Welcome to “Driving Businesses by Developing People” written by me, David Huynh. For those who do not know me, I am a people-focused business professional who builds team members to generate results. Thank you for joining me. If you are not on my email list yet and want to dive deeper into the intersection of business and people with me, you may subscribe here:
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Psychologically, people are more likely to support their own ideas than the ideas of others. So if we can plant an idea in someone else's mind and convince them that the idea is their own, they will be more likely to support the desired conclusion, which is our planted idea. This concept of planting ideas into the brains of other people was popularized by the movie "Inception" (2010). Today, we will extrapolate the concept to both business and personal settings in order to convince other individual(s) to take a specific course of action. We can plant ideas into the minds of others by developing a plan secretly, sharing pointed context, and inviting ownership of the idea.
After we have developed a secret plan, we can begin to share pointed context with the subject. Then if the subject owns the idea once invited, we have successfully planted the idea in their mind. However, if the subject did not reach the conclusion we wanted them to reach, we need to provide additional pointed context until they do reach the desired conclusion. To strengthen our understanding, these steps will be applied with the following examples: convincing a teenager to learn an instrument, convincing our boss to fire someone, and convincing our friends to eat at a particular restaurant.
Secret plan
Developing a secret plan is a straightforward first step, which starts by developing the desired conclusion or plan that we would like the subject to support. After we have formulated an idea, we simply refrain from sharing the idea with the subject. By definition, if we tell the subject the plan, we are not incepting the idea into their brain, but rather simply sharing an idea.
The teenager may be our niece, nephew, child, or mentee, who currently lacks a hobby, and we want to guide them towards choosing music. The latter two examples showcase how planting ideas can be utilized to persuade our coworkers and friends to find our desired conclusion.
Pointed context
Sharing pointed context, also referred to as leading evidence, involves providing the details needed for the subject to find our desired conclusion themselves. Pointed context or leading evidence do not give the desired conclusion away, but strongly hint at it. When we share pointed context, there needs to be enough ambiguity for the listener to make the logical connections in their brain to reach the same conclusion as us. This step is certainly the trickiest, because our word choice will need to be specific enough to give the subject building blocks to the idea, but not specific enough to share the idea itself.
Guiding a lost teenager towards a hobby can be a delicate topic. We utilized playing an instrument here, but it can be subbed out for any other hobby as well. In the example, we mention "Musicians bring people and happiness together", which is pointed because it indirectly says,'playing an instrument is a good hobby'. However it is important to note that we are not forcing the teenager to play an instrument, but rather guiding them to reach that conclusion.
If we believe a particular employee should be fired, we can share pointed context with our boss in the following manner: "[Blank] has been under performing and not learning, hurting team productivity. I read an article by David Huynh mentioning how those two traits signify that a person is dead weight." Notice that the individuals name and words associated with firing are utilized, but the individuals name and "fire" should not be utilized in the same sentence.
When we are trying to convince our friends to eat at a particular restaurant, we can mention, "Grilling meat at the table is healthy and low carb." This narrows down the potential list of restaurants drastically, but does not mention the name of the restaurant.
Invited ownership
After we have provided pointed context, we can ask the listener for their opinion. Our goal is for the listener to arrive at our desired conclusion. When this occurs, we will mention that we agree with their idea. It is crucial that we do not take any ownership of the idea. If they came up with a different conclusion, we need to go back and share more pointed context until they do arrive at the conclusion we planted. When inviting the subject to take ownership, the question should be directed at them by utilizing the pronoun "you". Once they acknowledge this question by replying to it, this will fortify their ownership of the idea.
When providing pointed context, we mentioned that musicians can bring happiness and people together. Now, we are simply asking the inverse of the question, "Do we want to bring happiness and people together?" Assuming the teenager responds with "Yes", we can follow up with "How?", which should redirect the teenager towards learning an instrument based on our pointed context. In the event the teenager answers "No" to the first question, we will need to rework the pointed context, such that it better aligns with the teenager's mindset and values.
After we mention that a particular team member is dead weight, we can ask "What do you think we should do about [Blank]?" If our leading evidence was strong enough, the boss should come to the conclusion of firing. At this point, we can mention that we agree with the boss' idea. If not, we will need to circle back and continue to share additional supporting evidence until the boss is ready to fire the particular individual.
After we directly ask our friends for their suggestion, they should then pair the pointed context with facts they know about our eating habits and/or their knowledge of local restaurants to come to a conclusion. If they answered with our desired conclusion, we have successfully incepted the idea, and we should validate that the idea is theirs, "That's a great idea! We should eat there." If they came up with a different restaurant, we can provide more specific details to narrow down the choices for them "maybe something within 10 minutes from city center, at least 4.5/5 stars."
Closing Remarks
Planting ideas in the mind of another individual can be a powerful persuasion tactic. To facilitate inception, we need to develop a secret plan, provide pointed context, and invite the subject to own the idea. Once performed correctly, the subject will feel a sense of ownership of the idea. When they feel like they own the idea, they will be more likely to support and execute the action compared to when they are told what to think or what to do.
In the beginning of this article, I did not explicitly request that you share my article to help build my readership, but I hope that the pointed context guided you to find that conclusion yourself.
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