I want to affect change
affect, effect
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Ed Good — Grammar Tips
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These two words are discussed at length in the Common Grammatical Mistakes section of Grammar.com. Click here for that discussion.
Both words can be used as either nouns or verbs even though many sources will claim that affect is a verb and effect is a noun. But actually, both can act as verbs and as nouns.
As a verb affect means “to influence” while the verb effect means “to produce a result.” The noun phrases “cause and effect” and “special effects” might help you remember that effect usually acts as a noun.
You should use effect as a verb when one thing causes another. To “effect changes” means “to create new changes.” To “affect changes” means “to influence or modify changes already made.”
Affect is not very common as a noun but can be used to describe a feeling or emotion especially as evidenced by facial expression or physical demeanor. As a noun, effect is the result of a change or course of action.
See impact.
Example: The effect of the new policy to lower wages was obvious from the downcast affect of the office staff. Their attitudes will certainly affect their performance and the overall success of our business. If we fail to show a profit, the board of directors will effect further changes and reduce salaries even more.
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Affect Change or Effect Change – Which is Correct?
When you contact your state representative and convince him or her to vote against a piece of regressive legislation, are you effecting change or affecting change?
The answer is not as simple as it seems—both affect and effect can be used as a verb or a noun.
These multiple meanings are the source of the confusion around this common phrase.
What is the Difference Between Affect Change and Effect Change?
In this post, I will compare effect change vs. affect change and use each of these phrases in a sentence that shows how the phrase looks in context.
I will also show you a useful memory tool that makes it simpler to choose either effect change or affect change for your writing.
See also affect vs. effect.
When to Use Effect Change
What does effect change mean? Effect change is a verb phrase that means to bring about a different state of affairs.
An activist might seek to effect change at a local level if she does not approve of the use of land resources in her hometown, for instance. Similarly, a member of the safety team at a manufacturing plant could seek to effect change in the way his coworkers use dangerous equipment.
Here are some more examples,
- Many people want to bring down the government, but it might be more useful and practical to effect change by running for local office.
- Everyone can effect change by choosing to recycle or not litter on the streets.
- Individual investors can effect change this year on another topic: company policies governing when it should act to recover an executive’s compensation because of corporate wrongdoing. –The New York Times
When to Use Affect Change
What does affect change mean? Affect change is an incorrect version of the phrase effect change.
In most contexts, affect is a verb, while effect is a noun, so it’s easy to see why many writers default to affect in this verb phrase. Still,
effect can be used as a verb, where it means to bring about something (like change). Affect can also be used as a noun, like in the phrase positive affect, which is basically technical shorthand for a good mood in social science research.
As you can see from the chart below, which charts affect change vs. effect change over time, effect change is the much more commonly used version of this phrase.
Of course, this makes sense, since effect change is the correct spelling of the phrase. Affect change still appears, although it’s not clear in what contexts writers are using this phrase.
Trick to Remember the Difference
Counterintuitive though it may seem, effect change is the correct version of this phrase. When effect is used as a verb, it means to bring something about. The phrase effect change therefore means to bring something about.
Effect change starts with the letter E, just like the verb elicit. The shared E between these words is your clue that effect change is the correct phrase.
Summary
Is it affect change or effect change? Effect change is a verb phrase that means to bring about change.
Affect change is a common mistake based on the normal parts of speech of affect and effect.
To summarize,
- Effect change is the correct spelling.
- Affect change is an error.
Contents
- 1 What is the Difference Between Affect Change and Effect Change?
- 2 When to Use Effect Change
- 3 When to Use Affect Change
- 4 Trick to Remember the Difference
- 5 Summary
How to learn how to influence people
Varvara Grankova
To be effective in today's corporate world, you need to be able to motivate the people around you. But how do you get colleagues to support your initiatives and accept your ideas? And that people turn to you for advice and follow your instructions?
What the experts say
Influence is a value, says Dori Clark, author of Entrepreneurial You. “Thanks to influence, you do more and can promote projects that are important to you and for which you are responsible, which means that you are more likely to be noticed, you will receive a salary increase or you will get a new position,” says the expert.
However, gaining influence in today's world is a difficult task, says Nick Morgan, author of Power Cues. Due to information overload and the pace of life, people's concentration has deteriorated. Nevertheless, right now, due to strong competition, it is more important than ever to be able to influence others. Here are some tips to help you form your own approach to this issue.
