Amplify Your Influence

3Sequence Is EVERYTHING

“The true measure of leadership is influence … nothing more, nothing less.”

—John C. Maxwell, author of The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership¹

Sequence—the order of things—plays a major role in how effectively we influence others. It's a driver of whether the audience gets the message, takes it to heart, and then acts on or rejects it.

Ideas are like seeds. If planted correctly in properly tilled soil and nurtured—the sequence—they will take root and grow. You wouldn't plant a seed in cement or drop it on top of the soil and never nurture it. Yet that's how most people share their ideas. We must accept the reality that there is a sequence to how people process information and more importantly, accept ideas. Spouting logic, data, and facts alone doesn't cut it, yet we still gravitate to that behavior.

To maximize the power of influence requires understanding the applications and underpinnings of how sequencing affects the way we process and embrace information.

A Matter of Patterns

Sure, there's a beginning, middle, and end to every story, but beyond that when a message follows the right sequence, it's easier to understand and repeat. At some time in our lives—perhaps in school or before a sales call—all of us have had to memorize a list of something and arrange the words, names, or numbers in an order that made them easier to remember. That's a kind of sequencing.

Educators use sequence to help their students understand and organize learning as well ...