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Allan R. Cohen
Influence Without Authority
Cover design: Wiley
Copyright © 2017 by Allan R. Cohen and David L. Bradford. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Names: Cohen, Allan R., author. | Bradford, David L., author.
Title: Influence without authority / Allan R. Cohen and David L. Bradford.
Description: Third edition. | Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., [2017] | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2017020942 (print) | LCCN 2017033175 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119347507 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119347514 (epub) | ISBN 9781119347712 (cloth)
Subjects: LCSH: Organizational effectiveness. | Executive ability. | Interpersonal relations.
Classification: LCC HD58.9 (ebook) | LCC HD58.9 .C64 2017 (print) | DDC658.4/09–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017020942
DEDICATION
To our wives, Joyce and Eva, who, as our toughest and most supportive colleagues, have taught us the essence of mutual influence in strategic alliances.
FOREWORD
The concepts seem so obvious, so basic.
Be clear on your own goals and objectives before you start – no Ready, Fire, Aim!
Assume that everyone is a potential ally, that each of your colleagues can help you achieve your goals in some way.
Understand their reality, their situation, in some detail. Know how they are paid, how they are “goaled,” and how their interests align with yours.
Keep the deeply held human value of reciprocity – of quid pro quo – firmly in mind, and while doing so, think about what you have that they might want, and vice versa. And it never hurts to build up a bit of credit with someone. You never know when you might need to collect.
Be willing to trade, to give something, in order to get what you need.
Would anyone argue with these simple ideas? Of course not.
And yet, in the workplace with our colleagues, when it matters most for our professional success, so many of us fail to keep these ideas in mind or to use them as the foundation of our actions. We complain that “Kira doesn't work for me, so how can I get her to deliver what I need?” Or that “Malhar won't attend the meetings of my cross-functional task force. Please tell him that he has to come.”
We have grown from fewer than fifty to over fifteen hundred Boxers in the past seven years. Many of the largest companies in the world, including GE, P&G, and Coca Cola rely on Box, as do tens of thousands of smaller businesses. We have seen the problems that we face grow exponentially in complexity, and watched our colleagues struggle when we demand crisp and effective cross-functional execution in the face of, and despite, that complexity.
In order to grow rapidly, we have always known that we must invest heavily in “skilling up” our leaders to thrive in an increasingly complex world of more partners, more customers, more departments, and more products. And at the center of everything that we teach is one simple concept – we expect you to get stuff done at breakneck speed whether the people that you depend on report to you or not.
The ideas in this book around the concept of influence without explicit authority lie at the heart of our success as a business, and at the heart of the design of our service – which enables coworkers to easily collaborate around documents and other forms of content so that they can work together without hierarchy or information bottlenecks.
Influence is the foundation of success in the modern world of business and this book is a straightforward guide. We rely on it, we teach it, and you should, too.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many people have influenced us in positive ways, and we are deeply indebted to them. A number of colleagues read portions of the manuscript in draft form and made helpful suggestions, including J.B. Kassarjian, Lynne Rosansky, Les Livingstone, Jan Jaferian, Farshad Rafii, and Roy Lewicki. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Barry Stein, Richard Pascale, Jerry Porras, and Jean Kirsch provided useful stimulation over many years. NTL gave us the opportunity to develop and test our ideas in a series of workshops for managers. Many wonderful friends and clients provided the rich examples we have used, but regrettably, most must remain anonymous to preserve confidentiality. We thank former students Tom Greenfield, Marianne McLaughlin, Spencer Lovette, and James Wiegel and good friend Leslie Charm for their contributions. Our students and clients have been a continuous source of learning. Editor John Mahaney went far beyond the call of duty in helping to shape this book, and we're almost sorry for all the grief we gave him. We very much appreciate the perspective he brought. Sydney Craft Rozen and Louann Werksma buffed our prose, and Nancy Marcus Land's cheerful wisdom made the production process more than bearable. Tom Hart gave us valuable advice on contract issues. Thanks to Sydney Cohen for preparing the index.
We are grateful to Babson's Vice-President for Academic Affairs, Gordon Prichett, the faculty nominating committee, and Ex-President Bill Dill for choosing Allan to be the first occupant of the Walter H. Carpenter Chair. Although the miracles of word processors let us do most of the typing ourselves, several people at Babson were incredibly helpful in producing draft after