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Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - 1:00pm - 4:30pm
Half-day Tutorials

Influence Strategies for Software Professionals

You’ve tried and tried to convince people of your position. You’ve laid out your logical arguments on impressive PowerPoint slides—but you are still not able to sway them. Cognitive scientists understand that the approach you are taking is rarely successful. Often you must speak to others’ subconscious motivators rather than their rational, analytic side. Linda Rising shares influence strategies that you can use to more effectively convince others to see things your way. These strategies take advantage of a number of hardwired traits: liking—we like people who are like us; reciprocity—we repay in kind; social proof—we follow the lead of others similar to us; consistency—we align ourselves with our previous commitments; authority—we defer to authority figures; and scarcity—we want more of something when there is less to be had. Join Linda to learn how to build on these traits as a way of bringing others to your side. Use this valuable toolkit in addition to the logical left-brain techniques on which we depend.

Linda Rising, Independent Consultant

Linda Rising’s background includes university teaching and industry work in telecommunications, avionics, and strategic weapons systems. An internationally-known presenter on topics related to patterns, retrospectives, and the change process, Linda is the author of Design Patterns in Communications Software, The Pattern Almanac 2000, The Patterns Handbook, and coauthor (with Mary Lynn Manns) of Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas.

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