We all have to convince. Maybe you’re trying to get customers to believe your idea, trust your expertise, or sign up with your company. Or maybe you want to convince colleagues to start a new initiative, or kill an initiative you think is doomed to fail. Which persuasion tactics are most effective? How do you know if someone is starting to be influenced by your reasoning, and what else could you try to get their full support? If you failed to convince but still believe in the cause, what is the strategic way to try again?
An expert on impact at work answers these questions and more. We are joined by a woman who works in construction and shares her successful and unsuccessful attempts at persuasion, and we highlight the most important principles and techniques that we can all use.
Guests:
Raven Hoffman is a senior estimator for a tile and stone contractor.
Vanessa Bohns is a professor of organizational behavior at Cornell University and author of the book You Have More Influence Than You Think: How We Underestimate Our Power of Persuasion, and Why It Matters.
Sources:
• “You are already more convincing than you think”, by Vanessa Bohns
• “A Checklist for More Persuasive Presentations”, by Dorie Clark
• “To make people change, make change easy”, by Tania Luna and Jordan Cohen
• “How to convince people to change their behavior”, by Jonah Berger
• “The art of persuasion hasn’t changed in 2000 years”, by Carmine Gallo
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Email us: womenatwork@hbr.org
A full transcript of this episode will be available on April 18.
This post The essence: convincing people was original published at “https://hbr.org/podcast/2022/04/the-essentials-persuading-people”
