The Small BIG summary

Here’s a negotiating tip: before you hone your strategy, select the right place to hold the negotiation. Your environment is far more influential than you think.

Depending on the situation, certain environments can even influence how responsible we are.

The decisions we make are based on our own thoughts, right? At least that’s what we like to think. But our behavior is strongly influenced by those around us, particularly by those with whom we identify. This tendency is called social proof.

To take a closer look at social proof, the company Influence at Work decided to address the issue in the UK that many people were not paying their taxes.

We are all scared of making mistakes. But we can learn to play mistakes to our advantage.

One way to do so is by noting other people’s mistakes. Rather than emulating what successful entrepreneurs did to make them successful, focus on what led to their failures.

Just as our physical environment is key to the art of persuasion, so is the persuader. Some minor changes in how we portray ourselves can do wonders for communicating our message effectively.

Moreover, if you can convince people that you’re an expert, you’re already halfway to becoming a master of persuasion. For example, recent brain-imaging studies illustrate that we’re more likely to make financial choices that are otherwise unfamiliar to us when we are advised by an expert, such as a well-known economist.

If you manage anyone at work, you will want to know how to motivate them. Here’s some useful advice.

Often workers don’t achieve their full potential because they feel that what they are doing is not significant enough. When this happens, they start feeling detached from their jobs.

As we’ve seen, good negotiating is about how and where you present your message. Another way to get a solid start on negotiating is to make the first offer and make it precise.

Customers take the first offer from their counterpart and use it as a base or anchor for the negotiation. Even if an initial offer is much higher than they were expecting, they will adjust their expected figure accordingly.

Even the best persuasion tactics sometimes fail simply because people don’t want to change their behavior right this minute. In order to be persuasive, it’s often a good idea to remember that instant change isn’t always the only way.

Sometimes we need to give people some time to act the way we want them to.