Shortly before a decision, a change leader asks a known opponent for a small favor that draws on their expertise, because people tend to warm to those they have helped.
An example
Everyone at a specialty chemicals plant expected its most respected process engineer to argue against the digitization program at the capital committee. The engineer had built the plant's batch control logic twenty years earlier and considered the new system a consultant's toy. Ten days before the committee, the head of the program walked over to the engineer's desk and asked for an hour of help: the vendor's safety interlock logic for the pilot line looked wrong, and nobody else on site could tell for sure. The engineer found two real errors in an afternoon. At the next site meeting, the program head thanked the engineer in front of the plant manager and said the pilot was safer for it. At the capital committee, the engineer raised concerns about training time and voted for the pilot.
Why it works
Once someone has helped you, dropping their opposition gets easier, because softening now looks like the natural continuation of a collaboration they started. Continued opposition looks worse to them, since it means holding two inconsistent views of themselves, as someone who opposes these people and someone who helps them, and the cheaper resolution is usually to adjust the attitude. It also gets a little costlier, because allies on the other side saw them cooperate. It works when the request is small, flattering to their expertise, not obviously engineered, and followed by visible thanks. It fails on people whose identity is built around opposing you.
The thinking behind it
Leon Festinger A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance (1957) describes the discomfort of holding two cognitions that do not fit, such as a belief and an action that contradicts it, and notes that the easiest relief is often to change the belief to fit what one has done. An engineer who opposes the program and has just helped make its pilot safer holds two such cognitions. Softening the opposition resolves them, and the favor has done its work.
Robert B. Cialdini Commitment and consistency, from Influence (1984), holds that once people have acted, especially in view of others, they feel pressure to keep acting in line with it. Public thanks in front of the plant manager makes the engineer's help a visible act. It also explains the counter: an expert who restates their position before the vote keeps their help from being read as a commitment to the program.
When it fits
Opponents who are respected for their expertise and who have resisted direct persuasion are the right subjects. It needs a real problem in their field that you genuinely need help with, a few days or weeks before the decision, and the humility to be the one asking.
How to use it well
Pick a real problem. Fake requests are easy to spot, and the moment someone feels the technique being run on them, warmth turns into indignation.
- Ask for something small and specific in their area of expertise, which they can grant without losing face.
- Ask in person, before the meeting where their opposition would normally surface.
- Use what they give you. If their help changes the work, say so.
- Thank them visibly, in front of people whose opinion they value.
Keep the request separate from the vote. Leave the decision out of the conversation, and never remind them of the favor later.
What it costs and where it backfires
Asking puts you temporarily in the weaker position, and the request exposes a gap in your work. If the help is refused, you have learned something about the depth of the opposition and may have handed it a story to tell. It fails on self-aware opponents and can harden them. The request must be genuine. Inventing a problem to stage a favor, or citing the help afterward as evidence that they support you, is a setup, and it costs you that colleague for good.
When it is used on you
Grant the favor on its merits when your expertise is suddenly in demand right before a vote, and keep the two things apart. Restate your position on the proposal before the meeting, so your help is not read as a change of mind. Notice whether the thanks arrives in front of an audience.