The Power of Consistency

Dr Robert Cialdini is a master of Influence. And when we use influence positively, it contributes to our well-being and therefore our resilience. Consistency is one of Dr. Cialdini’s Six Principles of Ethical Influence.

 

A personal story involving consistency is this: in brief, I had a bumpy experience at a well known hotel chain. I made some extra efforts to influence a property manager to take actions to insure a better experience (on this topic) for others at his particular hotel. After a little extra encouragement, the manager wrote telling of his commitment to action.

 

I like to acknowledge such commitment to excellence and so I was emailing back that I would call the hotel chain’s Customer Care line to acknowledge him. It was 5:30am and I noticed that even as I was writing that as a promise, a lazier voice inside of me was already trying to wiggle out of the commitment ("You don’t have time Jim" "It’s really not that important is it!" "Who’s gonna know!"). Well, I’m going to know. Am I two-faced? What is my word worth? Do I really want to live with myself as liar?

 

Dr Cialdini’s vast research reveals that when people commit to something, especially things we value, we are likely to follow through. The commitment is even stronger when we say it out loud. And both Cialdini’s research and a 20 year study at Yale University confirm that when we write our commitment down, people are tremendously more certain to succeed.

 

So take a firm stand for doing what you say. And influence others to make their word overt (verbal and or written) on behalf of win-win commitments. The results are wonderfully powerful. And resilience gets a boost.

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