Build connections
Work is not a school competition for the most popular student, but, as Clark points out, one of the main reasons people do things for you, such as support an idea or approve a budget, is that they like you. You don't have to be "the most amazing" or "amaze everyone with your charisma". You just need to establish good contact with colleagues. It doesn't translate directly into influence, of course, but it definitely increases the chances that other people will listen to you. So, work on strengthening your personal connections with your colleagues, let them get to know you better, and they won't attribute negative intentions or motives to you.
Listen before trying to persuade. The best way to convince colleagues to support you and your plans is to make them feel they are being listened to. “The reason people dislike their work is that people feel they are not respected, that they are not being listened to,” says Clarke.
Personalized
Marcy Schinder is director of marketing at Work Market, a New York-based firm that helps companies manage freelancers and consultants. Even before joining the Work Market, Marcy decided to be an influential member of the team. She organized informal meetings with several future colleagues, and this allowed her to establish contact with them. “I wanted to know what their goals were. What, in their opinion, is effective for the company? And what achievements do they want from me? Marcy explains.
During meetings, she sat upright, maintained eye contact, and appeared open and attentive. “Body language is so important – we teach it to salespeople. I tried to listen carefully,” she says.
These pre-meetings helped Marcy get to know the minds and personalities of her colleagues, which was helpful when she recently decided to update the company's website and needed support to get the project off the ground.
Thanks to those conversations, Marcy was able to develop an individual approach to everyone. For example, with Stephen DeWitt, CEO, she spoke about the company's vision. She started with the analytical thinker Jeff Wald, president and managing director, with numbers. And in a conversation with the director of customer service, she focused specifically on customers.
Her efforts paid off. The company's new Work Market website will be launched this spring.
Marcy is always up to date with the latest trends and news in her professional field. This is another method by which she increases her influence. “I spend 25% of my time talking to clients, other CMOs, board people and potential clients, and educating young people. Thanks to this, I have the latest information and keep my finger on the pulse of events taking place outside the walls of this company,” says Marcy.
Ask colleagues to share their views and seek advice. Start giving them your full attention in situations where you are one on one. Morgan believes that most of us have a to-do list in our heads at all times, and it shows. When communicating with colleagues, we spin in place, get distracted by extraneous thoughts, or are ready to grab the phone. “Turn around to face the other person, stop and listen,” advises Morgan.
Control your body and voice
People are constantly deciding whether to trust you or not. It is natural for us to ask questions: “Is this person a friend or an enemy? Is he trying to hurt me, or are we on the same side? Body language plays a key role in conveying the right message. If you stand up straight with your shoulders back, it helps to give the impression of a confident and authoritative person. If you slouch while staring at the floor, it has the opposite effect. “When you slouch, you think and speak in terms of submission, thereby increasing the likelihood that you will be seen as less of an authority figure,” Morgan notes.
Let's say you have a meeting with an unfamiliar colleague from another department. Morgan advises sending him the signal that you are a friend by doing this: do not cross your arms in front of you, keep your hands along your body, but "the body open and facing the other person." He also recommends speaking in a slightly lower voice than usual to convey a sense of power. This skill is useful to rehearse, because it neutralizes the sign of nervousness - the increase in tone.
Become an expert
Another way to increase your influence at work is to become an expert in your field or company. Dori Clark suggests "getting into your own subject"—attending industry conferences, enrolling in a course or a specialized program, or taking on a leadership role in a professional organization such as a trade union or association. These are visible and overt signs that you follow the news and are aware of important events.
Customer Pain
The CEO of Jitterbit, an Oakland, Calif. -based software vendor, George Gallegos is not an authoritarian leader. “Either in my opinion, or not at all - this is not my approach. I want people to feel they have a voice and take part in the decision-making process,” he says.
When George first joined Jitterbit in 2011, the company had about 50 clients. George understood that the future of the company lay in the cloud, but this was a new area and a difficult task for the company. “It was necessary to reorganize the work of engineers and make sure that this fact did not cause discomfort to investors. We also needed to make sure that the marketing department could understand how we planned to change our positioning,” recalls George.
He began to make strategic plans to gain support for these changes. The hardest thing to convince was Jeff, Jitterbit's senior technology leader, who was skeptical about cloud solutions. George wanted to address him with words that would not leave him indifferent: “Jeff is passionate about the success of his clients, and he also does not like to lose. So I knew I needed to give Jeff a visual representation of the challenges we're facing."
