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Origin story

This is our story. Read how Bureau Zuidema was founded in the ‘70s to develop into the company that it is now.

Influence skills: more important than ever!
Our Influence Model® is deeply rooted in behavioural psychology. Behaviour is complex and human motivation is even more complicated – try and really convince people of your vision; hard, isn’t it? How can we increase motivation and have more impact on the people around us? And why are influence skills so important? An interesting cause for the research of the team of scientists David Berlew and Roger Harrison, who started developing the first version of our model at Harvard University in the seventies.

Research in the Seventies
After the Second World War, companies and organisations were done with authoritative behaviour. People were specifically interested in the POSITIVE workings of influence. Attention shifted to topics regarding the accomplishment of your personal goals. How do you reach them without the input of a formal rank or authority? Some people seemed more naturally gifted at this, than others.

At the end of the sixties another Harvard student, Robert Freed Bales, investigated behaviour in small groups without a leader. He developed a coding system to score this behaviour, with categories such as ‘making proposals’ and ‘asking questions’ and linked this behaviour to the influence of group members. Berlew saw this research and realized that there are two types of influence behaviour: Positive influence behaviour and negative influence behaviour.

At the start of the seventies and fuelled by these questions, Berlew and Harrison began their research of influence behaviour. They observed employees coming from equal backgrounds and positions while they were at their jobs. Because of the similar backgrounds, the researchers could fully focus on the differences in the attitudes and communication of the employees.

Flexibility in influence behaviour
Berlew and Harrison discovered a pattern in the more successful employees: they were flexible in their behaviour. Employees who easily switch between influence behaviours reach their personal career goals quicker. Because these people change their behaviour to their goal, the situation, and the person they are dealing with, they prove to be more successful than people who are less flexible in their influence behaviour. The scientists called this ‘situational influence behaviour’.

The Influence Model® and PIP
Berlew and Harrison documented the different influence styles they observed during their research. With this, the first version of the Influence Model® was born! The model gives insight in the influence behaviour of a person AND offers them structural tools to be able to use these different styles themselves. This way, anyone can increase their personal influence in a positive manner. The result? Accomplishing your personal goals, while strengthening the relationships with others.

To acquire these influence skills, the training programme Positive Influence® Programme (PIP) was developed. In 1976, then-CEO of Bureau Zuidema, Hans Zuidema, introduced the Influence Model® and PIP in the Netherlands.

Still relevant
How does an influence programme developed in the ‘70s still take care of advanced influence skills that help you on the work floor, today? It’s simple, really – because it works. Systems might have changed, but in practice human behaviour demonstrates to be influenced by the same factors as it was then. We are motivated by inspiration. Influential people are, in that way, driven people who naturally set individuals, teams or organisations in motion. The behavioural styles used in those situations, can be learned.

Insight in your influence situations
Positive influence is not self-evident, but you can certainly develop it! By means of exercises and insight in the behaviour YOU use in influence situations, the Influence Model® will grant you clear skills to increase your impact on the work floor – and in other situations.

You are solely responsible for your own learning goal, which requires motivation… and a hint of courage. It takes time to truly own your learned skills in order to be able to use them in real situations.

This is where we’d like to help you. Numerous participants participated before you and got to know their personal power. After leaving the training programme, they all did something differently than before. It’s exactly what we’re going for: making as many people as possible truly more influential – in the long term! It’s not just a training programme, it’s for life!

Would you like to gain more impact? To convince others of your ideas? To come up with clear proposals that have effect on your colleagues or clients? You can learn to be more influential. Check out our programmes here.