elton John, while JK Rowling, Banksy, Tracy Emin and Winston Churchill were also popular answers

The report argues that an “important shift in influence” is taking place globally, making the way in which British citizens are perceived by other countries more important than it used to be. Young Britons should be taught the importance of having an “international outlook”, it adds.

“Power is drifting away from governments and being picked up by people, brands and movements; established hierarchies are being challenged by new local, national and global networks,” the authors write. “The international landscape is being transformed by hyperconnectivity, social media, and the rapid rise of direct people-to-people connections unmediated by states.”

More than 5,029 18-34-year-olds from Brazil, China, Germany, India and the US took part in the survey, which was carried out by pollsters Ipsos MORI via an online questionnaire on behalf of the British Council.

The worst of Britain

Drink too much alcohol (27% thought so)
Bad eating habits (23%)
Too nationalistic (22%)
Ignorant of other cultures (22%)
Intolerant towards people from other countries (20%)
Rude (17%)
Unfriendly (13%)
Complain too much (13%)
Too pessimistic (11%)
Lazy (10%)

Boozy, ignorant, intolerant, but very polite – Britain as others see us - Home News - UK - The Independent
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Wednesday, 20 August 2014

colour revolutions

The Ukraine has been very much in the news:
Jay Doubleyou: english language media as propaganda in the ukraine

It started with the 'Orange Revolution':
Orange Revolution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There have been questions about 'where it all came from'....

Involvement of outside forces

Activists in each of these movements were funded and trained in tactics of political organisation and nonviolent resistance by a coalition of Western pollsters and professional consultants who were partly funded by a range of Western government and non-government agencies but received most of their funding from domestic sources.^{[nb 2]}^[2] According to The Guardian, the foreign donours included the U.S. State Department and USAID along with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the International Republican Institute, the NGO Freedom House and George Soros's Open Society Institute.^[34] The National Endowment for Democracy, a foundation supported by the U.S. government, has supported non-governmental democracy-building efforts in Ukraine since 1988.^[35] Writings onnonviolent struggle by Gene Sharp contributed in forming the strategic basis of the student campaigns.^[32]

Former president Leonid Kravchuk accused Russian oligarch, Boris Berezovsky, of financing Yushchenko's campaign on 14 September 2005.^[36]^{[nb 3]} Yushchenko denied Berezovsky financed his election campaign.^[36] Financing of election campaigns by foreign citizens is illegal in Ukraine.^[37] At first Berezovsky refused to confirm or deny Kravchuk's allegations, but in November 2005 he did claim that indeed he had heavily financed the Orange Revolution.^[38]^{[nb 4]}

In fact, this was not the only 'colour revolution':
Colour revolution - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is what RT thinks:

You say you want a revolution, but be careful what you wish for — RT News

Here's a very strong opinion on the issue - from a Canadian news website:

Colored Revolutions: A New Form of Regime Change, Made in the USA

By Eva Golinger

Global Research, March 05, 2014

hcvanalysis.wordpress.com 10 February 2011

In 1983, the strategy of overthrowing inconvenient governments and calling it “democracy promotion” was born.

Through the creation of a series of quasi-private “foundations”, such as Albert Einstein Institute (AEI), National Endowment for Democracy (NED), International Republican Institute (IRI), National Democratic Institute (NDI), Freedom House and later the International Center for Non-Violent Conflict (ICNC), Washington began to filter funding and strategic aid to political parties and groups abroad that promoted US agenda in nations with insubordinate governments.

Behind all these “foundations” and “institutes” is the US Agency for Inter- national Development (USAID), the financial branch of the Department of State. Today, USAID has become a critical part of the security, intelligence and defense axis in Washington. In 2009, the Interagency Counterinsurgency Initiative became official doctrine in the US. Now, USAID is the principal entity that promotes the economic and strategic interests of the US across the globe as part of counterinsurgency operations. Its departments dedicated to transition initiatives, reconstruction, conflict management, economic development, governance and democracy are the main venues through which millions of dollars are filtered from Washington to political parties, NGOs, student organizations and movements that promote US agenda worldwide. Wherever a coup d’etat, a colored revolution or a regime change favorable to US interests occurs, USAID and its flow of dollars is there.

