Rhetoric
The Greeks invented the science of persuasion – they called it rhetoric. The posts in this category give a brief overview.
Strategy. Innovation. Brand.
Seduction
Want to be more seductive? Of course you do. It’s not always easy but there are some systematic approaches that can help you convince people to do something because they want to do it. Watch the video to learn six such approaches.
Establishing trust with the audience
The Greeks called it “ethos” and said that’s it’s the most important element of persuasion. If the audience trusts you, they’re likely to accept your argument — no matter how illogical. If they don’t trust you, they’re likely to reject your argument — no matter how logical. So how do you establish trust? Find out in the video.
Debates, Battles, and Ann Romney
Yesterday a Democratic operative attacked Ann Romney, saying she “had never worked a day in her life”. To say the least, this is a self-defeating communication tactic. It’s worthwhile to remember the difference between a debate and a battle – two words which stem from the same root. In a battle, there are only two sides and you’re trying to defeat the opponent. In a debate, there are three sides and you’re trying to win over the audience. If your audience respects your opponent — as I think we all respect Ann Romney — then attacking the opponent reduces your credibility and alienates the audience. When you debate an opponent that the audience admires, you first need to show how much you respect the opponent and then clearly, and unemotionally, describe your differences. By showing respect, you build your credibility. Then, and only then, can you describe your advantages. Our politicians seem to have forgotten this. Here’s a video to refresh their memories.
Rick and Joe Screw Up
Rick Perry and Joe Paterno both screwed up in very public ways. Can rhetoric help them recover their footing? You betcha. Here’s how.
Let’s start with Rick. I don’t particularly like his politics but I can certainly sympathize with his moment of brain freeze. Many a skilled communicator has run into the occasional communications barrier. It’s happened to me and I’m sure that it’s happened to you. Though we hold our presidential candidates to higher standards, we also want them to be normal people — more or less like us. In other words, someone we could have a beer with. So how does Rick recover? With self-deprecating humor. It’ll do him no good to get on his high horse and sound defensive (which is a mistake Herman Cain is making). He’ll do much better if he pokes fun at himself, acknowledges his mistake and moves on. He might even pretend to forget something in his next debate and then laugh, say “Just kidding”, and complete his thought. That would acknowledge his mistake while making light of it at the same time — exactly what he needs to do.
Joe, on the other hand, is in a much deeper bind and can’t turn to humor. He has to deal with the perception (true or not) that he could have stopped evil but did nothing instead. It will do him no good to argue the finer legal points. People aren’t going to give him credit for being right in a narrow legal sense. We want a leader to do the right thing, in the broadest, deepest sense. To reclaim his good name, Joe will have to use his persuasive skills to give a painful, and deeply felt apology. I could see him saying, “I’ve always believed that coaching is about teaching good values to young men and women. It’s about being a role model when life presents you with agonizing choices. And today, I’m going to teach one of the most painful lessons of my life — I didn’t do the right thing.” I think Joe still has a lot to teach us — but he needs to lead the way.
Your frame of reference or mine?
You go to a department store and buy $300 worth of stuff. To pay for it, you present a general purpose credit card. The clerk tells you that you can save 10% immediately if you apply for a department store credit card. From the clerk’s perspective, it’s a very logical argument — save $30 just by doing a little paper work. Your perspective may be different — it’s one more card to manage, one more bill to pay each month, and so on. If you’re like me, you’ll decline the offer. The long-term hassles outweigh the short-term benefits.
What we have here is a frame-of-reference issue. The clerk’s frame of reference is much narrower than yours. The clerk’s argument is very logical; indeed, it’s airtight. But your frame of reference allows more information in and you decline the offer.
To be persuasive in an argument, your communication skills should include the ability to argue logically within your audience’s frame of reference. To do that, you need to know your audience better than your business or product. Learn more in this week’s video.
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