Influencing

Resource technique · See it on the map

Guide only — Influencing without authority is practiced, not run.

Getting cooperation from people the project manager has no formal authority over, using relationships, evidence, and persuasion instead of a reporting line that doesn't exist.

When to use it

Use it constantly in a matrixed or cross-department project, where most of the people whose cooperation the plan depends on don't report to the PM: getting a department to prioritize a task, getting a stakeholder to make a timely decision, getting a peer PM to release a shared resource early.

When to avoid it

Don't reach for influence when you actually have authority — asking permission for something you're entitled to decide trains people to expect you to ask next time too. And don't lean on influence alone when a decision genuinely needs escalating: spending weeks persuading a peer to do what a sponsor could simply direct is a slower path to the same place.

Steps

1. Identify whose cooperation you actually need and what's in it for them — influence that ignores the other person's incentives is just repeated asking.
2. Bring evidence, not just a request: a schedule showing the downstream effect of a delay persuades a manager an appeal to urgency alone does not.
3. Use the relationship you have, or build one before you need it — the first conversation you have with someone should not be the one where you're asking for something.
4. Follow through visibly on anything you promised in return, so the next ask still has credit to draw on.

What it produces

• Cooperation obtained without an escalation, and the relationship still intact afterward

Common pitfalls

• Mistaking charm for influence — a favor granted once because someone likes you doesn't survive repeated asks with nothing offered back.
• Over-using influence on people who actually need a decision escalated, which leaves a real authority gap unaddressed while looking like progress.
• Burning a relationship on a low-stakes ask, leaving nothing in reserve for the time the project genuinely needs it.

Worked example

A hospital-equipment installer's PM needs a facilities technician who reports to building operations, not to her, to reschedule a maintenance window around the install. Rather than escalating to the facilities director immediately, she shows the technician the specific two-hour overlap causing the conflict and offers to shift the install crew's start time to give him a wider window, and he agrees without anyone above either of them getting involved.

Source

• PMBOK-6 §9.5.2.1

Where it comes from: this technique is named by the PMBOK Guide, 6th edition.