A few weeks ago I posted a link to an article by Scott Adams, creator of “Dilbert” and observer of our life at work.  The article, How to Get a Real Education, reads like a 10-minute MBA and is full of examples from Adams’ own experience as a student of entrepreneurship at Hartwick College in Oneonta, NY.


One of them hit the subject of influencing – and boy!  do you need to be able to influence if you want to lead others!  Adams writes:


The dean required that our first order of business in the fall would be creating a dorm constitution and getting it ratified. That sounded like a nightmare to organize. To save time, I wrote the constitution over the summer and didn’t mention it when classes resumed. We held a constitutional convention to collect everyone’s input, and I listened to two hours of diverse opinions. At the end of the meeting I volunteered to take on the daunting task of crafting a document that reflected all of the varied and sometimes conflicting opinions that had been aired. I waited a week, made copies of the document that I had written over the summer, presented it to the dorm as their own ideas and watched it get approved in a landslide vote. That was the year I learned everything I know about getting buy-in.


I wonder how it lands with you.  What is your experience of influencing others?  And with what challenges?  With what success?