$41 Worth of Influence

Today I put my influence skills to work….I fought a $41 parking ticket!

I live in the city and parking tickets are a regular part of my life, something that I like to think of as a charitable contribution for the betterment of the city. Occasionally, however, I get a ticket which I feel justified fighting…and today was my hearing.

Awhile back, our urban neighborhood had one of its many "events" where hundreds of people with their cars drive into the area. This particular event goes on for about one month, so needless to say, it wears thin. Despite permit parking, there are absolutely no parking spaces available and creativity is needed! After an hour of driving around for the 30th night, I found my spot. So what if one-fourth of my car was in a bus zone, three-fourths of the body was legal. Given the circumstances of the demand for parking, I felt justified….apparently the police didn’t think so!

My husband laughed when I told him of my plans this morning to fight the ticket…."Why bother," he said. "You were parked illegally". Like pregnancy, there is no such thing as "a little illegal".

But off to traffic court I went. Much to my surprise I was called in after only a 15 minute wait to meet with the hearing officer…Things were looking good despite the 3-way screaming match I had just witnessed between another ticketed resident, the traffic court receptionist and the security officer.

Upon entering the hearing officer’s office, I noticed a tremendous array of sports paraphernalia. So, I opened our conversation with a little rapport building through humor and said, "So, I can see you like the ballet." A little confused at first, he laughed. We then got down to business. I mentioned my conversation with my husband this morning and told him how my husband thought I didn’t stand a chance fighting this ticket. After all, I was illegally parked (Attune/Disclosing). I asked him if he ever attended the annual event in our area (Inquire/Ask Questions). He said he was familiar with it but never attended. He mentioned that he heard it was a real mob scene and parking was difficult….he then mentioned that he heard several complaints from others. I restated, "So you know how crazy it can get" (Listen/Check Understanding). He replied, "Of course…your ticket is reversed and I have backed it out of the computer system." I thanked him and as I was getting up to leave I asked him how he felt about the Super Bowl outcome (Inquire/Ask Questions). We chatted about the great lessons of the Giants being replayed to kids for many years to come (Enlist/Envision) despite neither of us being Giants’ fans (Attune/Identify with Other).

Back at my office, I reflected on this conversation with Kim Barnes. She asked what made my influence attempt successful and I realized it was because I behaved in that moment counter to what my natural inclinations would have been. I stayed on the Receptive side, guiding our brief discussion without ever having to convince the hearing officer of my rightness. What a pleasant experience and again, as I behaviorally dissect it, I am learning from it!

Lauren Powers is Barnes & Conti's Eastern Regional Director.

For more information on Exercising Influence visit: http://www.barnesconti.com/programs/influence.html. Exercising Influence will be offered as an open enrollment program on March 4-5 in Washington, DC, March 11-12 in Pleasant Hill, CA, and April 10-11 in Atlanta, GA. To register for a public program visit: http://www.barnesconti.com/ppsched.php

Congratulations! Kim Barnes is a 2008 Enterprising Woman of the Year

Barnes & Conti is excited and proud to announce that our CEO Kim Barnes has been selected as one of Enterprising Women magazine's 2008 Enterprising Women of the Year.

This award, to be given at a ceremony in late February, recognizes Kim's achievements as a business woman and role model to other women entrepreneurs.

About Enterprising Women Magazine
Headquartered in Cary, NC, Enterprising Women magazine (www.enterprisingwomen.com) is the nation’s only women-owned magazine published exclusively for women business owners that chronicles the growing political, economic and social influence and power of entrepreneurial women. The magazine provides a friendly meeting place, a public forum, and a national stage for the critical issues confronting women’s businesses and daily lives from the unique perspectives and experiences of entrepreneurial women.

Sites we like...Pogue's Imponderables

Do you have the answer to any of NYTimes Technology Writer David Pogue's imponderables?

In his column last Thursday, he posed the following questions to his readers.

October 18, 2007

Pogue’s Imponderables

By DAVID POGUE

As a tech writer, I'm in the business of providing answers. Sometimes people ask me questions one at a time ("What camera should I buy?"), and sometimes the substance of the question is implied because I have a tech column ("What's new?").

