Themes → Influencing without authority training

Influencing without authority training · 2 days · Amsterdam

You are right. And still they do not come along.

People do not decide on arguments, but on the situation they are in. In two days you learn to read and design that situation, so that colleagues, clients and directors say yes and act on it. Without hierarchy, without tricks.

For advisers, project leads, policy makers, account managers and managers who need to bring others along without being in charge of them.

This is how I bring them on board →

Behavioural Design Fundamentals · next English edition to be announced (Dutch editions monthly) · € 1,490 excl. VAT · max 16 participants

9.3 out of 10 (Springest) · 10,000+ trained · EQAC-certified · practitioner trainers

Participants discussing their own case during the Behavioural Design Fundamentals training at SUE in Amsterdam

Sound familiar?

The proposal is sound. The other person does nothing with it.

Scene 1

You backed the proposal with numbers. The director says "interesting" and it disappears into a drawer.

Scene 2

The client was enthusiastic in the meeting. Then you hear nothing more.

Scene 3

Your colleague from the other department says yes in the meeting and then simply works around you.

Classic influencing courses teach you to talk better. The problem is not your story, but the situation in which the other person decides.

Prefer to read first?

The training brochure in your inbox.

Programme, dates, price and what you take home, in one PDF you can also forward to your manager.

What you learn

After two days you can do this.

You see which fears and habits hold the other person back, even when they do not name them themselves.

You design the moment at which the other person decides, instead of rewriting your pitch for the tenth time.

You use social proof, friction and framing deliberately, and recognise when someone applies them to you.

You bring people along without authority, and without them feeling played: they choose for themselves.

You learn this with Behavioural Design and the SUE Influence Framework: first understand why someone is not saying yes now, then design the situation in which they do.

The programme

Two days, with the person you need to bring along as the case.

Day 1

How people really decide

System 1 and 2: why a strong argument rarely tips the balance.
The SUE Influence Framework applied to your own situation: what is holding this person back right now?
Behavioural interview: how to hear in half an hour what the other person does not say in the meeting.

Day 2

Designing the decision

From insight to intervention with SWAC: what has to change in the situation, not in your story.
Prototyping and testing on a real conversation, proposal or process.
AI as a help in analysis and wording, so you apply the method quickly after the training too.

A maximum of 16 participants. Both days you work on someone you need to bring along now, not on a case from a textbook.

How is this different from a regular influencing course?

Not conversation technique. A design method.

	Classic influencing course	Behavioural Design Fundamentals
What you practise	Your own behaviour in the conversation: listening, arguing, body language, influencing styles	The situation in which the other person decides
What you take home	A styles model	A design method plus the Behavioural Design Toolkit
When it works	When you are at the table yourself	Also when you are not in the room: in an email, a proposal, a process or a policy
Duration and price (excl. VAT)	Two to three days, usually € 1,200 to € 2,000	Two days, € 1,490
Recognition	Varies per provider	EQAC-certified certificate

If what you mainly want is confidence in difficult conversations, a conversation skills course is the better choice. If you want your proposal adopted this month, you are in the right place.

Who teaches this?

Trainers who design behaviour themselves, not lecturers who talk about it.

Kirsten Kremer

Trainer & consultant

Works at the intersection of Behavioural Design, people & culture strategy and wellbeing programmes. Helps organisations understand and positively steer human behaviour.

Birgitta Vrins

Trainer & consultant

Combines behavioural science with sustainability and healthcare. Specialist in sustainable change at individual, organisational and societal level.

Thijs Perquin

Product designer & UX strategist

Translates behavioural science into smart, practical solutions. Helps teams innovate faster, smarter and more effectively.

Mylene Samuels

Trainer & consultant

Founder of the Behavioural Design Circle at ABN AMRO. More than 25 years of experience at the intersection of CX, propositions and behaviour change.

Astrid Groenewegen

Co-founder & trainer

Has spent more than 15 years making behavioural science practical for organisations worldwide. A practitioner, not an academic researcher. Author of The Art of Designing Behaviour.

Does this work for people like me?

9.3 out of 10. 98% recommend the training.

Astrid is an experienced trainer who keeps you interested with knowledge and humour until the last minute. She is not only telling information, but also applying it immediately and that makes the training very valuable.

