Course Highlights
This influencing skills training course will:
- Explain the distinctions between influence, persuasion, coercion, and manipulation.
- Describe how beliefs and values shape perspectives and actions.
- Provide a variety of tools for influencing others effectively.
- Suggest strategies to identify and overcome biases.
Course Overview
Influence and persuasion go beyond coercion or manipulation. They are about fostering genuine commitment and encouraging collaboration. In this interactive workshop, participants will explore practical tools for influencing others through understanding, empathy, and strategic communication.
The course begins by clarifying the differences between influence, persuasion, and manipulation and by examining the ten types of power available to influencers in workplace settings. Participants will reflect on past experiences of being influenced and identify the people and groups they currently seek to influence, learning to appeal to different decision-making modes: cognitive, emotional, and practical.
From there, the program moves into the power of beliefs, values, and attitudes and how these shape behavior in negotiations and workplace interactions. A self-assessment gives participants a clear picture of their preferred influencing style and the strengths and situational benefits of each approach. The Johari Window provides a framework for understanding how disclosure, self-awareness, and trust affect the ability to build influence and connection over time.
The session continues with an exploration of push and pull influence, when each is appropriate and how to combine them effectively. Participants will work through five categories of influence strategies: social, cognitive, emotional, situational, and strategic. They will then apply the Persuasion Planning Playbook to real-world scenarios, developing a structured approach for a challenge from their own work.
The course closes by examining how biases distort decision-making, how to recognize the most common patterns, and how to reduce their effect on both influencer and audience. By the end of the program, participants will have a toolkit for applying influence and persuasion in a way that strengthens relationships and builds cooperative outcomes.
The following outline highlights some of the course’s key learning points. As part of your training program, we will modify content as needed to meet your business objectives. Upon request, we will provide you with a copy of the participant materials prior to the session(s).
Program Objectives
At this program’s conclusion, participants should be able to:
- Explain the value of influence and persuasion during negotiations and other workplace interactions.
- Outline how people make decisions.
- Describe how beliefs, values, and attitudes influence behaviors.
- Determine their preferred influencing style.
- Discuss the Johari Window as a framework for disclosing information, gaining information, and building trust.
- Demonstrate push and pull methods of influence.
- Apply social influence, cognitive influence, emotional influence, situational influence, and strategic influence strategies.
- Outline how biases influence decisions and tactics for recognizing, reducing, and neutralizing them.
- Apply a Persuasion Planning Playbook to real-world scenarios.
Workshop Modules
Only Time Will Tell: Understanding Persuasion and Influence
The workshop opens by establishing a working definition of influence and separating it from manipulation and coercion. The distinction matters because the approach that follows from each is fundamentally different, and the outcomes are too. The group will examine what makes someone genuinely influential, what qualities and behaviors erode influence, and how influence operates in workplace negotiations and everyday interactions. The discussion then turns to power, because influence does not exist without it. Participants will explore ten types of power available to influencers: legitimate, reward, coercive, expert, referent, information, charismatic, moral, connection, and personal. The group will identify which types they currently draw on, which they have seen others use effectively, and which they could develop. From there, the course introduces a three-part framework for understanding how people make decisions. Cognitive decision-making responds to logic, evidence, and structured argument. Emotional decision-making responds to narrative, values, and how a proposal makes the person feel. Practical decision-making responds to clear steps, usability, and ease of implementation. Participants will apply all three angles to a real workplace scenario, preparing an argument that addresses each mode and practicing the balance between them.
Try to See It My Way: The Power of Beliefs, Values, and Attitudes
Before anyone can influence another person’s behavior reliably, they need to understand what is driving it. This module examines three interconnected forces: beliefs, which are the convictions and perceptions a person holds as true; values, which are the principles and priorities that shape what someone considers right or important; and attitudes, which are the predispositions and emotional responses that color how a person interacts with the world. In a negotiation or workplace influence effort, these three forces determine how information is received, which arguments carry weight, and which approaches generate resistance rather than movement. The module includes a self-assessment through which participants identify their own predominant influencing style across five approaches: the assertive influencer, who thrives on debate and takes charge; the collaborative influencer, who builds rapport and shares power; the supportive influencer, who prioritizes harmony and creates trust; the pragmatic influencer, who focuses on practical outcomes and compromise; and the cautious influencer, who asks probing questions and avoids hasty decisions. Participants will review the strengths and situational limits of each style and consider where they have the most room to develop.
While You See It Your Way: Seeking to Understand
Influence runs in both directions. Before a person can shape another’s thinking effectively, they need to understand where that thinking comes from. This module introduces two tools for doing that work. The Johari Window, developed by psychologists Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham, maps four areas of self-knowledge and interpersonal awareness: the open area, which contains what both parties know about the influencer; the blind area, which contains what others see but the influencer does not; the hidden area, which contains what the influencer knows but has not disclosed; and the unknown area, which is not yet visible to either party. The module examines how expanding the open area through deliberate disclosure and how reducing blind spots through feedback both increase credibility and make it easier for others to receive influence. The second tool is a framework of questions organized around four dimensions: questions that surface beliefs, questions that reveal values, questions that uncover attitudes, and questions that clarify desired outcomes. Participants will use these questions to plan a real influence effort from their own work, identifying what they need to learn about the people they are trying to reach before they decide what to say.
