Maximum Influence The 12 Universal Laws For Power Persuasion

INTRODUCTION

For my Managerial Communication Professional Development Project, I chose to do a book analysis on Maximum Influence: The 12 Universal Laws for Power Persuasion. From now on I will refer to this book as simply “Maximum Influence.” In this book Kurt Mortensen outlines the twelves laws of persuasion, some of these seemed like common sense however, a number of them I didn’t realize were real until they were pointed out in this book. Before reading this book I thought some people were just born with the skill of persuasion and that it couldn’t be learned. After reading this book, I see that I was wrong and I can use these skills laid out in this book to strengthen my persuasive power and use that to move forward in my professional career after graduating

Mortensen stated that people want to act on the way they feel about themselves, and when they don’t cognitive dissonance takes place (Mortensen, 2013). When put to use, if I can get someone to make a commitment then they are more likely to follow through even if the agreement were to change. Moreover, I can use the law to persuade someone into action by first making a smaller request. Once, they accept the smaller request many people will be more willing to accept my original (Mortensen, 2013).

This is actually a tactic I have heard of and have used before, however, I never understood why it works. Before asking someone for a favor I would ask if I could borrow a pencil. But not understanding how the law worked, I used the same tactic the same way. Now that I have some enlightenment on the science I can tailor my smaller requests to better suit each individual situation and with practice improve my persuasive abilities.

LAW OF