Chapter 58

Information Power

The final element of personal power is Information Power. Sharing information forms a bond. Any time that you share information with someone you get closer to that person. This is why, in the old days before members of congress passed laws to restrain themselves, they were big on the lecture circuit. An association that might be penalized greatly by congressional legislation could hire a representative or senator to be the speaker at its annual convention.

The association could afford to pay that person a large honorarium. There wouldn’t have to be any quid pro quo involved—just the fact that the lawmaker had mingled with the membership would cause him or her to bond with this industry. Pharmaceutical salespeople, who have a terrible time getting physicians to meet with them, know that they should always show up with some new piece of information, perhaps the results of a new study, because sharing information with the physician bonds them to the physician.

Information Power As an Intimation Factor

Withholding information tends to intimidate. Large companies are skillful about doing this. They’ll develop information at the executive level that they won’t share with the workers. It’s not because it’s that secretive. It’s not because it would do any harm. It’s because these large corporations know that a level of secrecy at the executive level gives them control over the workers.

The human race has a tremendous natural desire to know what’s going on. We can’t stand a mystery. You can put a cow in a field, and it will stay in that field all its life and never wonder what’s on the other side of that hill. Human beings will spend a billion and a half dollars to throw a Hubbell telescope up in space because we have to know what’s going on out there.

Withheld information can be very intimidating. Let’s imagine that you’ve made an extensive presentation to a buying committee and the members say to you, “We need to talk about this for a moment. Would you mind waiting outside in the lobby? We’ll call you when we’re ready for you.” Is it any wonder you feel uncomfortable sitting outside in the lobby? We hate it when people withhold information from us.

The moment we realize they may just be doing this to us as a negotiating Gambit, they can no longer intimidate us with this. Realize that they may be in there talking about football scores for all we know, so that when we walk back into the negotiations, our level of self-confidence has gone down and their level of power has gone up. Once we realize that it’s just a ploy, they can no longer intimidate us with this Gambit.