So, I Will Ask You Once Again: Push or Pull
Not every influence situation calls for the same approach, and this module gives participants a practical way to choose. Push influence is assertive and directive: it relies on logic, data, clear expectations, and sometimes urgency to move someone toward a decision. Pull influence is collaborative and inspirational: it draws people in by connecting to their interests, values, emotions, and sense of shared ownership. Both have advantages and limits. Push produces clarity and speed but can generate resistance when the audience feels pressured. Pull builds trust and sustainable change but takes longer and gives the influencer less direct control. The most effective influencers blend both, and this module examines when to use each and how to shift between them. The group will practice applying push and pull strategies to a set of real workplace scenarios, including technology adoption, budget requests, team behavior change, and staffing challenges. The module then expands the toolkit into five categories of influence principles. Social influence draws on reciprocity, commitment and consistency, social proof, authority, and liking. Cognitive influence uses framing, priming, contrast, nudging, and personalization. Emotional influence works through emotional appeal, storytelling, and reciprocal concessions. Situational influence leverages scarcity, time pressure, and reputation. Strategic influence builds through milestone recognition, reflection, and structured planning. Participants will examine how these principles operate in practice and identify the ones most relevant to the situations they navigate most often.
We Might Fall Apart Before Too Long: Exploring Bias
The principles of influence are useful only when they are applied with an accurate picture of what is actually happening. Biases distort that picture by introducing systematic patterns of deviation from rational judgment, often without the decision-maker’s awareness. This module examines four categories of bias that affect negotiations and influence efforts. Cognitive biases include reward and punishment superresponse tendencies, confirmation bias, contrast misreaction, availability misweighing, and others that shape how information is gathered and weighted. Social and emotional biases include liking and disliking tendencies, social proof, envy, excessive self-regard, over-optimism, and stress-induced distortions. Behavioral biases include doubt and avoidance tendency, authority misinfluence, take-action tendency, and the lollapalooza effect, where multiple biases compound each other into a single overwhelming push toward a poor decision. Practical biases include the overvaluation of existing resources and the tendency to seek confirming evidence for strategic decisions already made. For each category, the group will examine real workplace examples and discuss what the bias looks like in a negotiation context and what tactics reduce its effect. The module closes with the Persuasion Planning Playbook, a structured tool for developing a targeted influence strategy. Participants will apply the playbook to a real challenge from their own work, identifying their position, desired and minimum acceptable outcomes, alignment with organizational goals, the values and beliefs of the people they are trying to reach, potential allies, assumptions, precautions, and the narrative that ties the case together.
Target Audience
This workshop is designed for groups that want to:
- Strengthen their influence and persuasion skills in a collaborative setting.
- Improve their understanding of decision-making drivers and reduce bias.
- Develop interpersonal techniques to foster commitment and lasting workplace relationships.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who should attend this influence and persuasion workshop?
This half-day course works well for managers, project leads, sales professionals, HR practitioners, and individual contributors who regularly need to gain buy-in, navigate resistance, or move people toward a decision without having the formal authority to mandate compliance. It is designed for anyone whose effectiveness depends on their ability to influence rather than simply direct.
How is influence different from manipulation?
The course addresses this distinction directly in the opening module. Influence and persuasion work by helping others make decisions that genuinely serve their interests and align with their values. Manipulation bypasses that process by exploiting cognitive shortcuts, creating false urgency, or withholding information. The difference is not just ethical; it is practical. Manipulative approaches damage trust and tend to produce compliance without commitment, which means the change rarely lasts. This course focuses entirely on influence strategies that build rather than erode the relationship.
What is the Persuasion Planning Playbook?
The Persuasion Planning Playbook is a structured planning tool that walks participants through the key elements of a targeted influence strategy: the current situation, their position, the desired and minimum acceptable outcomes, alignment with organizational and team goals, the values and beliefs of the people they are trying to reach, potential allies, assumptions, precautions, and the narrative that makes the case compelling. Participants apply the playbook to a real challenge from their own work during the final module.
What influencing styles does the self-assessment cover?
The assessment identifies five styles: the assertive influencer, who leads with confidence and directness; the collaborative influencer, who builds shared ownership and rapport; the supportive influencer, who prioritizes harmony and trust; the pragmatic influencer, who focuses on workable solutions and compromise; and the cautious influencer, who asks probing questions and avoids hasty commitments. The debrief examines the strengths and situational limits of each style and considers where participants have room to develop range.
Is this course appropriate for people who are not in a formal leadership role?
Yes. Influence and persuasion are not limited to people with positional authority. In many cases, they matter most precisely when formal authority is absent. The course examines ten sources of power, most of which are available regardless of title, and the strategies it covers apply to peer relationships, upward influence, cross-functional collaboration, and client interactions as readily as they apply to direct reports.
How much of the program is practice-based?
Most of it. Participants apply the three-part decision-making framework to a real scenario, complete a self-assessment, work through the push and pull exercises, examine bias patterns in realistic case examples, and spend the final segment applying the Persuasion Planning Playbook to a situation from their own work. The goal is for participants to leave with a plan they can use immediately, not concepts they will need to translate later.