But I've got a lot of questions, too—a lot of them that I don't have answers for. In fact, I've been keeping a little list.

Some of them are answerless because nobody knows the answer. Some may have answers, but only industry insiders know what they are. And still others are answerless because they're incendiary hot-button issues, and there's no consensus.

I thought: What better way to find the answers than to lay out my list for the reading public?

So here they are: Pogue's Imponderables.

* Why is Wi-Fi free at cheap hotels, but $14 a night at expensive ones?

* What happens to software programs when their publishers go out of business?

* Would the record companies sell more music online if it weren't copy-protected?

* Do cellphones cause brain cancer?

* What's the real reason you have to turn off your laptop for takeoff?

* Why can't a digital S.L.R. camera record video?

* Wi-Fi on airplanes. What's taking so long?

* Who are the morons who respond to junk-mail offers, thereby keeping spammers in business?

* I'm told that they could make a shirt-pocket digital camera that takes pictures like an S.L.R., but it would cost a lot. So why don't they make one for people who can afford it?

* How come there are still no viruses for Mac OS X? If it has 6 percent of the market, shouldn't it have 6 percent of the viruses?

* Do shareware programmers pay taxes on all those $20 contributions?

* How are we going to preserve all of our digital photos and videos for future generations?

* Why are there no federal rebates or tax credits for solar power?

* Why do you have to take tape camcorders out of your carry-on at airport security, but not the tapeless kind? Couldn't you hide a bomb equally well in either one? (Actually, I have about 500 more logic questions about the rules at airport security, but I have a feeling they'll remain answerless for a very long time.)

* Laptops, cameras and cellphones have improved by a thousand percent in the last ten years. Why not their batteries?

* SmartDisplay, Spot Watch, U.M.P.C., Zune… when will Microsoft realize that it's not a hardware company?

* Why don't public sinks have foot pedals?

* Why don't all hotels have check-in kiosks like airlines do?

* Five billion dollars a year spent on ringtones? What the?

* How come cellphone signal-strength bars are so often wrong?

* Do P.R. people really expect anyone to believe that the standard, stilted, second-paragraph C.E.O. quote was really uttered by a human being?

* Why aren't there recycling bins for bottles and cans where they're most obviously needed, like food courts and cafeterias?

* Why doesn't someone start a cellphone company that bills you only for what you use? That model works O.K. for the electricity, gas and water companies —and people would beat a path to its door.

* Why doesn't everyone have lights that turn off automatically when the room is empty?

* What's the deal with Palm?

* Why are so many people rude on the Internet?

If you know the answers, by all means—fill us in at nytimes.com/pogue.

If you have the answer, share them with us and with him. Also - what are the questions that keep you up at night. Post them as well and may be one of our other readers has the answer.

Where in the world is Kim Barnes...

Hanoi, Vietnam

This is the second in a series of posts from our CEO Kim Barnes. Kim, the author of Exercising Influence: A Guide for Making Things Happen at Work, at Home, and in Your Community (Pfeiffer, 2007), has the opportunity to travel frequently to present our courses throughout the world.

Hanoi is...hot, humid, bustling, noisy (the primary means of outdoor communication is the horn), dynamic, smoggy, full of contrasts, life-threatening to pedestrians. Two hours of it both fascinated me and set my teeth on edge. Bicycles, rickshaws, cars and endless streams of motorbikes jostle for space on the streets and occasionally the sidewalks, which are filled with formal and informal vendors and shops. Sidewalks along the side streets have become parking lots for motorcycles; I have to sidestep along the street in competition with the traffic. Women carrying the traditional baskets slung from a pole vie for space with tourists and young businesspeople talking on their mobile phones. A young basket-carrier asks if i would like to take her photo, knowing that I will then feel obligated to buy her bananas. I am offered rides in taxis, on motorbikes, in rickshaws in between the informal vendors suggesting that I will want to buy whatever they are showing me - one man asks "Why not?" in perfect English when I refuse. A man from Michigan is working the tours desk of the tourist office when I stop to see what might be on offer for a day tour when I am finished with business here. He had a Vietnamese girlfriend in the States, came to visit her family and never left - except for one visit when he was stopped for driving while honking his horn, he said. It was hard to get out of the habit.