For two days in a row, George took Jeff with him to meetings with a potential client of the company. “I brought him into the trenches and let him get under fire with me. I wanted him to feel the client's pain,” says George. In 2012, Jitterbit released its first cloud-based software. The company now has 50,000 customers.
Don't hide your knowledge, Clark advises. Maintaining a professional blog or being featured in your company's newsletter is another way to showcase your expertise.
Develop a strategy
Be strategic when it comes time to use your accumulated influence to implement an idea. Clarke recommends creating a balance of power. “Create a table and indicate in it the people who make the decision on your issue,” the expert says. As you move through the levels of the table, ask questions: “Can I influence this person directly? If I can’t do it, then who in my circle of influence can influence him?” Think about how and when you will contact these people. Clarke advises presenting the situation as a war game. Ask yourself who your plans might be threatening and how you can win these people over to your side. You're not scheming - you're acting strategically, Clark reminds.
Give people what they want
You can increase your influence by convincingly presenting your idea as an advantage to the people you want to win over to your cause. Take into account their needs, attitudes and temperament. “Do your homework: figure out what they need to hear and what will grab their attention,” Morgan says.
When communicating with each of these people, be sure to answer his question: “What is my benefit here?” It is also useful to talk about how the idea will benefit the company as a whole. "Use the pronoun 'we', like 'we'll see value,'" Morgan advises. "If your proposal serves only your own interests, people will not support it," says Clarke.
About the author. Rebecca Knight is a journalist and lecturer at Wesleyan University. Her articles have been published in The New York Times, USA Today and the Financial Times
Is the behavior appropriate to the character? Many people think that they are one and the same. But it's not. Behavior does not always reflect our nature. Behavior is an external manifestation in the surrounding world, and it often answers the question: who do I want to appear, the character determines the core of a person, his motives and values, motivational coach Gohar Davtyan is sure
We must focus our main efforts on the development of our own character, which, like the roots that support a huge tree, is often invisible to others. But it is thanks to the care of its roots that we eventually see the fruits. With the permission of the Bombora publishing house, Forbes Life publishes an excerpt from the book “Point of Balance” by motivational coach Gohar Davtyan
a good foundation is required—a strong character.
In fact, the most powerful resource for success is character, which remains undeveloped.
To begin with, let's figure it out: what does character mean? Character - a set of properties and qualities of a personality that impose a certain imprint on all its manifestations and deeds. Character traits determine a particular way of human behavior, the way of his life. Character is the essence of a person, and he should not "live" separately, his own life. If you suppress your nature for a long time, it can become unpredictable, figuratively speaking - jump out from behind a corner and behave in the most bad way at the most inopportune moment.
Knowing your character is what I consider the most important thing on the road to success. And if you don’t like something, remember that we decided not to put on a mask, but to change our character.
Can character be changed? - you will be surprised. Yes, character is not a constant, you can and should work with it.
Scientists have already proven that the brain can and should change throughout life. He is unusually mobile, quickly transforming, even such a concept as neuroplasticity1, which began to be discussed relatively recently, has entered science. During the 20th century it was generally accepted that the brain remained unchanged after completion of formation in childhood. But that view is now changing with new research showing that the brain retains plasticity beyond childhood. Neuroplasticity refers to the processes of making or breaking connections and neurogenesis. Its role is widely recognized by modern medicine and psychology as a phenomenon that allows you to develop character, change personality through internal transformations;
In today's society, no one really thinks about changing their own character, it is not customary to talk about it, because for many years we have all been mistaken, thinking that character is not subject to change. I want you to pay attention to your character - as the main resource for achieving all the best in your life, the way to harmonize yourself and the world around you.
We may not like the character of another person, but we cannot influence him. And on ourselves - we can, if we only want to.
Our life is a journey with ups and downs, and only by paying attention to ourselves, focusing on self-improvement, on creating a better version of ourselves, we are able to change our destiny. I believe that every person, having already stepped on the threshold of conscious life, should first of all think about getting to know the most important person in his life - with himself.
Do you carry ficus with you?
A man came to visit a friend. They spent a good evening together. He was invited to stay. At night, his stomach ached, and in order not to disturb the owners, he decided not to go far and took advantage of a large ficus in the living room where he slept. He left early in the morning while the owners were sleeping. Years passed, somehow he met a friend on the street and became interested in how things were going.
And he replied: “Things are good, but we have a problem with apartments! We are already changing the fifth, but to no avail - it still stinks. ” Our hero asked embarrassedly: “And the ficus? Do you carry ficus with you?
