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Influencing without authority training · 2 days · Amsterdam

Gain influence without authority: learn to shape choices and behaviour

Colleagues, clients and directors decide based on the situation they're in, not on your arguments. In two days you learn to read that situation and design it. You gain more influence on what they choose, even when you are not their boss.

For advisers, project leads, policy makers, account managers and managers who need to get others on board without being their boss.

This is how I bring them on board →

Behavioural Design Fundamentals · next English edition to be announced · € 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

What is influence?

Influence lives in the situation where the other person chooses.

Influence is the ability to change what another person chooses and does. Without formal authority, you gain influence through the situation in which the other person decides: what they see, what others do, how much effort a choice takes and what risk they feel. Learning to read and design that situation is the skill of influencing choices and behaviour. More influence is the result.

More on the method: the SUE Influence Framework.

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.

A standard influencing course teaches you to talk better. But your story was never the problem. The problem is 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 stop rewriting your pitch for the tenth time. You design the moment the other person decides.

You use social proof, friction and framing on purpose. And you spot it straight away when someone uses them on you.

People come along, even though you're not their boss. They don't feel played, because 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

With SWAC you work out what has to change in the situation. Your story can then stay much as it is.
Prototyping and testing on a real conversation, proposal or process.
AI helps you analyse and find the words. So you can apply the method quickly after the training too.

A maximum of 16 participants. Both days you work on someone you really need to win over right now. So no textbook case.

How is this different from a regular influencing course?

You learn to design the other person's decision, even when you're not at the table.

	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

Mainly want more confidence in difficult conversations? Then pick a conversation skills course. Want your proposal approved this month? Then you're in the right place.

Who teaches this?

You learn it from people who do this work themselves, every week.

Kirsten Kremer

Trainer & consultant

Uses Behavioural Design in people & culture and wellbeing programmes. She helps organisations see why people do what they do, and nudge that behaviour in a good direction.

Birgitta Vrins

Trainer & consultant

Combines behavioural science with sustainability and healthcare. She makes change stick, in people, in organisations and in society.

Thijs Perquin

Product designer & UX strategist

Turns behavioural science into practical solutions. Teams that work with him innovate faster.

Mylene Samuels

Trainer & consultant

Founder of the Behavioural Design Circle at ABN AMRO. Has worked on customer experience, propositions and behaviour change for more than 25 years.

Astrid Groenewegen

Co-founder & trainer

Has been applying behavioural science in organisations around the world for more than 15 years. 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. With it, you can get going on your own on Monday.

SUE Influence Framework Canvas

You see on one page what holds the other person back and what wins them over.

SWAC intervention tool

Helps you make the choice you're hoping for the easiest one for the other person.

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

You write down exactly which decision you want. And you test it small before you go big.

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're tired of arguments that go nowhere;
you want it to work even when you are not at the table yourself.

Frequently asked questions

One more thing

By changing the situation in which the other person decides, rather than arguing harder. Find out what they want to achieve, what worries them and what ties them to the old habit. Then make the choice you propose easier, more visible and less risky. That works with colleagues, clients and directors who do not report to you.

Start with one concrete decision you need from someone. Describe the behaviour you want to see and the moment that choice is made. Then look at what holds the other person back at that moment. Do that a few times and you are practising the skill of influencing choices and behaviour, and your influence grows with it.

How people really decide, how to map what drives and what holds back the person in front of you, and how to design and test interventions. For two days the person you need to bring along is your case, and you go home with a toolkit you use the following week.

Influencing without authority is getting people to choose what you propose when you're not their boss. Better arguments barely help. What matters is 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. Persuasion is about what you say. Influencing is about the situation in which the other person decides. You learn both, with the emphasis on designing the decision. Because that works even when you're 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 you'll find every date 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 makes it easier for people to choose what they already want. We talk about the ethical line openly in the training.

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

Gain influence without authority: learn to shape choices and behaviour

Influence lives in the situation where the other person chooses.

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

You learn to design the other person's decision, even when you're not at the table.

You learn it from people who do this work themselves, every week.

Kirsten Kremer

Birgitta Vrins

Thijs Perquin

Mylene Samuels

Astrid Groenewegen

9.3 out of 10. 98% recommend the training.

The Behavioural Design Toolkit. With it, you can get going on your own 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

Arguments win you the debate. A well-designed situation wins you the people.

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