There is evidence of the French occupation everywhere, though mostly behind the scenes. huge Gothic cathedral stands near the hotel. A hospital named after Ste. Marie sit behindA shops selling traditional crafts and fruit. The penchant for keeping one's hair dark does not seem to have arrived here as yet, there are many grey-haired people, some bent
from years of work in the fields, I assume - they must find the squads of American tourists amusing, given their memories of the war...

Mark Your Calendar - Kim Barnes & Nelson Soken at ASTD 2008

We are excited to announce that Kim Barnes, CEO of Barnes & Conti Associates, and Nelson Soken will be presenting a 70-minute concurrent session titled: "Managing Innovation: A journey toward organizational change" at the 2008 ASTD International Conference and Expo in San Diego, CA.

This session is designed to demonstrate how the presenters engaged leaders in a large insurance company in moving their organization toward greater, more continuous innovation. The two presenters will discuss and demonstrate their approach, based on research conducted at the Centre for Research in Innovation Management of the University of Brighton. The approach focuses on behaviors, mindsets, and practices that innovative organizations exhibit during the phases of the “innovation journey.” These phases include Searching, Exploring, Committing, Realizing and Optimizing. Each phase requires managers and leaders to use a different mind-set and skill-set in order to accomplish tasks that are specific to that phase.

Based on a program developed by one of the presenters along with David Francis, Ph.D. of CENTRIM, this experiential session allows participants to practice skills that facilitate innovation, apply the results of research, and gain insights from companies that are implementing the program.

Barnes & Conti Associates will also be exhibiting at the tradeshow. We hope to see you there!

For more information on the 2008 ASTD International Conference & Expo, click here

Exercising Influence: International Train the Trainer Program

Kim Barnes recently returned from Europe where she facilitated several programs, including the multi-national Exercising Influence Train the Trainer pictured here. This program, held in Budapest, instructed trainers from Israel, Hungary, the United Kingdom, Lithuania, and Poland on delivering our Exercising Influence program.


Pictured are: Laksana Watthankul, Ausra Jakaitiene, Aviad Goz, Robert Rogowski, Kim Barnes, Keren, Sarah, Nivi, Inga, and Ronen who will soon be certified to deliver Exercising Influence in their respective countries.


For more information on Exercising Influence or becoming a trainer for Barnes & Conti, please visit our website at www.barnesconti.com.

Where in the world is Kim Barnes...

Vilnius, Lituania
This is the first in a series of posts from our CEO Kim Barnes. Kim, the author of Exercising Influence: A Guide for Making Things Happen at Work, at Home, and in Your Community (Pfeiffer, 2007), has the opportunity to travel frequently to present our courses throughout the world.

In February, Kim visited Vilnius, Lituania to present a session of Exercising Influence: Building Relationships and Getting Results. Below is her account of the trip and the training session.


The Exercising Influence workshop was very successful here. The 11 participants included several experienced consultants, managers from real estate and finance, and a senior executive from a Finnish company operating in Lithuania. Interestingly, most senior executives here are in their early to mid-thirties, at the most – those who were about to or just graduated from universities when the Soviet Era ended. There was great chemistry, and the learning was very powerful.

Beyond the workshop, I enjoyed my visit to Vilnius. Over the weekend, the whole town turned out for the festival of St. Casimir – an occasion for feasting, drinking, singing, and selling all manner of food and handcrafts. There were hundreds of booths and thousands of people milling through the streets. I also had the opportunity to visit an exhibit of “micro-miniatures.” I expected it to be rather a joke, but instead it was an astonishing exhibition of the work of one artist, who uses tools you can only see under a magnifying lens – the same is true of the art works. The pieces were exquisite – there was a “fox and grapes” scene and seven camels carved to fit inside the eye of a needle. Yes, all you biblical scholars out there! I was truly knocked out – but the resulting eyestrain had to be relieved by a lovely meal and a little good red wine. Finally, I was taken to the Amber Museum. I learned that there are actually amber mines – you don’t have to wait for it to wash up on the beach. The usual captured insects were prominent and magnified, and the shop! Well, there is a lot of amber here, they sell it everywhere, but if you are a jewelry maven, there is only one place to buy it. Outstanding!