More powerful persuasion

It’s not easy to win people over. Whether you’re pitching a skeptical investor, negotiating with a tough client, sharing feedback?with your team, or just trying to get your kids to eat their vegetables, the act of persuading others can drain time, emotion and resources — and doesn’t always produce a?favorable result.

People often?resist information?that doesn’t conform to their tastes or views, making it difficult?for opposing messages and ideas to break through.

When we're trying to get our point across, we usually default to a push approach by doubling down on our message. When others balk, we increase the intensity and the frequency of our appeal. But according to studies of effective persuasion, that approach can actually backfire. It shuts people down instead of opening them up. To change people’s minds, we need a pull approach that removes the barriers to acceptance by giving our skeptics more room to come over to our side.

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Mix options with opportunities.?

Most people crave control and find change directives disempowering. A client company in the financial services industry learned this the hard way when it tried to roll out a new HR system with a flashy all-hands presentation. Employees gave the announcement a tepid response, noting the process felt shallow and sales-like. Only when senior leadership organized targeted feedback forums to learn more about employee concerns did momentum for the project build.?

If you're trying to persuade others, give them greater voice and choice. Provide different options that offer people a say in how they fulfill new requirements?—what researchers refer to as "restricted choice." After listening to employee feedback about its HR platform, my client allowed individuals to choose which features they would use in the phase-in period, raising adoption rates and building goodwill that might have otherwise been harder to achieve.

Shrink the process of change.?

To be more persuasive, you?must overcome the?unwillingness of others to part ways with ideas and actions?they trust, something social scientists call the ‘endowment effect.’?To the change-averse, this is a powerful countermeasure — if things are working, why reconsider??Getting others to let go of the status quo often requires a shift in tactics.?You have to make?the prospect of change seem a lot smaller than it first appears.

A?healthcare client trying to boost employee participation in a wellness program made good use of this shrinking strategy. Rather than set ambitious goals for diet and exercise, employees were asked to describe their current behaviors, then scale them back by a small degree. People accustomed to drinking three cans of?sodas a day cut back to two; sedentary employees started taking ten-minute walks around the campus. Over time, these micro changes grew into larger habits. By offering your employees?an easy way to get started, you will lower their cost of trying.?

Alleviate uncertainty with clear information.??

Few people will reconsider their beliefs or behaviors without clear supporting information. Before asking your team?to make a switch, come prepared with clear information that addresses their most basic concerns: Will a new product be better than the old one? Will a new initiative really save money? Will voting for this proposal improve my life or the lives of those I care about?

Most people don't fear change — they fear being changed. If you're trying to change their mind, make sure you address what this means for them and the things they care about. Instead of drowning people in data, frame issues in terms they'll appreciate. Keep it simple and sensible. Make sure you listen to feedback (especially pushback) and keep the lines of communication open and fearless. People are more likely to change their mind if they feel like we understand what's on their minds.?

To change someone’s?beliefs or behaviors, don’t just push harder — push away the hard issues. When we remove the barriers to change, we give others the space and security to change on their terms. We're more likely to get what we want if we give others what they need.

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Keep fixing,

Joe

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Dr. Joe Hirsch is the managing director of Semaca Partners, a?TEDx and?international keynote speaker, and the author of "The Feedback Fix." His work and research has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, Inc. and other major outlets. He also hosts the popular podcast, I Wish They Knew.

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