Changing minds

Joe (let’s call him) is good at making presentations.  A highly-experienced consultant, he’s knows how to project his voice, read his audience, put just the right amount of content on his slides and not fiddle with the loose change in his pockets while he talks. People are nice enough to say that he says interesting things in an engaging way.

But how much does this positive feedback stem from the fact he’s told them what they want to hear?

Most of the clients we interview stress the importance of honesty in consulting.  Surrounded by yes-people, many of those at the very top of their organisation end up losing touch with what’s actually going on.  Some, I suspect, welcome this insulated existence, but the majority are conscious that short-term cosiness easily becomes long-term weakness.  Being at the top doesn’t make you infallible, but it does mean that people are less willing to tell you you’ve made a mistake while you’re still in a position to do something about it.  As outsiders, consultants have a genuinely important role to play.  Able to view things objectively, they separate an issue from the politics that surround it; not dependent on their clients for career progression, they can (though admittedly they don’t always) deliver a difficult message.

But research tells us that people look for evidence that supports their existing views; that although most of us like to believe we’re open-minded, we are, in fact, quite the opposite.  Thus, the person reading a new piece of thought leadership, or indeed listening to Joe’s presentation, will focus on the parts they agree with.  Two things flow from this, I think.  The first is that any judgement they make about whether a report or presentation is good is essentially based on whether they agree with the points it makes.  Our best work may not be that good, it's just what most people have most vociferously agreed with.  The second is that it’s very hard to change people’s views: a good presentation will be dismissed as poor if the audience don’t like its message.  But it’s not impossible.  Perhaps our measure of whether we’ve done a good job (whether that’s writing a report, making a presentation, coaching a junior member of staff or even just running a meeting) should be based on whether we’ve got someone to change their mind.  Something can’t be excellent simply because you agree with it – it has to have made you think.