Influence

A while back my work had a little workshop on how to influence others.  How to get people to do what you want them to, or more importantly how to get people to want to do what you want them to do.  And I couldn't help but draw parrallels between how I influence my employees to how I train my horses.

During our workshop I heard a lot of people decribe influence as "making" poeple do something or using the "becasue I'm the boss" reasoning.  (This is why we had the workshop, we needed some help in this area).  And I kept thinking, you cant "make" anyone do anything.  And "because I'm the boss" only gets results in the short term.

Same thing with horses, I know the only reason I get my horse to do anything is becasue I have somehow convinced him its a good idea., he doesnt' know I'm the boss, or maybe he knows I'm not, iether way, he doesn't care.  And as far as making a horse do anything, anyone who has tried to load a clostrophobic horse into a trailer knows there's no "make" about it. 

And listeneng to everyones pholosophies about influence ane compairing them to my own made me wonder if I felt differently because I work with horses, or if my thoughts on influence is what made enjoy training horses.  Either way I think most people could learn a lot about human nature jsut by working with a horse, or any animal for that matter.  Becasue whether we realize it or not, our motivations are very similar.  What gets you more motivated, doing something becasue someone told you to or doing it because there is some kind of benefit in it for you? That's all it really is about... the what is in it for me factor.  And if you can figure out how to communicate that to an animal, who doesnt' speak your language, its a piece of cake with a person who does.