Power & Influence Grid

Check what your credibility rests on, work out what each key person values, and plan the order of your asks, so you arrive with something to offer instead of only a request.

Practice, not research: the currency model (Cohen & Bradford, 1989) is practitioner craft built on the long-established norm of reciprocity (Gouldner, 1960). Research on organizational politics is strong (Pfeffer, 1992), but the playbook on this page is consulting practice. The credibility dimensions, the 1 to 5 scale and the sequence lengths are rules of thumb.

Use it when:

• You need help, resources or a decision from peers or other teams who do not report to you.
• You have a stakeholder map and know who matters, but not how to move them.
• A proposal keeps getting polite nods and no action.

Skip it when:

• You do not yet know who the key stakeholders are: start with 3.1 Stakeholder Map.
• The person you need to move is your own manager: use 9.5 Influence Without Authority Map.

The claim behind influence without authority is that influence works as exchange. Cohen and Bradford's (1989) currency model says you move people who do not report to you by offering things they value, such as resources, recognition, support or access, in return for what you need. The model is practitioner craft, but it rests on an older, well-established observation: the norm of reciprocity, the near-universal expectation that help received creates an obligation to return it (Gouldner, 1960). Pfeffer (1992) adds why coalitions matter: organizations run on power because people disagree and resources are scarce, so anything significant needs allies rather than solo persuasion.

The limit is that influence treated purely as a transaction reads as manipulation and destroys the trust it depends on. So Step 1 starts with credibility, the capital every exchange is priced in. Step 2 asks what you can offer before what you want, Step 3 starts with listening to the resistor, and Step 4 orders the asks, since who you approach first changes what everyone after them hears.

Write the ask as one concrete request. Then rate how far the people you need trust you on each dimension, 1 to 5, and write one thing that would raise the weakest score.

Strong answer: "Ask: two test runs on line 3 in May, with the line crew. Track record 2: I am new and have not delivered on this site yet. To build: share the results of the small trial I ran in my last plant, before I ask." Not: "Track record 3, keep doing good work."

The ask, in one sentence:

Who has to say yes:

Illustrative example: the organization, the roles and the details are made up.

A newly hired process engineer at a dairy in Denmark wants two test runs of a new cleaning cycle on a filling line.

Step 1: the ask is two test runs on line 3 in May. Expertise 4, relationship 3, track record 2 (new on site), organizational savvy 2. To build track record, she shares results from a small trial at her previous plant before asking.

Step 2: the production planner (neutral) values hitting the weekly plan; she offers to build the changeover schedule herself. The quality lead (supporter) values fewer audit findings; she offers him the test data for his next audit. The maintenance planner (neutral) values fewer emergency calls; she offers to log valve wear during the runs.

Step 3: the shift leader resists because the last trial left his crew cleaning up for two nights. She asks him to set the stop criteria and commits her team to the cleanup.

Step 4: week 1, quality lead and maintenance planner agree to co-sign; week 2, the planner; week 3, the shift leader, then the plant manager with a one-page note signed by all four.