You can change cities, countries, husbands, wives, leaders and subordinates, but if you do not change your character and do not manage yourself, mistakes and failures will be repeated again and again. Our character, like that ficus from a joke, will remind of itself.
It doesn't matter if you are the head of a large concern or a housewife, managing your life and destiny is important for everyone. Maturity does not depend either on the position or on the years lived. You can be young, but already a mature person, or you can live your whole life without knowing yourself. Is a person capable of managing himself if he is not at all familiar with the object of management - his character?
A constituent part of a person's personality is his habits.
We form habits and habits form us. Every habit is a system of persistent neuronal connections. Why are habits hard to change? The fact is that behind them are the connections of neurons, which, when an impulse is applied, act according to a given pattern, follow a certain path.
Character is a certain set of automatic reactions. Automatic reactions, of course, help us, make it possible to quickly navigate. We do many things “on the machine”, without thinking. And if there is a stable habit of responding in a certain way to the challenges of the outside world, we will respond in the same way to the same event day after day. On the one hand, it's great. Imagine that the glass falls, and we begin to analyze what should we do? How best to react? What muscles to tense? Of course, we automatically catch him and save the situation. Or we are attacked, our reaction is automatic, and we react without thinking for a long time.
Also great - we operate at the level of the reptilian brain, at the level of instincts: fight, run or freeze.
On the other hand, is it good to live completely “on the machine”, without thinking about the important things, about what would help improve the quality of life? Do something differently. To have the right to choose a reaction to different situations - to react consciously, feeling that there is space between the stimulus and the reaction, there are many options for responding. And we are somewhat similar to Pavlov's dog: there is a signal - there is salivation, and it does not matter that there is no food, the main thing is that the light is on!
“Everyone annoys me,” says the hot-tempered man. At the same time, he does not think about why he reacts this way, why he shows aggression and does not know at all that there is another option for responding.
He acts at the level of automatic reactions, without awareness, and becomes a follower, a slave of his character. Character begins to control the fate of a person, and not a person - his character.
Neuroscience states that connections in the brain are the biological basis for habits and conditioned reflexes. Otherwise, they are called patterns - persistent patterns of behavior, connections of neurons in the brain. One set of habits and reactions we inherit, the other we form unconsciously in childhood. Many may even be aware (at best) of their difficult nature and admit: “Yes, I have a difficult character, but I can’t help myself.”
You already know that the brain is plastic and can change if we want it to. But it turns out that we are not only capable of changing our character and habits. After we have changed our character, breaking old patterns of behavior, we are even able to change our genes.
Once this news struck me. Science has proven that after a person changes his character, the changes are fixed in the person's genotype. Old patterns are broken and the body begins to develop new ones.
Over time, they grow stronger, finally and irrevocably crowding out the old ones, and are fixed at the level of genes. It turns out that we always have a chance not only to improve our own character, but also to make an invaluable contribution to the nature of future generations.
To make it clear, let's turn on the imagination and imagine that somewhere in a small village where everyone knows each other, and the surnames in the family are consonant with the corresponding human qualities, a boy was born. Born in a family where all family members are unusually greedy. The boy is from a greedy family, and in the village they know that this family has long been famous for greed. A boy grows up in a family where all habits and all actions are based on stinginess. And he does not see, does not realize his character, his greed - despite the fact that in the village they already point the finger at him and notice this weakness in him. Let's imagine that at some point an insight comes to him and instead of aggressively denying, he sees and realizes that in fact he has a serious problem, wants to correct the situation and starts working on his character.
From that moment on, a miracle will happen - as he changes, so will his genes. So, if one day a child is born to him, he will give him completely new, altered genes, free from the vice of greed.
The Universe is always ready to help us in our evolution. Our brain changes, new habits are fixed in it, new patterns appear.
It turns out that a conscious step of one person can influence and improve the genotype of a whole family! In history, opposite cases are also known, when one person, having seriously violated the laws of the Universe, along with material values, passes on genetic diseases to descendants.
Let's take another look at the chain of mysterious transformation: a person becomes aware of his negative traits, begins to work on himself, changes. And when he himself changes, his fate, his genes and all future generations change after him. Judge for yourself, isn't it a miracle? Would you like to work on a good genotype for your generations? I think such a gift is much more important than material wealth, sometimes acquired dishonestly, fraught with weak genetics and various diseases.
