ILTA White Papers

The Business of Law

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ILTA White Paper The Business of Law 46 methodical approach to strengthening your decision- making processes. The authors posit, convincingly, that by practicing their approach, you will begin to make better, and more confident, decisions. heLPing oTherS Make gooD DeCiSionS Making good decisions is half the story. To achieve business success, each of us relies on others, both inside and outside our business, to help bring the goals of our decisions to fruition. Even after we make a good decision, we need to convince others (internal colleagues, as well as external partners, vendors and consultants) that acting on that decision makes sense. "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" offers insight into the human psyche and sheds light on how certain types of words and actions affect our decision-making processes. TooLS of infLuenCe All animals, including humans, behave using fixed- action patterns. These are patterns of an almost identical series of actions that are played out by all of us when encountering the same situation. The situations where fixed-action patterns come into play range from courtship and parenting to self-survival. Because they are identical "tapes" that get played over and over, rather than waste time reanalyzing the same types of situations repeatedly and pondering how to react, we abbreviate the triggers needed to play one of those tapes so that just one signal equates to the whole situation. Based on that signal alone, we immediately launch into the appropriate fixed-action pattern. For example, think about how you purchase electronics. If you were to see just the price tags of two laptops, without the list of specs and features, you would assume that the more expensive laptop is a better laptop. You might set out to disprove that theory by examining the features (in the hope of getting the better laptop at the cheaper price), but your mental starting point is that higher cost equals better quality. In other words, your mind abbreviates a complex and time-intensive analytical process into a single, easy trigger: price. Furthermore, if you needed to make a purchase decision without additional research, you would feel pretty confident that, whichever laptop you chose, the quality paralleled the price. If, before purchasing, you had the time and inclination, you might conduct research, but, for better or worse, your mind has already made assumptions based solely on the price trigger. Author Robert B. Cialdini presents six tools of influence: reciprocation, commitment and consistency, "Making good decisions is half the story. To achieve business success, each of us relies on others, both inside and outside our business, to help bring the goals of our decisions to fruition."

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