How Does a Colored Revolution Work?

The recipe is always the same. Student and youth movements lead the way with a fresh face, attracting others to join in as though it were the fashion, the cool thing to do. There’s always a logo, a color, a marketing strategy. In Serbia, the group OTPOR, which led the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic, hit the streets with t-shirts, posters and flags boasting a fist in black and white, their symbol of resistance. In Ukraine, the logo remained the same, but the color changed to orange. In Georgia, it was a rose-colored fist, and in Venezuela, instead of the closed fist, the hands are open, in black and white, to add a little variety.

About | Global Research

Here is a 'less biased' view on the same process:

Between 2000 and 2005, Russia-allied governments in Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine, and (not
discussed in this paper) Kyrgyzstan were overthrown through bloodless upheavals. Though
Western media generally portrayed these coups as spontaneous, indigenous and popular (‘people
power’) uprisings, the ‘color revolutions’ were in fact outcomes of extensive planning and energy
─ much of which originated in the West. The United States, in particular, and its allies brought to
bear upon post-communist states an impressive assortment of advisory pressures and financing
mechanisms, as well as campaign technologies and techniques, in the service of ‘democracy
assistance’. Their arsenals included exit and opinion polling, focus groups for ‘revolutionary
messaging’, and methods and training in ‘strategic nonviolent conflict’.

https://www.westminster.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/20009/006WPCC-Vol5-No3-Gerald_Sussman_Sascha_Krader.pdf

On the other hand, here's a very critical piece - again from Canada:

The West Marches East, Part 1: The U.S.-NATO Strategy to Isolate Russia

By: Andrew Gavin Marshall

17 April 2014

Originally posted at The Hampton Institute

Mark Almond wrote in the Guardian in 2004 that, “throughout the 1980s, in the build-up to 1989′s velvet revolutions, a small army of volunteers – and, let’s be frank, spies – co-operated to promote what became People Power.” This was represented by “a network of interlocking foundations and charities [which] mushroomed to organize the logistics of transferring millions of dollars to dissidents.” The money itself ” came overwhelmingly from NATO states and covert allies such as ‘neutral’ Sweden,” as well as through the billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundation. Almond noted that these “modern market revolutionaries” would bring people into office “with the power to privatize.” Activists and populations are mobilized with “a multimedia vision of Euro-Atlantic prosperity by Western-funded ‘independent’ media to get them on the streets.” After successful Western-backed ‘revolutions’ comes the usual economic ‘shock therapy’ which brings with it “mass unemployment, rampant insider dealing, growth of organized crime, prostitution and soaring death rates.” Ah, democracy!

Following Serbia in 2000, the activists, Western ‘aid agencies’, foundations and funders moved their resources to the former Soviet republic of Georgia, where in 2003, the ‘Rose Revolution’ replaced the president with a more pro-Western (and Western-educated) leader, Mikheil Saakashvili, a protégé of George Soros, who played a significant role in funding so-called ‘pro-democracy’ groups in Georgia that the country has often been referred to as ‘Sorosistan’. In 2004, Ukraine became the next target of Western-backed ‘democratic’ regime change in what became known as the ‘Orange Revolution’. Russia viewed these ‘color revolutions’ as “U.S.-sponsored plots using local dupes to overthrow governments unfriendly to Washington and install American vassals.”

Mark MacKinnon, who was the Globe and Mail‘s Moscow bureau chief between 2002 and 2005, covered these Western-funded protests and has since written extensively on the subject of the ‘color revolutions.’ Reviewing a book of his on the subject, the Montreal Gazette noted that these so-called revolutions were not “spontaneous popular uprisings, but in fact were planned and financed either directly by American diplomats or through a collection of NGOs acting as fronts for the United States government,” and that while there was a great deal of dissatisfaction with the ruling, corrupt elites in each country, the ‘democratic opposition’ within these countries received their “marching orders and cash from American and European officials, whose intentions often had to do more with securing access to energy resources and pipeline routes than genuine interest in democracy.”