We can and must change. For me, the meaning of life is in the evolution of the mind. A person is able to part with a bad character, with previous reactions, break the circle of vicious inclinations, helping himself and future generations. We can create a new self by drastically changing what we don't like. We can spiral upward, recognizing past mistakes and finding fresh solutions, creating a new vision. New self.
By changing our vision, we change behavior and habits. As a result, the incentives that we send to the outside world change, and we rise to the next level of development.
A quantum leap of consciousness occurs, and the person begins to vibrate differently. New stimuli trigger the responses of the world around us and radically change the life situations in which we find ourselves. Thus, by changing our consciousness, we are able to change our destiny. But this will happen only when, instead of trying to correct others, put on comfortable masks, whine and go in circles, we begin to use life energy in finding ourselves.
Behavior and character
Is the behavior appropriate to the character? Many people think that they are one and the same. But it's not. Behavior does not always reflect our nature. Behavior is an external manifestation in the outside world, and it often answers the question: who do I want to appear?
What is more important - character or behavior? When I ask this question to the audience, the answers I get are very different. But most often people believe that the main thing is behavior. In other words, external manifestations often mean more to us than internal ones. Simply put, what I want to appear is more important than who I really am!
“A person should be well-mannered and watch his behavior,” listeners object to me. But you must admit that a person who must behave “correctly” and therefore is not rude (upbringing does not allow) is fundamentally different from someone who has a priori respect for people in his character and is simply not able to be rude.
For a mature person, behavior is derived from character and does not particularly differ from its essence. People whose behavior is an extension of character are whole, congruent people. Such a person has consistency in all manifestations: he thinks, feels, speaks, does. Behavior is the external manifestation of a person, while the core is his character, intentions, motives, values.
A quick-tempered person can restrain his anger if necessary, but is still fundamentally different from someone who does not react at all to the situation and does not get irritated. Despite the fact that externally their behavior is the same, the internal content is completely different. The quick-tempered one is often indignant over trifles, but he never realizes that his character is the source of anger.
In a good way, behavior should flow from character. But we live superficially, where necessary - we put on a mask and do not reach the depth, our true essence.
A person may be dissatisfied with others and think: “Why am I being treated so badly? Why are they not respected? Why am I surrounded only by unpleasant people? Why is everything so unfortunate: the wife is unbearable, the leader is a bore, the subordinates are terrible, the neighbors are bad? And he does not even suspect that the source of all troubles is his character! Perhaps, at the level of behavior, a person corrects something in order to please where it is beneficial for him. But it does not fundamentally change anything - because it does not see a causal relationship. Indeed, in order to rebuild something fundamentally, it is necessary to work with character, to answer difficult questions. For example: what can I change inside to interact with the outside world more harmoniously? How do I attract these situations and these people into my life? What are they telling me? How does my character manifest in these situations?
Character is woven from a multitude of attitudes received at birth.They form our picture of the world, and she is the magic binoculars through which we look at this world.
The Iceberg model of the American psychologist Paul Watzlawick illustrates the above very clearly. The visible part of the iceberg is behavior, skills, attitudes, actions, competencies. That is, everything that I demonstrate to the outside world. All soft skills trainings mainly work in this area of the personality, “pumping up” skills and competencies. For example: if you want good communications, watch your body, take an open pose. Sometimes they can even give you recommendations on how many times to blink and how to gesticulate in order to inspire confidence in the interlocutor. If you want to be charismatic - build up confidence, look into the eyes of the interlocutor in order to show that you are interested in him (and the fact that you are actually absolutely not interested is not important). It turns out that we are taught a skill that is "purified" from the human psyche, from his character and therefore does not have any depth.
What the person thinks, what the person feels at the same time - it no longer matters. The main thing according to this theory is to give out what is needed at this moment to achieve the goal.
But the iceberg also has a hidden part, much more powerful than the surface. It is similar to the one that the Titanic once stumbled upon. This is the so-called "hard drive" of a person, which is the hidden meaning of his existence. It is in it that the true goals of our behavior, the motives of actions, hidden beliefs, true values, secret attitudes are hidden. I propose to deal with this part of your personality. After all, if you train only skills, not taking into account the essence, everything will quickly return to normal. Or you will walk around in a mask all the time, having lost touch with yourself and the taste of “authenticity”.
You yourself know that you can go through trainings, upgrade various skills, but it will take a few days, and everything will be the same as before.
