Dealing with Resistance, Stubbornness, and the Selfishly Motivated: How to Influence 'Unreasonable' People

Eighty-four percent of people report they sometimes or often need to influence unreasonable counterparts within their companies, a multi-year Vantage Partners study finds. One in four reports that people at their companies rely predominantly on manipulation or coercion to get their way.

How do these apparently toxic behaviors persist? How can “unreasonable” people be so pervasive? And how can we effectively navigate such a challenging workplace terrain?

We need better ways to influence others — and a new way to think about what influence is.

Jonathan Hughes and Ashley Hetrick examine why people act in ways that make sense to them, but often seem unreasonable, selfish, or irrational to others. They encourage us to reframe our conceptions of influence, and ultimately offer strategies to transform sources of conflict into the fuel of innovation.