Yesterday, I had a fascinating discussion. My work with a customer intersected with work that another group performs with that same customer. I was trying to explain how what I was doing would actually help spotlight the work that the other team was performing, but I was having a difficult time conveying the message. Unfortunately, I was late for another meeting and had to cut short our conversation.
That discussion led to a one-on-one with a key member of the other team. I was able to explain in greater detail what I was doing. We came to a mutual understanding. In the meantime, that key member also explained to me the difficulty in convincing others to take a course of action that should be a "no-brainer."
Every organization has a bias towards inaction. If you try to get someone to do something that is outside of their standard procedure, you notice that they start to get very uncomfortable. It is very rare to find someone who is comfortable with expanding their span of action without the express written consent of their superiors. If that is the case, how can you ever hope to persuade anyone to do anything?
According to this article in Forbes, one way to persuade others is to make the choice "easy." That doesn't necessarily mean that what they have to do is easy. The person you are trying to persuade just needs to think that what they have to do is easy. The perception is the key.
Roger Dooley gives the example of an experiment with volunteers reading two different sets of text with the same material. One is in a brush script which makes the reader work harder to understand it. The other is in a clearer, easier-to-read font. Those who read the clearer font thought they could complete the task twice as fast as the group that read the brush script!
Here is the link to the full article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/rogerdooley/2013/04/22/the-easy-path-to-persuasion/
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