The election is on and the campaigning has started. All the parties are keen to get their message across in the hope that we’ll vote for them.
Are we listening? Do we really take in what they have to say? Is the steady stream of ‘communication’ having any effect on what we think? Or what we will do on May 6th?
This is the common challenge of persuasion – how do you know that people have heard you, that you’re changing minds, getting them to act on what you tell them?
There are four stages to go through:
- they have to take in the information you’re giving them
- they have to understand what that information means
- they have to work through how it applies to them
- they have to act as a result of that.
How do you test each stage?
- ask them to replay back what you’ve told them in their own words (receiving)
- get them to explain to others what it means (understanding)
- challenge them to say how things will be different (believing)
- hold the mirror up to their language/behaviours/work/voting/etc (acting)
Whatever your own campaign is, you can use these too.
