Persuasion Styles

I was working through some Reforge training last night on socialising product visions and one of the parts that caught my eye was persuasion styles. This isn't something I've actively thought about before, so it was interesting to see which ones I'd been using without realising.

The 6 persuasion styles described were:

1. Framing
2. Social Proof
3. Goal Seek
4. Inception
5. Citation
6. Narration.

I had a look at a few other internet resources as well, many covered similar themes and a lot of them were more oriented towards landing a sale situations e.g. finding common ground. After a bit of reading I decided that many of them could actually be classified as one of the 6 above. Not too surprising given the Reforge programs are excellent at distilling common wisdom into practical steps. So here's my take on each of the 6 areas and how I've used them, consciously or otherwise in my career so far.

1.Framing

This is described as portraying the problem in a way that steers your audience towards your desired outcome. Sounds a bit underhand at first, however it's more about giving your idea the time to shine. If you focus too much on the negatives, or the parts of the problem it doesn't solve then your audience wont get excited about the parts it does solve really well.

When I first stepped up into leadership positions, this was definitely something I didn't do well. Whether it was a natural engineer's tendency to give a balanced view or a response to the 'well actually' culture prevalent in many dev teams at the time that liked to find fault, I'm not too sure. Thankfully some managers early in my leadership career steered me in the right direction. That's not to say I don't take a balanced view, I'm never going to present an idea to the board unless I've weighed up the risks, however I now save the risks conversation for the Q&A session after the presentation. That way we can have a realistic discussion about prospects without detracting from the excitement of the initial idea.

2. Social Proof

Social proof is basically using low-key peer-pressure to convince others to buy-in to your idea. Again sounds a bit nefarious! The reasoning behind this method though, is using your network to grow your social capital in the company so that your ideas are more likely to get airtime with the key stakeholders you need buy-in from. By convincing people close to key stakeholders that your idea has merit, they can lend their social capital when you present, or even to get you on the agenda in the first place, meaning your idea has more chance of being noticed.

This also works down the hierarchy in a company as well as up. When trying to implement changes, you don't just need the support of the leaders, you also need grassroots support. So it's worth thinking about how to get the tech leads and managers onboard with your ideas before you present to a wider team. They will also likely suggest which parts are going to be sticking points so you can prepare your convincing arguments ahead of time.

3. Goal Seek

This is where you identify the key goals for your stakeholders and frame your idea in terms of how it meets their goals. E.g. if you know your stakeholder has key metrics around retention, then showing how your idea improves retention goes a long way to getting buy-in.

This means that before you prepare to present an idea, it helps to do a bit of research around departmental targets and company score cards and figure out how your idea supports them. This doesn't mean you should try and support every metric, instead identify one or two where your idea will really shift the dial and definitely take note if your plan could put some metrics as risk. In that case you'll need a much stronger case and likely significant senior support in the way of social proof to get approval.

In my experience, this persuasion method is a key lever to use in highly political companies or departments where it feels like everyone is out for themselves. In more collaborative spaces, there's little need to seek out goals for individuals as the goals are collective and the team understand how supporting each other's goals leads to success for everyone.

4. Inception

This was described in the Reforge material as making others feel an ownership of the idea/solution by either getting their input early in the process or by asking targeted questions to highlight how this is a joint problem we're solving together.

I've used methods both over the years, although getting early input is definitely the easier and more natural for me. I love collaborating and bouncing ideas around before I settle on a plan so I've likely involved my key colleagues well before something goes in for approval. The targeted questions route I've found can be a little unpredictable and to do it well you need to be able to think fast on your feet as you can't always predict how a conversation will go.

5. Citation

This one boils down to using compelling data to back up your argument. Seems like a no-brainer, but it's very easy to 'go with your gut' because it feels like the right thing to do. I know I've been guilty of that, especially early in my career. And there can be a real temptation to selectively pick metrics that support your world-view.

Over the years I've learned that a little data goes a long way to making a good argument or business case and I'm now not afraid to discard ideas early if the data doesn't back them up. To borrow a phrase from the writing community 'kill your darlings' i.e. sometimes we become so invested in an idea that we don't want to let it go even when it's clearly no longer working. Taking an objective view on the data can really help this process.

6. Narration

Basically, telling a story around your idea helps bring it to life for people. For instance, talking your audience through the pain points for a key target audience and then describing how your idea will solve that pain.

Where this can go wrong is I tend to find I've been over the story so many times in my own head and maybe with my manager, that when it comes to sharing with everyone else I forget they aren't starting from the same point! Storytelling is a key skill for leadership so it's something I've spent time working on in many roles. I still catch myself skipping the narrative occasionally, but I've learned to quickly spot the blank/puzzled stares that suggest my audience isn't engaging and to reset and give them the context they need.

This was a fun exercise to go through and I anticipate that next time I'm presenting to get buy-in for an idea I'm going to be more deliberate in my choice of persuasion methods and more conscious of adapting my style to fit the situation.