Similar to my post about 'thank you' versus 'I'm sorry'...
When asking for things, I find it helpful to literally phrase the question in such a way as to make it easy for the person I'm asking to say yes. That is to say, if I can do legwork ahead of time, find the reasons why it is a benefit to support my plan, how the money spent will actually save money in the long run, etc, then I feel like I have a better chance of persuading my reader to agree and accept my proposed solution as the default solution. Of course, he/she can propose a counter-solution, which I welcome, but which also requires them to exert effort through research, time, energy.
An example: we have a new instructor teaching reading and writing this fall at ASC. Kris, my awesome coworker, recently realized that no one probably has talked to her about what textbooks to order for the Fall. Ordering textbooks can be a time consuming pain, especially the first time one teaches a class. I suggested Kris email her with the following: "Hi Lillian, I'm about to order my textbooks for fall [insert titles/ISBNs] and was wondering if you would like me to order enough for your sections as well?"
What I love about this approach is that we are more likely to get the textbook order done quickly. Often decisions are delayed because they take a block of time to concentrate, or the decision maker doesn't know where to start, or it isn't his/her first priority. Lillian will be traveling for the month of June. By giving her an already prepared default plan, an email to which she can simply reply "oh, thanks, that would be great!", we can get her books ordered and help her check that task off her to-do list, a task she hadn't even added to the list yet.
How can we solve other peoples' problems while solving our own?
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