Order from Amazon.com, The Persuasive Wizard: How Technical Experts Sell Their Ideas. Now available in Kindle e-book. The Persuasive Wizard is a must for anyone wanting a better job, desiring a raise in their current one, seeking investment funding, or just needing to persuade others. College and High School students find it invaluable as they begin their careers.
In August, the high school where I teach will convert totally to iPads – each student possessing one and each student using one in class.
I mentioned this innovation to several unrelated individuals. Their reactions were apropos of the following:
“The teachers will have a hard time with that.”
“Oh that’s great. Now the students will be texting while you’re trying to teach.”
“How do you keep them from ‘Googling’ on a test?”
“That certainly makes it easier for them to cheat and copy.”
“The schools are trying to substitute technology for teaching.”
What is common in these responses? Of course, they all are negative. Not one person started with anything like the following:
“Using the iPads will eliminate a lot of wasted paper and make grading faster.”
“The students will learn to use technology in a constructive way.”
“This will let teachers set up ‘groups’ so the parents who want to get involved can.”
“The use of iBooks (Interactive Books) will be hugely successful. Plus, iBooks are about 10% the cost of hardback books and definitely are the wave of the future.”
“This will move education into the 21st century.”
What lessons in persuasion can we learn from this?
First, if you want to implement “change,” know that your audience will react negatively. It is rare for individuals to readily accept change. The vast majority are skeptical, defensive, maybe even antagonistic. Most will look for holes in your argument, flaws in your logic. This is human nature. “Change,” even for the better, is difficult to impress.
… makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of … And thus the native hue of resolution is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought, and enterprise of great pitch and moment with this regard their currents turn awry and lose the name of action. [Hamlet]
Understand that when it comes to change, an audience will naturally and first of all look for and emphasize the negatives – whether real, perceived, or contrived.
Let us try the iPad example as a lesson in persuasion. Suppose you want to implement the iPads or some similar change in your school, your job, or elsewhere. Do not start by telling the audience what you want to implement. Hold an iPad in your hands. Start by telling the audience the advantages of the iPad, how the iPad (or similar) technology is prevalent, how it provides information at their fingertips. Again, do not even hint about what you want the audience to do about it. Right now, you are educating.
Then, find an argument to get the audience on your side. if I were talking to a group of parents at school, for example, I would posit that the more gifted and better student would be able to take advantage of the iPad, using the iPad in school and at home. Such knowledge would prepare the more gifted students for the better colleges, help them get the best jobs, and provide them with more income. Technology innovations have challenges, true, but the more gifted students and their parents can help us work through the issues.
Of course, at this point most of the parents are thinking, “Sure, Johnny Smartypants and Susie Knowitall will get the iPads. They always get the attention. Why is my child constantly ignored and the emphasis placed on the 3-4% who are the most gifted or of special needs? My child ought to be given this opportunity, also. My child would show them because she’s great with computers, he’s a whiz at the internet.”
It is at this point, that you conjecture, “Of course, if parents were willing, we could make this technology available to every student so that all could advantage of it.” The audience of parents will think this is a good idea. They all move over to your side of the argument.
If, at this point, you need to go into a session about the challenges of the technology, the audience will be on your side and even help solve some of the problems and sway those parents who might yet be reluctant.
End the presentation as soon as you get acceptance. Once the fat lady sings, exit stage left. Work all problems offline. Engage recalcitrant individuals one-on-one afterwards and to one side.
Have we deceived anyone? No. Have we made false representation? No, not by any means. We simply have presented the concept in a manner that lets the audience see our side of the argument, first. Is it a good idea? Absolutely. Will it truly benefit all the students? Assuredly. What we have done is get the audience to look at the positive first instead of the negative. That is all. The facts are the same. Nothing has changed. We simply have not permitted them to take a negative position before they learned all the facts.
Persuasion is looking at your audience, understanding your audience, recognizing human nature, and putting your best foot forward, not in your mouth.