The ‘Orange Revolution’ in Ukraine in 2004 was – as Ian Traynor wrote in the Guardian - ” an American creation, a sophisticated and brilliantly conceived exercise in western branding and mass marketing,” with funding and organizing from the U.S. government, “deploying US consultancies, pollsters, diplomats, the two big American parties and US non-governmental organizations.”

The enlargement of the European Union into Eastern Europe reflected a process of Eastern European nations having to implement neoliberal reforms in order to join the EU, including mass privatizations, deregulation, liberalization of markets and harsh austerity measures. The enlargement of the EU into Central and Eastern Europe advanced in 2004 and 2007, when new states were admitted into EU membership, including Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. 309. A Neoliberal Trojan Horse? The New EU Member States and EU Social Model | Wilson Center

These new EU members were hit hard by the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, and subsequently forced to impose harsh austerity measures. They have been slower to ‘recover’ than other nations, increasingly having to deal with “political instability and mass unemployment and human suffering.” The exception to this is Poland, which did not implement austerity measures, which has left the Polish economy in a better position than the rest of the new EU members. The financial publication Forbes warned in 2013 that “the prospect of endless economic stagnation in the newest EU members… will, sooner or later, bring extremely deleterious political consequences .”

In the words of a senior British diplomat, Robert Cooper, the European Union represents a type of “cooperative empire.” The expansion of the EU into Central and Eastern Europe brought increased corporate profits, with new investments and cheap labour to exploit. Further, the newer EU members were more explicitly pro-market than the older EU members that continued to promote a different social market economy than those promoted by the Americans and British. With these states joining the EU, noted the Financial Times in 2008, “the new member states have reinforced the ranks of the free marketeers and free traders,” as they increasingly “team up with northern states to vote for deregulation and liberalization of the market.”

The West Marches East, Part 1: The U.S.-NATO Strategy to Isolate Russia « Andrew Gavin Marshall

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Monday, 18 August 2014

how to spot media bias

There have been several postings here on 'media bias':
Jay Doubleyou: english-language news media
Jay Doubleyou: english-language news media - part two
Jay Doubleyou: propaganda, public relations and manufacturing consent
Jay Doubleyou: english language media as propaganda in the ukraine
Jay Doubleyou: the media

And perhaps we need to consider the general question of how others can 'influence' us:
Jay Doubleyou: positive power and influence

But who influences whom?
The media or the politicians?

Here's a video from BBC for schools on the media:
BBC - Learning Zone Class Clips - The influence of the media in politics - Citizenship and Modern Studies Video

.. and some more on what the politicians do...
BBC - Learning Zone Class Clips - Politicians and the constructed image - Media Studies Video
BBC - Learning Zone Class Clips - Politics of television and the fight for control - Media Studies Video

Try this documentary for a closer look at these issues:

Orwell Rolls in his Grave (Full 3HR Documentary) - YouTube
Orwell Rolls in His Grave - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Or this:
Noam Chomsky Documentary "Manufacturing Consent The Political Consent of Mass Media" - YouTube
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Editorial bias: five filters

Herman and Chomsky's "propaganda model" describes five editorially distorting filters applied to news reporting in mass media:

Size, Ownership, and Profit Orientation: The dominant mass-media outlets are large firms which are run for profit. Therefore they must cater to the financial interest of their owners - often corporations or particular controlling investors. The size of the firms is a necessary consequence of the capital requirements for the technology to reach a mass audience.
The Advertising License to Do Business: Since the majority of the revenue of major media outlets derives from advertising(not from sales or subscriptions), advertisers have acquired a "de-facto licensing authority".^[4] Media outlets are not commercially viable without the support of advertisers. News media must therefore cater to the political prejudices and economic desires of their advertisers. This has weakened the working class press, for example, and also helps explain the attrition in the number of newspapers.
Sourcing Mass Media News: Herman and Chomsky argue that “the large bureaucracies of the powerful subsidize the mass media, and gain special access [to the news], by their contribution to reducing the media’s costs of acquiring [...] and producing, news. The large entities that provide this subsidy become 'routine' news sources and have privileged access to the gates. Non-routine sources must struggle for access, and may be ignored by the arbitrary decision of the gatekeepers.”^[5]
Flak and the Enforcers: "Flak" refers to negative responses to a media statement or program (e.g. letters, complaints, lawsuits, or legislative actions). Flak can be expensive to the media, either due to loss of advertising revenue, or due to the costs of legal defense or defense of the media outlet's public image. Flak can be organized by powerful, private influence groups (e.g. think tanks). The prospect of eliciting flak can be a deterrent to the reporting of certain kinds of facts or opinions.^[5]
Anti-Communism: This was included as a filter in the original 1988 edition of the book, but Chomsky argues that since the end of the Cold War (1945–91), anticommunism was replaced by the "War on Terror", as the major social control mechanism.^[6]

