#26-Being Persuasive in Context

Collaborating effectively includes, among many necessary skills, the ability to be persuasive.  This episode will outline an approach to persuasiveness that I have found to be highly effective in my experience as a consultant and mentor.

Transcript

Being Persuasive in Context

Implementing an agile process requires a high degree of buy-in from everyone involved.  Without this, some will fail to follow critical aspects of the process, or even fail to understand them sufficiently.  It falls on management to make it clear why agile is being chosen, and to enlist everyone on the team to do it.

This is a matter of persuasion.  But persuasion is most effective in a particular context.

As a consultant/trainer I have often been brought in to, among other things, get everyone on the team on board with an agile transition.  This can be particularly difficult with individuals who are more familiar with traditional engineering paradigms (like the waterfall), are very comfortable and confident in them, and do not see any point in changing to something new.  Change can be unnerving, after all.

I sympathize with this.  I've been in systems development for over 40 years, and I've seen a lot of "better ideas" come and go without really having much effect on success.  There is a certain faddishness to this business that quite frankly I've grown weary of.  So, if I run into the attitude "leave me alone to do things the way I am comfortable with" I start from that sympathy before moving on to attempting to persuade them.

But then I take a very specific approach.

I find that any time you want to convince anyone that they should do something new or change something they already do, that you should start with their pain points.  What is it about the way things are now that causes them problems? Of course, this means you must find out what those issues are, which means you must come to understand their current experience... which is a good idea anyway.  They may even begin by claiming that everything is fine as it is, but if you ask good questions and probe for details, you'll always find out this is not really true. 
 
Once this is understood, consider how what you are proposing will solve or at least ameliorate those difficulties. The way I think of it personally is this:  If I think I know a better way of working that will increase their own success, I should be able to prove it.  If I can’t, well, then maybe I’m wrong.  I like holding my feet to the fire like that because, over the long term, it makes me better at what I do.  Also, it keeps me honest with myself.

Put another way, a persuasive message is generally most effective when it is placed in the context of the receiver's best interests.  It also promotes a feeling, in them, of being respected and this in turn helps to reduce any resentment they may have about being required to change.

If you want someone to invest in your ideas, start by investing in their success, and make it clear to them that you genuinely do.

None of this is easy, of course, but the more you do it this way the more effective you will be at persuasion.