Why Facts Don’t Change Minds, And What to Do About That

Funny creatures, people. Especially in business, at work, we like to pretend that facts matter. That facts will get people to change their behaviors and do the correct and necessary things that need to be done. We like to pretend that business decisions, running a business, and doing work are rationally-driven procesess. 

But that’s not the way us funny creatures are built. Even the most rational of beings are often irrational when it comes to decision-making and changing one’s behaviors.

Why? Psychologists point to what’s called confirmation bias, also known as myside bias. We’re hardwired to embrace information and ideas that support our existing beliefs, and reject things that contradicts those beliefs.

On top of that, in today’s info-overloaded environments, bright shiny objects, and fun, catchy items excite our feelings and capture our attention, overriding much of our rationality and focus. (e.g., How much time and attention we devote to cat videos, lip sync battles, and juicy water cooler workplace gossip.)

Super-simplified: Most of the time, people think with their emotions, not their brains. Or, more inspiringly, as Maya Angelou said: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” 

What to do about that? Here are three simple strategies, in reverse order, from good to great to the absolute best.

3. Give the Mind An Out

People are reluctant to acknowledge mistakes. We don’t like being wrong. Leaders can do a lot to get others to change their views with personal humility — by leading the way with some version of, “We made the best decisions we could then, now we have a new understanding. I now see things differently.”

Years ago, I did this with the leadership team of the now-battered retailer, Toys R Us. (Often going by abbreviation TRU.) During one major change, the C-suite called together the top 100 leaders and shared their “Tru Confessions” — lessons they learned during the business’s ups and downs.

2. Use Great Storytelling Structures for Fact-Based Strategies

To be absolutely clear, I am not advocating paint-lipstick-on-a-pig, gimmicky marketing-type rollouts. Those will always die a quick and painful death.

I’m describing leveraging the emotional pull of great storytelling structures to transform fact-based strategies. All great stories have four components which are emotionally-driven: 1. Conflict (also known as the Inciting Incident) 2. Transition (how people and the plot grow and change) 3. Climax (the ‘payoff,’ the magical moment we want and need) 4. Close (“They lived happily ever after.").

This structure works because storytelling is based on human nature, not corporate logic: we are hard-wired to make sense of things and buy into ideas through stories. Throughout human history all religions, cultures, nations, inventors, conquerors, explorers, and leaders have engaged the masses with one simple tool — storytelling. 

As you can see in the chart above, all corporate change information can be restructured and transformed using a story’s structure. During the past 30 years I have helped scores of firms — from Fortune 25 companies to small startups — communicate complex and difficult change plans and strategies using a one-page storytelling tool based on this idea. (Which we’ve TM’d as Message Mapping. So I don’t get crassly promotional here, DM or email me if you’d like to learn more. ~ bill@simplerwork.com)

MIT's Sloan Management Review recently posted that storytelling is more important than ever: "Many stories from our ancestors were designed to keep new listeners from repeating the mistakes of the past." Storytelling keeps organizational best practices alive, and keeps us from repeating yesterday's failed practices.

The crucial takeaways: People think with their emotions, not their brains, and restructuring corporate information using storytelling structures transforms rational info into emotional info. 

1. Walk a Mile in the Other Person’s Shoes

By far, this is the most powerful way to change anyone’s mind, including your own.

If you’ve ever seen the TV show Undercover Boss, you instantly get the simple power of this idea. Boss is disguised and goes undercover, working side-by-side with his or her frontline employees. At first they’re horrified by how poorly their own change initiatives are being followed. Then they have a breakthrough Aha moment. They begin to see their strategies through frontline eyes. Eye-opening. Behavior-changing.

Long before that show was created, I did a version of it with one of the world’s largest retailers. The top ten leaders in the company did frontline jobs in the stores for a day. One of those leaders was the CFO, the guy who managed all the money. He became a cashier for a day. He returned frustrated and woke'd: “I never realized how hard it is to make money in our stores.” 

I learned this change technique from PepsiCo. One of my first consulting jobs with them was process reengineering and simplification — redesigning flow charts and translating them into project management tools. But before they let me work on that project, I had to deliver soda to grocery stores. What did that have to do with my work? Nothing... and everything. It taught me to appreciate, with empathy, the people whose work I would be changing.

Empathy. That’s the most powerful change tool of all.

Do someone else’s job for a day. And have your teammates and direct reports do the same. 

Change and engagement happen far quicker and with far less resistance when we walk a mile in the shoes of the people we are trying to change. We suddenly see things differently. And change our change processes.

How to change minds? Not facts. Emotions and empathy.

Whose mind to change first? Your own.  

Jensen Site, Twitter, FB. Bill’s upcoming book, The Day Tomorrow Said No, is a powerful fable about the future of work. A fable specifically designed to revolutionize conversations about the future between leaders, the workforce, educators, and students. Go here to download a FREE copy of the final pre-press draft of the book.