effort in an organization or
corporate setting, you have
to start by determining if
you have the credibility to
do the job.”
Credibility = Trust + Experience (Harvard Business School Press, 2005), is a good one to adopt as a personal goal.
Understanding Your Audience
Another element of persuasion is understanding the professionals you are talking to and how they typically make decisions. Gather as much information as you can on the process they use, and try to get some sense of who on the decision-making team is the leader. Assess the leader’s influence with the group, and analyze any recent decisions that he has made. Remember that the saying
“the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior” applies to groups as well as to individuals. Although you might like to think that a decision on your proposal is going to be based solely on its merits, the truth is that individual members of the making body may have their own agendas, they may be jockeying for position on the committee, or they may try to use your pro-posal to reach some other, unstated, goal.
As you present your case, watch closely for reactions from the committee members, assess their body language, and be prepared to pause for questions or clarifications. In addition to considering the various motives of the panel members, you also have to take into account the extent to which they are even receptive to your plan. The committee members’ response can range from hostile to supportive (Harvard Business School Press, 2005), and you’ll need to react accordingly.
Making a Solid Case
The heart of your persuasion effort is the case that you make for your project. It should be logical, meet the needs of the company and those who will be making the decision, and take into account the politics of the organization (Harvard Business School Press, 2005).
Taking a tip from the Greeks, you can consider a five-part approach to building your case: (a) start with a compelling story;
“Credibility = Trust +
Experience.”
(b) go straight to the heart of your proposition by painting a pic-ture (by showing some picpic-tures or video clips, for example) of what you want to happen; (c) present your factual evidence, supporting it with easily read graphs, charts, or diagrams; (d) anticipate and answer any objections that are likely to come up; and (e) finally, end with a clear statement of what you want the panel or commit-tee to do (Heinrichs, 2007).
Rhetorical devices that can be used persuasively in your pre-sentation include asking rhetorical questions to get the decision makers’ attention; varying the pace, pitch, and volume of your speaking voice; and using dramatic pauses to emphasize certain parts of your presentation.
Effectively Communicating
Clearly, the way in which you present your case is the key to per-suasiveness. There is a variety of ways you can approach present-ing a case. One way to begin is to start with somethpresent-ing dramatic.
A shocking statistic, a compelling story, or a humorous example of something gone horribly wrong (or beautifully right as the case may be) will get the attention of the committee. Once you have the committee’s attention, follow up with your plan, and show how it will solve the problem. Continue the use of stories and metaphors to paint a picture of a better world if only your proposal were to be adopted. Another strategy is to start (after using some attention-getting hook) by analyzing a problem (much like we would do a functional analysis) and then presenting your plan as the solution.
If you use this strategy, make sure that the solution does in fact match the dimensions and characteristics of the analysis. In either case, it is critical that you remember to focus your plan on how it will benefit the members of the committee individually and col-lectively. You can emphasize the improvements that will come if your approach is adopted: “We should be able to increase produc-tivity by 5%, for an annualized return of over $3 million.” Or you can talk about what will happen if it is not approved: “We will continue to lose market share to our international competition,
and this could amount to more than $5 million over the next 5 years.”
Behavior analysts often get so caught up in their data-based, evidence-centered strategy that they forget to take into account that most decisions are not made on logic alone. Decisions are made by people who have feelings, and you can appeal to this emotional side.
If you started your presentation with a great story or humorous anecdote, you can follow it up with another example that reinforces the idea that your proposal will indeed solve the problem.
The words you use are extremely important, and when you write out your presentation, you should look for ways to add color and excitement. Painting a picture with words or accompanying your words with pictures, animations, or video clips can further sell your proposal. Saying things such as “Going to school is like going to work” or “Employees won’t give their best if they aren’t recognized. Do you think Olympic athletes would compete if there weren’t any gold medals?” is a great way to frame your argu-ment and get your audience to understand your point of view.
Motivation is important to everyone.
Finally, to convince anyone of anything, you have to be able to tell a good story, one that is relevant, is rich in its details, exposes an emo-tional element that appeals to every-one, and has a conclusion that is satisfying and ties up all the loose ends.
One behavior analyst was asked to do a presentation on her work with elementary school children. She initially started with charts and graphs that showed the prevalence of certain types of inappropriate behavior, and then she described categories of interventions based on their effectiveness. It was descriptive, it was accurate, and it was important, but it was lifeless.
She was asked, “Think back on some recent cases, and tell us a story of one child who stands out as a success.” She thought a