Little Buddha said
The idea is the currency of the 21st century. In the knowledge economy, ideas are more important than ever, and persuasion (the ability to change people's mindsets and ideas) is perhaps the most important skill of our time because it makes you more competitive. How can you master the art of persuasion?
Some economists argue that the work associated with "persuasion" generates more than 1/4 of the total national income of the United States, and that the economy, which was originally dominated by agriculture, initially developed into an industrial economy and later evolved into a knowledge economy. In such an environment, successful people in almost every industry have learned how to persuade others to realize their ideas. Persuasiveness plays an important role in our daily lives:
Entrepreneurs will convince investors to support their startups.
Job seekers will convince recruiters to hire themselves.
Politicians will persuade people to vote for themselves.
Leaders will persuade employees to implement specific action plans.
CEOs will persuade analysts to write reports that are good for the company.
Salespeople will persuade customers to choose their own products and abandon their competitors' products.
In short, persuasion is no longer a "soft skill" — it's a fundamental skill because it helps you attract investors, sell products, build brands, motivate teams, and initiate actions. For billionaire Warren Buffett, persuasion is very important. He was so proud of it that he had only one diploma on display in his office, a certificate in public speaking for Dale Carnegie's course. At one point, he told business students that as long as they improve their communication skills, their professional value will immediately increase by 50%.
Words and ideas not only create the modern world, but also make you a star in your field, provided you convince others to put them into action. The strategy of an ancient Greek philosopher may help you.
More than two thousand years ago, Aristotle published a formula in his work Rhetoric that taught people how to master the art of persuasion. Through the use of this formula, great speakers of all ages have made some of the most influential speeches, thereby sharing their ideas with the world.
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To become a master of persuasion and successfully get others to accept your ideas, you can try the five rhetorical techniques proposed by Aristotle in your next speech:
1. Personality
For me, the part of a speech that appeals to personality can make the audience feel your credibility. Aristotle believed that if speakers were inconsistent, they would lose credibility and their arguments would eventually be weakened.
Case in point: In a famous TED Talk, human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson talked about reforming the criminal justice system. He began his speech by saying, "I spend most of my time in prison and death row. I spend most of my time on projects in low-income communities because people here are desperate for life. "You'll notice that Stevenson didn't list his degrees, accomplishments, and awards as much as he did when he was writing his resume. All he does is prove his personality to audiences who don't know him, and build trust between himself and the audience.
As human beings, it is our instinct to quickly find reasons to trust others. After all, our ancestors had only a split second to tell whether a stranger was friend or foe. Before you state your arguments, remind yourself to commit to the welfare of others; doing so will boost your credibility.
2. Rationality
After you have proved your personality, you have to appeal to reason with logic. Why should the audience pay attention to your thoughts? For example: If your idea saves viewers money, they'll want to know how much your idea can save them, and how to save it. The same applies to making money. How will your ideas help the other person profit? What are they going to do next? Appealing to reason with such logic can help you gain support. When forming rational arguments, data, evidence, and facts must be used.
3. Emotions
According to Aristotle, it is impossible to persuade others without appealing to emotion. Whether people take action or not depends on how the speaker gives them. Aristotle believed that the best way to make others feel their emotions was through the rhetorical technique of storytelling. Today, more than two thousand years later, neuroscientists have validated his arguments. Studies have shown that storytelling causes levels of neurochemicals in the brain to surge, especially oxytocin; this "moral molecule" creates a deeper emotional connection between people.
I analyzed the past 500 of the most popular TED Talks and found that in general, stories accounted for 65% of speakers' speeches, reason accounted for 25%, and personality accounted for 10%. In other words, the sure way to make a TED Talk popular is to include the theme in a story.
What kind of story? Chris Anderson, a curator at TED, explains, "Stories about yourself or people close to you are the most connected. By telling stories of failure, embarrassment, misfortune, danger, or disaster from the heart, you can quickly build a deep sense of engagement. "The content that is most closely related to you is the most resonant.
4. Metaphor
Aristotle believed that metaphors make language beautiful. He wrote: "Mastery of metaphor is by far the most remarkable thing. "When you tell a new idea, just use metaphors or metaphors to contrast and remind the audience of familiar concepts, and abstract ideas can become more concrete, so that you can express the ideas more clearly."
Let's talk about the example of Warren Buffett. Buffett is one of the most convincing people in the world. Whenever he is interviewed, Buffett almost always uses metaphors to express his point of view. For example, investors might say they're looking for a company surrounded by a moat; this popular metaphor was coined by Buffett. Buffett has repeatedly said that the companies he is looking for are "economic castles" surrounded by moats, because with moats, it will be difficult for competitors to enter the industry.
Recently, Buffett said in a speech at Berkshire Hathaway's 2017 annual shareholder meeting that the growth in health care spending is a "tapeworm" for the U.S. economy. Buffett uses this vivid metaphor to accurately describe a serious problem: Rising health care spending is eroding the foundations of our economic system. What happens if tapeworms get bigger? Buffett didn't have to explain. Newspapers reported on the event by using the word "tapeworm" in their headlines.
People who are well versed in metaphors can visualize words and make their ideas clearer, but more importantly, others can also remember these ideas and share them. So, metaphor is a powerful tool.
5. Simplicity
In this respect, Aristotle's thinking was also more advanced than that of the people of his time. Professor Edith Hall of King's College London wrote in Aristotle's Way: "Aristotle found that, in general, the amount of information that humans can absorb and retain is rather limited. So, the less you say, the more persuasive you are. ”
To give a persuasive speech, brevity is one of the elements. Aristotle once said that when expressing an argument, one should "try to be as compact as possible, and the fewer the word count, the better." He also notes that the beginning of a speech is the most important because "people's attention is most concentrated at the beginning of the speech, and it begins to be distracted later." "So, when you give a speech, you should start with your strongest argument.
The good news is that Aristotle believed that persuasion was a learnable skill. In fact, according to Hall, when Aristotle imparted the tools of rhetoric to the masses, the political class of ancient Greece regarded him as "extremely threatening." They were to keep the formula strictly confidential, but Aristotle wanted everyone to have access to it. He argues that effective speech and writing skills, as well as the ability to use rhetoric to change the views of others, not only unlock people's potential, but also make people live happier lives. Over the past two thousand years, the tools we use to convey ideas have changed, but the human brain has remained the same. Formulas that worked then will work just as well now.
Keyword: communication
Carmine Gallo |
Kamien Gallo is the author of The Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great. He is a lecturer in the Department of Executive Education at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design.
Ou Mingzhi | translated by Zhou Qiang| edited
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