Knowledge and Motivation

I've seen the same basic analysis done in three different topics I often read about (leadership, training, and selling) and am presently struggling to piece it all together, so what lies ahead may be fractured and highly speculative, but here it is ... when influencing human behavior to whatever end, an important consideration is the level of knowledge and motivation the subject brings to the process. If your strategy does not account for these factors, and account for it accurately, it is doomed from the start.

Knowledge

Knowledge pertains to the information a person has about a given subject and the certainty that they feel in that knowledge. There is some disagreement over whether it is important for that knowledge to be valid, though "validity" tends to become subjective beyond the basic observable facts, and it seems reasonable to make some distinction between a person who has a head full of disinformation versus a person who has valid information.

Perhaps this would lead to a different analysis, but for the present, it's neither here nor there. The correctness or incorrectness of knowledge is often highly subjective: one person accepts as true what another dismisses as false. The important thing in this consideration is whether their knowledge, fact or fallacy, is in line with your own knowledge.

A misinformed person is worse, and more dangerous, than a completely uninformed person. The road to hell is paved with good intentions - to which I would add "... good intentions of half-witted and misinformed people." But whether a person is ignorant or misinformed, the task of a person who means to exert influence requires considering the degree to which the subject shares knowledge with the influencer.

On the basis of knowledge alone, exerting influence or introducing new information requires a careful consideration of the knowledge the subject has. Presume that the subject has more knowledge than he does, and you may fail to provide adequate direction to undertake the desired course of action. Presume that the subject has less that he does, and he will be annoyed and offended by your approach, and in a less-than-compliant state of mind.

Motivation

Motivation pertains to the intrinsic desire of a person to undertake an action. In general, it pertains to the way in which he believes that undertaking a given action will serve his personal interests. Even when a person is, or claims to be, acting for the benefit of others, the emotional/esteem reward of being an agent that delivers the benefit to another person is still the personal benefit of the agent himself.

As with knowledge, motivation has its negative side: a person may be highly motivated to refrain from undertaking an action that someone else may wish to influence them to undertake. The suggestion may be undesirable in itself, or given that there are limited resources, the subject may acknowledge the value of the action but feel that their time and money is better spent on other things.

On the basis of motivation alone, gauging the subject's level of enthusiasm is also a critical element of influence. Presume a person to be motivated when they are not, do nothing to motivate them, and they will remain inert. Presume a person to be unmotivated when they are motivated, and the effort you put into motivating them is unnecessary and frustrating, as your attempt to motivate them is actually impeding them from taking immediate action.

High Knowledge, High Motivation (HKHM)

Considering the two factors together: influencing a person who has high knowledge and high motivation is not merely easy - it's altogether unnecessary. Such a person knows what he wants to do and very much wants to do it, and your task as an influencer is moot. The best thing you can do is shut up and step aside and let them do what you were going to attempt to influence them into doing in the first place.

Arguably, you can act as a facilitator: help them to do it or remove any obstacles that may be in their path. However, this can be counterproductive if you are too proactive. A knowledgeable and motivated individual will find their own path and circumvent obstacles to their goal, and if any well-meaning action you undertake to facilitate ends up creating an impediment, you're doing more harm than good to their cause and your own.

High Knowledge, Low Motivation (HKLM)

By contrast, the subject with a high level of knowledge and low motivation is likely the hardest person to lead, teach, or sell. They feel, right or wrong, that they are very well aware of the potential benefits of taking an action, but do not believe the benefits to be worth the cost and effort of undertaking it. And as such, they remain stubbornly resolved to refuse.

The approach to dealing with HKLM subjects generally assaults their knowledge: convince them that they are wrong and what they know is false, replacing their invalid knowledge with valid knowledge, and it is presumed they will then find the motivation to undertake the desired action (now that it is, indeed, desirable). This is a difficult proposition, as many people are very guarded of their beliefs and any suggestion they may be incorrect will be met with resistance.

However, this approach is based on the premise that the subject's knowledge is, in fact, wrong. Perhaps an important question to ask, even before considering the task of changing their perception, is whether your own perception (or the one you wish to instill in them) is correct. There are many instances where a given product is legitimately of no value to a given customer and it would be unethical to attempt to convince them otherwise.

Perhaps the best approach, in this instance, is not to approach them at all - to be watchful for a time at which their attitude changes or, gently and in small doses, wean them away from the contrarian point of view.   Even so, it may in some instances be impossible (or at the very least, have an abysmal ROI) to do so.

Low Knowledge, Low Motivation (LKLM)

At the opposite end of both spectrums, the subject who has low knowledge and low motivation requires a great deal of effort to influence. This is a common quandary for salesmen of unwanted products, but it's actually a great deal easier to address than the previous category because it deals with awareness.

That is to say that the subject is not resistant to a proposition because he (feels that he) knows it to be undesirable as would the HKLM subject, merely that he does not know why it should be desirable. If given the knowledge, he may recognize the value and his motivation will be kindled.

This is not an instantaneous solution because the tactic works only one of the vectors, and placing too much emphasis on knowledge can shift this individual into the HKLM category, which is simply dreadful. The knowledge that is imparted cannot be information for information's sake, but tied to a purpose, the benefit to the personal interest of the subject.

This seems to be the approach that most personal selling takes: it is assumed that a person will be amenable to buying a product if you provide information and connect it to personal interests. Both are necessary to gaining compliance, but chances are that one or the other may not be necessary to a given customer who is already knowledgeable or motivated.

Low Knowledge, High Motivation (LKHM)

The LKHM subject seems a paradox - how would a person have a high level of motivation to undertake an action that he does not understand? However, it's quite common. Consider the behavior of most teenagers and young adults, who are strongly motivated towards things they do not understand (sexuality being the most obvious example). Consider the behavior of an adult who has only a vague notion of what to do about a need he does not understand (medical care or insurance). It's not as rare as it might seem.

Unlike the HKHM subject, the LKHM cannot be left alone to act on his own because he does not know what to do. He is in a state in which assistance is necessary and very much appreciated, and it is this kind of person who will be eagerly malleable by a leader, teacher, or salesman who offers assistance in discovering a solution he does not understand to a problem he is keenly aware of.

Success in motivation to the immediate action is unnecessary - this individual is already highly motivated - but should not be done with reckless abandon because of after-action remorse. If you consider immediate success only, it's simple to con the LKHM subject into doing whatever you suggest - but if you are seeking to have an ongoing relationship with them, you must cautiously refrain from encouraging them to do things that will be more harmful than helpful in the long run: the subject will eventually reflect on the encounter, and will be filled with hostility and resentment to an influencer who took advantage.

Caveat

Finally, a caveat: I'm not sure if this schematization is quite right. In mulling over the four categories, there is a lot of interplay between knowledge and motivation, and it occurs to me that knowledge might be seen as a component of motivation rather than a separate factor. It could be that the terms are not as well defined as they ought to be, or a closer analysis of the phenomena could reveal that they are entirely correlated. However, it seems for the present to be sensible.