The New York Times strives to move us inside “Persuasion’s Secrets.”
Francine Parnes writes (excerpt):
Howard Gardner, a psychologist and professor of cognition and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is known for his theory that people have several kinds of intelligence. In his new book, he tackles the age-old riddle of how to change people’s minds. As any marketer, manager or politician can tell you, not to mention anyone who has ever shared a roof with someone else, that can be a challenge.
But it is not impossible, if you pull the right “levers” to dislodge set ways of thinking, according to the book, titled “Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People’s Minds,” due in April from the Harvard Business School Press. All seven of these levers have names beginning with “re-.” When you use the “resonance” lever, the points you make should feel right to the people you are addressing, he says. Then there are reason, research, “representational redescriptions” (presenting the same idea in various formats – through speech, pictures and deeds, for example) and “resources and rewards” (positive reinforcement). Finally, you can invoke “real-world events,” like terrorist attacks, that can drastically affect how people think, and strive to counter people’s “resistances” to changing views.
One arena where opinion can die hard is politics. So how could Howard Dean change the public perception that his outburst on the night of the Iowa caucuses showed that he had become unhinged? “The original prototype is Nixon’s ‘Checkers’ speech, the grandfather of all televised mind-changing enterprises,” Professor Gardner said. “But whether it’s Nixon denying having taken money, or Clinton dealing with charges of having an affair or Dean dealing with the charge of being out of control, the issue is: How do we bring former supporters back to the flock and defang the resistance?
“The answer is: You try to develop a story about yourself that is different from the one that the press is carrying, a different narrative,” he continued. “Nixon converted it into a family story about ‘our dog Checkers’ and the good Republican cloth coat; Clinton said, none of us is without sin, but look at the great family you’ll be getting in the White House.” Beyond that, Professor Gardner said, “you have to embody the story you’re telling.”
The approach can work in business. “Say the new C.E.O. comes in and says, ‘We are not going to be hierarchical anymore,’ ” Professor Gardner said. “But you’re the longtime regional product manager who’s thinking, ‘We’ve heard it before.’ ” But if the chief “spends a third of each week walking around the plant or office listening attentively to the staff, starts implementing their suggestions and closes the executive dining room, then that’s what I call embodying the story.”
Warren Bennis, a professor at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business who specializes in leadership issues, says the book cuts to the core of what people in positions of influence do to get there, what he calls “including and engaging people in a shared belief system.” . . .