The prediction business is always fun. We nominate our plans so that God can laugh, according to the old Yiddish proverb. Nevertheless, we need to make some plans don’t we. The Gregorian calendar beginning of the year is as good a time as any to think “start”. The last two years has seen the entire speaking business metamorphise into an online venture for the most part. Standing in front of a crowd is now somewhat of a distant memory for most of us. Internal meetings have gone the same way and we chime in from home on what is happening with the results so far this month or quarter or whatever.
The world seems to have sunk into the abyss of the ordinary, when it comes to persuasion power. Meetings have moved from the usual insomnia inducing exercises in the physical meeting room to the online room, but faithfully retaining the insomnia inducing capability. The best part of this has been the boredom of listening to colleagues drone on, is leavened by just turning your camera off and doing other more interesting stuff in the background, without drawing any boss wrath. Of course, our colleagues are doing the same thing to us too, when it is our turn to speak.
Online webinars have also sunk to the bottom of the ocean, where the crush of the weight of the water saps any life from the talks. People are so amazingly adaptable. They have learnt how to move their usual boring delivery online and without any apology. Once upon time the speaker would only be impinging on the time and patience of a small crowd of people, but with the wonders of Webex, Zoom, Teams, etc., the tech has created a weapon of mass destruction.
Is this your plan for 2022? Are you writing in your organizer, “I can’t wait to bore people to death again this year”? I doubt that would be the case, but I also doubt that among the many goals being set for this year, becoming a master of persuasion is in there. How could that be the case? The complexities of communication have only gone up with the advances in society and business.
We operate in the Age of Distraction and the Era of Cynicism. Social media armed mobile phones have allowed us to spend every second of our downtime endlessly scrolling for something more interesting. Our concentration spans are being measured in nanoseconds today. We have become the most distracted generation in global history. How can we gain persuasion power in this tech induced mess?
Our other problem is no one wants to believe anything they hear anymore, as everyone is more anxious about falling victim to fake news. It isn’t much respite from the pressures on modern communication to know that even if we are getting our message listened to, a lot of people are doubting anything we say. Science itself is in doubt and now “alternative facts” is a thing. Where will all of this end and what does it mean for us as presenters, persuaders and advocates?
There are some sure bets, some certainties that we can rely on though. These include the fact that the majority of people in business will remain hopeless communicators and persuaders. They won’t analyse the current reality for opportunities to stand out, to break through the noise and get their messages heard and believed. They won’t understand that while what we say is important, how we say it is more important to being effective as a presenter. The ability to wield language and to wield its delivery are potent tools for success in business. If everyone was well versed in being persuasive, our task would become more onerous and competitive very quickly. Well, that isn’t going to happen, because our colleagues and competitors will just wander into 2022 and repeat the same mistakes they made in 2021.
Let’s add “I will become a master of persuasion” to our list of things to be achieved this year. Standing above the hoi polloi isn’t easy, but this is one area where we can seize the advantage. If we haven’t studied this art of public speaking, let’s commit to doing that. If we haven’t taken the training, then let’s get that into our schedules for this year. The great unwashed will do nothing, so let’s take action and differentiate ourselves from those who are either ignorant or lazy or both. Persuaders of the world, arise in 2022 and seize the opportunity to polish our craft and take success into our own hands.
What is our presenter vision for 2022? If it has any element of success involved (and it would be a pretty rare resolution that didn’t have that), then being persuasive is going to be integral to the success of realising that vision. If you are trying to climb the corporate ladder, then getting your thoughts sorted and have others listen and agree is persuasion power. If you are the boss and you want the team to get behind your new ideas, direction, project, fresh business initiative etc., then you need them to follow you and that means having persuasive presence. If you are a peer and you seek the cooperation of your colleagues from other divisions, then you need to persuade them to elevate your needs up their priority list. If you want your clients to buy and buy right now, then your persuasion skills have to be excellent.
Great. How do we become more persuasive in business? Being a force of nature won’t work. No matter how much belief, passion and enthusiasm we have mustered, the person we are talking to won’t care much, unless they see something concrete in it for them. We should plan our interactions, so that we get the best result. That makes a lot of sense, however, we can’t always have that opportunity. We may be in the midst of a discussion and we suddenly need to weigh in with our idea. We have no time for careful, detailed planning and scoping of how the conversation should run, because the situation it so fluid. What do we do?
Habit is a powerful tool in business. It means we can engage in high level activities without needing any preparation time. Therefore we need to build habits, so that we are in flow, reacting spontaneously without thought. The habits we choose can be destructive though and defeat us in our quest for persuasion. Interrupting others when they are speaking would have to be at the top of the “stop doing” list. This is always a problem, because it says to the other person that what they are saying has no value and we are more important than them. Finishing their sentences for them would probably rank as number two in the deadly habits list. It says we are more articulate and clever than they are. We have anticipated where they are going with the conversation and we can get there more effectively than them, because we are smarter than they are.
Instead, we need to make CEP our new persuasion habit. I know everyone needs another acronym like a hole in the head, but they are a handy short form to help us remember the content, so please bear with me on CEP. The “C” stands for “context”. We start not with our proposal or suggestion, but with the background. This is a very strategic choice that guarantees we can reduce rejection and resistance for our idea. When we leap into our plan or idea, we will face two levels of resistance. The quick thinkers will be telling us why that idea won’t work or that it has been tried before and failed, etc. The deeper thinkers will be doing the same thing, but they won’t necessarily voice their opposition at that moment, because the bolshie, assertive few are dominating the airwaves.
Starting with the context is genius because there is nothing to disagree with. The listeners are just hearing the background which has led you to draw certain conclusions based on the details and facts of the case. The quick thinkers will be racing ahead of you and leaping to conclusions about what should be done. The deeper thinkers will be doing the same thing, just at a much more substantive level.
The “E” stands for the “execution” that you are recommending to the group. Our recommended actions won’t be whimsy, accidental or fantasy. Based on the facts of the case there are some logical things which should happen as a result. The listeners in many cases will have arrived at the same conclusion as we have or are well on the way toward it. They will be more likely to agree with our idea, because they feel they have discovered it for themselves independently, based on the facts they have heard.
The final “P” is for “payoff”. The idea of recency says that people tend to remember best what they heard the most recent, so we save the best for last. They have raced ahead of us to what the execution piece should be. The next thing they hear is the payoff from taking that recommended action, which makes it even easier for them to agree with our idea.
The key is to make this process our standard operating behaviour. Instead of jumping in and blurting out our idea, naked and undefended, we go straight to the context first. By making this our habitual way of introducing ideas and suggestions, we create a new habit, one which substantially eliminates opposition to what we are saying. If you make this one decision to adopt the CEP habit for 2022, then your persuasion power will get a tremendous boost.