Bob Cialdini is a social psychologist at University of Arizona who has studied influence and persuasion since the 1970s (maybe earlier?).

His landmark book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion distilled 20 years of academic research into six principles of influence.  I’ve taken those and put them into an influence honeycomb diagram.

1. Reciprocity
   If you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. People feel obliged to do things in return for someone who has done something for them.
2. Authority
   People are more persuaded if they recognize the influencer’s authority. Third-party authority can also be used to bolster influence.
3. Social Proof
   “Everyone else is doing it”. Seeing other people take the same course or lean a certain way makes someone more likely to be persuaded.
4. Commitment & Consistency
   People are more likely to be influenced when they have made a small commitment or are acting in a way that are consistent with how they see themselves.
5. Liking
   People are more likely to be convinced by someone they like. Liking comes from things like humor, similarity, attractiveness.
6. Scarcity
   People are more likely to be persuaded when they have a sense of scarcity. That might be a deadline (scarcity of time) or scarcity of inventory (”it’s the last one in the store”).

Now, these principles aren’t the be-all, end-all of influence, particularly for corporate decisions. But they’re an interesting foundation when we thing about influence.