Manufacturing Consent - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Some more ideas:

The agenda-setting process is arguably an unavoidable part of news gathering by the large organizations which make up much of the mass media. (Just four main news agencies — AP, UPI, Reuters and Agence-France-Presse — together provide 90% of the total news output of the world’s press, radio and television).^[1]
Media influence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Who Decides What's Newsworthy: Agenda-Setting & Framing in Broadcast News - YouTube

And now we're back to influence:

How Framing Changes your Decisions - YouTube
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positive power and influence

There are the fairly formal, traditional techniques of negotiating:
Jay Doubleyou: how to negotiate
Jay Doubleyou: the psychology of negotiation

And there are the subtleties of persuasion:
Jay Doubleyou: propaganda, public relations and manufacturing consent
Jay Doubleyou: the men who made us spend
Jay Doubleyou: the men who made us spend: part two
Jay Doubleyou: social engineering

Is it about 'control'?

Abraham Hicks ~ The Power of Influence vs Control - YouTube

Or is it about 'influence'?

> Persuading:
But the arts of reason and logic might simply lead to debate and argument - or not being taken seriously.

> Asserting:
Rather than giving reasons, firmly and politely insist on your position - but this might be interpreted as being 'pushy'.

> Bridging:
'Pull' your partner in by asking what they want - by elaborating/summarizing how they see things - by focussing on them and not giving your own position.
By listening, you can tailor your target and make your goals more realizable.
And after you have listened, your partner should now listen to you

This is the 'Situational Influence Model':

Articles - Using Influence to Build a Corporate Culture of Trust and Open Communication

But these techniques can be open to abuse:

The Uses (and Abuses) of Influence

An Interview with Robert Cialdini by Sarah Cliffe

Robert Cialdini, considered the leading social scientist in the field of influence, was initially drawn to the topic because he saw how easily people could step over an ethical line into manipulation or even abuse.

His 2001 book Influence, which laid out six principles of persuasion, was eloquent about the dangers of persuasive techniques in the wrong hands. A best-selling article he wrote for HBR the same year, “Harnessing the Science of Persuasion,” looked at the positive side of persuasion: how managers could use those principles to run their organizations more effectively.

Cialdini: People will help if they owe you for something you did in the past to advance their goals. That’s the rule of reciprocity... Get in the habit of helping people out, and — this part’s really important — don’t wave it away when people thank you. Don’t say, “Oh, no big deal.” We’re given serious persuasive power immediately after someone thanks us. So say something like “Of course; it’s what partners do for each other” — label what happened an act of partnership. With that prework done, a manager who subsequently needs support, who needs staffing, who maybe even needs a budget, will have significantly elevated the probability of success.

The Uses (and Abuses) of Influence - Harvard Business Review

Influence

Cialdini's theory of influence in based on the principles of reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, authority, liking, and scarcity.

6 key principles of influence by Robert Cialdini[edit]

