HRpedia: 'Informational influence'

Informational influence, n.

Thank you, Harvard Business Review, for bringing to our attention a new term to bandy around at work, and a handy productivity tool into the bargain.

Here’s the story. When teams get together to take on a task, they generally don’t capitalise fully on the knowledge of every member. This is because of the undue prominence that tends to be put on social influence – in others words, only listening to the most senior and/or loudest mouths in the room.

Two academics publishing in the HBR, Bryan L Bonner and Alexander R Bolinger, have discovered a way to change this. According to their suggestion, early in a team meeting each participant is ‘encouraged to discuss the relevant knowledge each brings to the table.’ That’s pretty well all there is to it. Under lab conditions, groups who underwent this simple exercise outperformed others by a considerable distance.

So when you host a meeting about (say) selecting a new leadership development supplier, rather than just allowing the HRD, procurement or Bigmouth Bill run the conversation, you ask everyone about their background in the supplier selection. This encourages a greater interest in, and respect for, everyone’s opinion. Quiet Quentin might actually get a word in edgeways when people know he went through a similar process with a previous employer.

Not rocket science admittedly, but useful. As the profs conclude in their article:

On their own, teams rarely pause for this kind of reflection. Team leaders should take advantage of our finding and encourage the group to assess members’ knowledge and discuss its relevance to the task at hand. That will change the criterion for power on the team from social influence to informational influence and help members tune out irrelevant factors—not just confidence and extroversion but also status, experience, tenure, assertiveness, gender, and race.

A nod here too to Susan Cain and the power of introverts, which is well worth checking out if you haven’t done so already.

About the author

Andrew Baird

Andrew is the CEO of HRville. He is also Employer Brand Director of Blackbridge Communications, Editorial Director of Professionals in Law and an associate of The Smarty Train. Previously, he was the MD of TCS Advertising.