Getting someone to change their mind, especially when they feel strongly about something, is never easy. If you go straight in, and especially if you let your strong feelings on the topic get the better of you, the chances are…
Why You Can’t Change People’s Minds With Facts
The UK’s recent referendum on European Union membership seems to have exposed deep fault lines in British society, if the strength of feeling shown in arguments on social media is anything to go by. I’ve certainly seen the normal rules of…
What Appreciative Inquiry Can Learn From NLP: How To Be A Better Appreciative Interviewer
Recently I was interviewed by Robyn Stratton-Berkessel for her ‘Positivity Strategist’ podcast about the relationship between Appreciative Inquiry and NLP. During the conversation a couple of connections occurred to me that I hadn’t thought of before. Firstly, let’s look at…
The ‘Golden Rule’ Is Not Enough
The ‘Golden Rule’ or ‘ethic of reciprocity’ – essentially, ‘treat others as you would like others to treat you’ – is one of the foundation stones of morality, not just in Western thought but in religions and cultures worldwide. It’s…
What Research Says About How To Give Feedback
I came across a useful short article in the New York Times by Alina Tugend summarising research into the effects of ‘bad’ events (setbacks, losses, criticism) versus ‘good’ events (progress, gains, praise): Praise Is Fleeting, but Brickbats We Recall. This is…
The CRAFT Model – How To Influence People
This is a simple 5-step process to for influencing people to change their minds. It’s not the only way to do it, but it does give a step-by-step process that I trust you will find useful. The process is derived…
3 Insights On Leadership And Emotional Intelligence From Daniel Goleman
Specifically, these insights come from the book Primal Leadership (UK title The New Leaders) by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee. For my money, this is still the best book on Emotional Intelligence as it applies to leadership. 1.…
The ‘S.T.I.R.S.’ Model for Emotionally Intelligent Feedback
Bearing the principles for delivering emotionally intelligent feedback from the previous article in mind, here are the steps for actually delivering the feedback. As a reminder that what you should be doing is stirring the recipient to change their behaviour,…
Politics, brain science, and organisational change
Or: Why does everyone love Occupy Wall Street when they hated the English rioters? It’s not every day that something useful comes out of an online discussion, but in this case I think something has. During the recent riots in…
Influence: Cialdini’s Six Principles – 1. Scarcity
Robert Cialdini, professor of psychology at Arizona State University, is the world’s leading authority on the psychology of influence and persuasion. His studies, summarised in the great book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, identify six principles of persuasion – essentially,…