Reciprocity – People tend to return a favor, thus the pervasiveness of free samples in marketing. In his conferences, he often uses the example of Ethiopia providing thousands of dollars in humanitarian aid to Mexico just after the 1985 earthquake, despite Ethiopia suffering from a crippling famine and civil war at the time. Ethiopia had been reciprocating for the diplomatic support Mexico provided when Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935. The good cop/bad cop strategy is also based on this principle.
Commitment and Consistency – If people commit, orally or in writing, to an idea or goal, they are more likely to honor that commitment because of establishing that idea or goal as being congruent with their self-image. Even if the original incentive or motivation is removed after they have already agreed, they will continue to honor the agreement. Cialdini notes Chinese brainwashing on American prisoners of war to rewrite their self-image and gain automatic unenforced compliance. Seecognitive dissonance.
Social Proof – People will do things that they see other people are doing. For example, in one experiment, one or more confederates would look up into the sky; bystanders would then look up into the sky to see what they were seeing. At one point this experiment aborted, as so many people were looking up that they stopped traffic. See conformity, and the Asch conformity experiments.
Authority – People will tend to obey authority figures, even if they are asked to perform objectionable acts. Cialdini cites incidents such as the Milgram experiments in the early 1960s and the My Lai massacre.
Liking – People are easily persuaded by other people that they like. Cialdini cites the marketing of Tupperware in what might now be called viral marketing. People were more likely to buy if they liked the person selling it to them. Some of the many biases favoring more attractive people are discussed. See physical attractiveness stereotype.
Scarcity – Perceived scarcity will generate demand. For example, saying offers are available for a "limited time only" encourages sales.

His seminal 1984 book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, was based on three "undercover" years applying for and training at used car dealerships, fund-raising organizations, and telemarketing firms to observe real-life situations of persuasion.

Robert Cialdini - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

How to Apply the Tool

You can use these principles whenever you want to influence or persuade others.

First make sure that you understand the people in your audience and that you know why you want to influence them. Think about your ultimate objectives, and decide which principles will be most useful in your situation.

We'll now explore some strategies you can use with each principle.

Reciprocity

Our article on the Influence Model takes an in-depth look at how to use reciprocity to gain influence.

Commitment

Here, try to get people's commitment early on, either verbally or in writing.

Social Proof

You can use this principle by creating a "buzz" around your idea or product.

Liking

To build good relationships , ensure that you put in the time and effort needed tobuild trust and rapport with clients and people you work with, and behave with consistency.

Develop your emotional intelligence (EI) and active listening skills , and remember that there is no "one-size-fits-all" approach when it comes to relating to others.

Authority

Here you can use both your own authority, and the authority of others, as influencers.

When you use your own authority, be careful not to use it negatively. Our article on French and Raven's Five Forms of Power has more on different sources of power, and explains how you can use power and authority positively.

To use authority, get support from influential and powerful people, and ask for their help in backing the idea. (Use Influence Maps to help you network with people who can help.)

Scarcity

With this principle, people need to know that they're missing out if they don't act quickly.

Warning:

Be careful how you use the six principles – it is very easy to use them to mislead or deceive people – for instance, to sell products at unfair prices, or to exert undue influence.

When you're using approaches like this, make sure that you use them honestly – by being completely truthful, and by persuading people to do things that are good for them. If you persuade people to do things that are wrong for them, then this is manipulative, and it's unethical. And it's clearly wrong to cheat or lie about these things – in fact, this may be fraudulent.

A good reputation takes a long time to build. But, you can lose it in a moment!

Resisting Influence

You can also use this tool when others are trying to influence you.

In these situations, bear the following points in mind:

Before accepting a free gift or a discounted service, or before agreeing to hear confidential information, ask yourself whether you're going to feel obliged to give the same or more in return. Should you decline, so that you don't feel indebted?
Before agreeing to a course of action, even at a very preliminary level, think about the consequences of your decision. Will you feel so invested in this new course of action that you won't want to change your mind?
Though everyone else is pursuing a particular route or buying a product, it may not be right for you. Avoid falling victim to the "herd mentality." You might decide that it's best to go against the trend.
When you feel tempted to buy a product or sign up for a service, ask yourself whether you've fallen under the spell of a particularly likable salesperson. Is the salesperson similar to you, familiar to you, or extremely complimentary?
Carefully note your reaction to authority figures. Has the person you're negotiating with triggered your respect for authority? Are you making your choice because you want to, or are you swayed by an "expert" opinion? And does this person genuinely have the authority he is implying, or is he merely using the symbols of that authority?
Before you fall for a sales pitch claiming that a product is running out of stock or that a discount deal is soon to expire, think again. Do you really want or need the product now, or has its lack of availability caught your attention?

Cialdini's Six Principles of Influence - from MindTools.com
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion: Amazon.co.uk: Robert B., PhD Cialdini: Books

There is the PPI programme based on these ideas:
PPI Programme | Positive Power and Influence
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