Never Forget the Power of Influence

I’m currently attending the Beta Gamma Sigma leadership conference in Indianapolis. There are a little over 100 students here from across the globe, and they all have been asked to join BGS, because they are in the top 10 percent of their business school. So far, the experience has opened my eyes to some new ways of thinking, but my favorite session has been with Tim Clipson.

Tim, who may be the strangest and most likable person I have ever encountered, made us do an activity with children’s blocks. At first, he selected three people and told them to leave the room. Later, he selected another three people and told them they were going to stack as many blocks as they could using just one hand.

Tim also began telling the classroom the group was the best block stackers in the world. He encouraged the team to do well, and had all of the students cheer for them. He asked them to set a goal for how many blocks they could stack, and all of them set very high standards. All three of the participants worked together, and stacked about 100 blocks in one minute.

Later, the three that were excused from the room were asked to enter back into the space. Completely unaware of what just happened, these three were asked to perform the same task. However, Tim gave slightly different enthusiasm for their success. He told them they may not be very good at stacking the blocks, and they will have to be cautious of the other participants knocking down their stack.

The second group of participants all set their goals for their blocks at about one quarter as high as compared to the other team. The group also began competing against one another by knocking down each other’s blocks instead of working as a team. In the end, the second group only stacked about 10 blocks, which is pretty pathetic compared to the previous stack of 100.

I was honestly amazed at how different the outcome was for each group, and all Tim changed was his delivery. It very effectively demonstrated how significantly you can impact your team members when you have a positive attitude, and you believe they can succeed. It reminded all of us to never forget the power of influence.