In one line: When you can’t command, you trade. Find out what the other person values, the “currencies” they care about, and offer something of value in exchange for what you need.
Core idea
Engineers constantly need cooperation from people they don’t manage: another department’s test lab, a supplier, a senior specialist, a program office. The Cohen–Bradford model treats this as reciprocity. People give help when they receive something they value in return, now or later. Influence is the skill of discovering what that is.
How it works
The model, in our own sequence:
- Treat the other person as a potential ally, not an obstacle. Assuming they are against you is the most common mistake.
- Clarify your goals and priorities. Separate primary from secondary goals, short-term from long-term, must-haves from nice-to-haves, and decide whether the task or the relationship matters more this time.
- Diagnose their world. What pressures, measures and goals drive them?
- Identify their currencies.
- Deal with the relationship. How much trust exists, and how do they like to work?
- Make the exchange by offering what they value for what you need, without crossing ethical lines.
Currencies fall into families:
- inspiration-related: vision, excellence, doing the right thing
- task-related: resources, help, information, challenge
- position-related: recognition, visibility, reputation
- relationship-related: acceptance, understanding, personal support
- personal: gratitude, ownership, comfort
Exchanges can be negative as well as positive. Withholding or threatening is also a trade, and it damages the relationship.
In practice
A case used in the program follows a program manager who spent two years pushing a renewable-energy initiative through a company built on fossil-fuel expertise, against heavy internal opposition. She is removed from the role just as the effort is about to pay off. Studying how she won (and lost) support shows how influence works when you have conviction but little formal authority, and what it costs to ignore the currencies of the people you need. In engineering, influence often runs on technical currencies, such as data, early access to results, or credit in a review, as much as on personal ones. A simple test before any request is to ask what is in it for them, and whether you have actually asked them.
Questions to ask yourself
- Who do I need help from this month, and what do they value?
- Am I treating a key stakeholder as an ally or an adversary?
- What currencies do I have plenty of that I’m not using?
Connections
- Setting: Leading from the Middle. Preparation: Political Mapping.
- Related to: Sources of Power and Principled Negotiation.
- Capabilities exercised: Negotiating and Compromise, Inquiry, Communicating and Advocacy, Connecting Across Disciplines.
Sources
- Cohen and Bradford (2005) The Influence Model [1]
- Cohen, Bradford and Guinan - Monica Ashley at Energy Plus [2]