Brechtje Turksma

Public Affairs Adviser, Famn

★★★★★

Super, I got clear and practical guidance on Behavioural Design. It's never a one trick pony.

Marlies Booijink

Senior Communication Adviser Supervision, AFM

★★★★★

In two days we got the basics of how to apply Behavioural Design in practice. Astrid can convey the importance of outside-in thinking in a clear, informative and interesting way. I now feel like applying this in my own daily practice.

Fleur Wienhoven

Project Lead Visitors, amsterdam&partners

★★★★★

9.3/10

★★★★★

4.8/5

★★★★★

What you take home

The Behavioural Design Toolkit: everything you need to do it on Monday.

SUE Influence Framework Canvas

Maps, in one overview, what holds the other person back and what tips them over the line.

SWAC intervention tool

Translates your diagnosis into interventions that make the desired choice the easiest one.

Jobs-to-be-Done Canvas and cheat sheet

Shows what the other person is really trying to get done, and why your proposal does not fit that yet.

Behavioural Interview Guide

The questions that let you hear what the other person does not say in the meeting.

Behavioural Statement and Prototyping Guide

Pins down exactly which decision you want and how you test it small before you use it at scale.

AI Mentor, EQAC certificate and BD Club

After purchase you receive the AI Mentor, after the training your certificate and lifelong membership of the Behavioural Design Club.

Is this for me?

Honestly: not everyone is in the right place here.

Not for you if

you mainly want to practise difficult conversations and body language;
you are looking for a sales course with call scripts;
you want an academic degree in behavioural science.

For you if

there is someone you need to bring along now and you want to get to work on it the day after the training;
you are done persuading on arguments;
you want it to work even when you are not at the table yourself.

Behavioural Design Fundamentals · 2 days · Amsterdam

Those who influence with arguments win discussions. Those who design the situation bring people along.

This is how I bring them on board →

Next English edition to be announced (Dutch editions monthly) · € 1,490 excl. VAT · max 16 participants · EQAC certificate

Does your whole team need to bring stakeholders along? Then the two-day Sprint at your location is the format.

Frequently asked questions

One more thing

Influencing without authority is getting people to choose what you propose while you are not in charge of them. It does not work through better arguments, but through the situation in which the other person decides: what they see, what others do, how much effort it takes and what risk they feel. In the training you learn to read and design that situation.

Both, with a difference. Persuasion is about what you say; influencing is about the context in which the other person decides. You learn both, but the emphasis is on designing the decision, because that also works when you are not in the room.

For advisers, project leads, policy makers, account managers and managers who need to bring others along without hierarchy. No background in psychology required.

Two consecutive days in Amsterdam, a maximum of 16 participants. English-language editions run several times a year; the next date is at the top of this page and all dates are on the training page.

€ 1,490 excluding VAT, including the Behavioural Design Toolkit, lunch, the EQAC certificate, the AI Mentor after purchase and lifelong membership of the BD Club.

No. Manipulation works against the interest of the other person and stops the moment they see through it. Behavioural Design designs situations in which people find it easier to choose what they already want. In the training we discuss the ethical line explicitly.

Yes. For teams there is the Sprint: the same two days at your location, with your own case, for 5 to 24 participants.

You are right. And still they do not come along.

The proposal is sound. The other person does nothing with it.

The training brochure in your inbox.

After two days you can do this.

Two days, with the person you need to bring along as the case.

How people really decide

Designing the decision

Not conversation technique. A design method.

Trainers who design behaviour themselves, not lecturers who talk about it.

Kirsten Kremer

Birgitta Vrins

Thijs Perquin

Mylene Samuels

Astrid Groenewegen

9.3 out of 10. 98% recommend the training.

The Behavioural Design Toolkit: everything you need to do it on Monday.

SUE Influence Framework Canvas

SWAC intervention tool

Jobs-to-be-Done Canvas and cheat sheet

Behavioural Interview Guide

Behavioural Statement and Prototyping Guide

AI Mentor, EQAC certificate and BD Club

Honestly: not everyone is in the right place here.

Not for you if

For you if

Those who influence with arguments win discussions. Those who design the situation bring people along.

One more thing

Three guides for those who need to bring someone along now.

Bringing stakeholders along without authority

Why arguments do not persuade

Bringing people along in a change