The Persuasion Principles

Whatever your campaign is, whoever your targets are, you’re going to have to persuade them to make the change you want.

There are also some important principles to have in mind when doing this.

It’s sometimes easy to feel as though people in positions of power are different from everybody else – often, you only see politicians or journalists appearing on TV and behaving in different ways from most people.

But it’s important to realise that people in power are not that different from anyone else. Persuading people in positions of power to change their behaviour or attitudes is not that different from persuading other people.

Imagine you’re out in a coffee shop and someone at the next table speaks to you, trying to change your mind about an issue or tries to change your behaviour in some way. They might be asking you to sign a petition or maybe stop buying certain products or change your attitude about an issue. What would make you likely to listen to them and do as they ask? 

Download the chart and ask yourself who you are more likely to support? (45 kb) [pdf]

Most people choosing from the options above would end up with a zig-zagged line, going from A on question 1 to B on question 2, A on question 3, B on question 4 and so on. Your targets in your campaign will be no different from that.

From this exercise, remember some key campaigning principles:

Make it personal
Try and see things from other people’s perspectives.

Think about what motivates the particular people you’re trying to reach.

If you’re talking to a local politician, think about their desires:

  • talk to them about how many of their voters are affected by the issue:
  • talk about how this issue relates to Government targets they are trying to reach – would it help reduce social exclusion, or reduce health inequalities?
  • take other issues that you know they are passionate about and link them to the things that you are passionate about.

Find case studies, who can talk about the issue in a concrete way, because they have first-hand experience of it. For example:

  • If you’re running a campaign about stigma, find someone who has been harassed repeatedly or someone who has lost a job because of stigma
  • If you’re campaigning about physical health issues, find someone who has had difficulties accessing physical health care – perhaps their physical symptoms have been dismissed and interpreted as manifestations of anxiety.
  • Whatever the issue, make sure that people who offer to speak out in the media are well prepared and supported. Journalists are very likely to ask to interview someone about their experiences to help find a ‘human interest’ angle to your campaign.

Use language that the people you’re trying to reach will understand. If you’re trying to get local journalists involved in your issue.

Don’t use jargon – journalists might not understand what a ‘service user’ is – say ‘people who have mental illness’. Don’t say ‘dual diagnosis’ – say ‘people who have both a mental illness and a drugs or alcohol problem’

Use the language of newspapers – are you suggesting this as a features story, or a news story, or is it an opinion piece? Suggest angles to them.

Be clear and speedy in your description of the situation – journalists don’t have much time, have to master many issues in the course of a week, so they use snappy language that explains an issue at a general level, without going into detail.

Use analogies to bring complex issues down to earth. When opposing the terrorism bill on the grounds that it would inhibit free speech, Rowan Atkinson described it as ‘using a sledgehammer to crack a nut’. This quote was easy to understand, captured the essence of all the detailed arguments against it and was repeated over and over in the national media.

Physical: mental analogies
Because so few people understand mental illness, a good way to come up with an analogy is to compare a problem in mental illness with a similar problem in physical illness. This helps to make a complex problem understandable.

The Government proposed changing Incapacity Benefit in 2006 to push people with mental illness into work. Rethink was worried that this would make people more worried and hence more likely to relapse. How do you make people outside of mental health understand that? Say it’s like helping an asthmatic to get fit by trapping him or her to an exercise machine.

Be friendly - people listen to people they like much more than people they dislike. Don't be angry or hostile if people say they can't help you the first time you ask - if you're polite and friendly, you keep them as a potential contact for your next campaign; if you're rude, they're not likely to try and help you again.

Put yourself in other people's shoes

This is a technique which Gandhi apparently used when negotiating with the British Government. It may sound like it’s too simple to be effective and you might even feel a bit silly doing it, but remember: it worked for Gandhi, so it must be worth a try!

  1. Set up three chairs in a room, in a triangle. Imagine that you’re sitting in the first chair, your target is sitting in the second chair and an outside observer is sitting in the third chair.
  2. Sit in your chair. Look at the chair your target is in – imagine him or her sitting there. Think about what you want from them – say everything that you want aloud, explain exactly why YOU want these things and how you feel about them.
    Be completely honest – no-one is listening. This may take a few minutes – there’s no need to write it down or record what you’re saying, you’ll remember what’s important.
  3. When you’re ready, move to the second chair. Sit as you imagine your target could sit – try and ape their body language. Look at the first chair and imagine yourself in the seat. What does your target think about you approaching them? What do they think about the issue you’re raising? What are their objections to your viewpoint? What are their worries and concerns? say what your target feels about this issue, and about you approaching them.
    It might be difficult at first to step into your target’s shoes, but keep thinking and keep talking and just relax – again, it’s not like they’re listening.
  4. When you’ve completely finished, move to the third chair. Look back at the first and second chairs and imagine yourself and your target sitting in them.
    What does the situation look like to an outside observer? Say all this aloud – does it look like the two people are listening to each other? Does it seem like a good conversation? Is there reason for hope? What could be improved?
  5. You may by now have gathered a couple of insights into how your target feels and how to improve things. But this is not the end. Now that you’ve experienced each role in this situation, go back around the circle, with your new insights – this will mean that you behave differently in chair 1, so your target reacts differently in chair 2 and the situation looks different from chair 3. Go round at least once more, but perhaps twice or three more times, until you feel you’ve learned enough to become more effective.
  6. Think about what feels different and what you’ve learned as a result of this exercise – you will probably have changed and learned much more than you thought you would.

NB: You can adapt this exercise so that there are more than 3 people in the room, if there are more than 3 people involved.

Make it easy
In our world, the easier something is to do, the more likely it is that people will do it. Far more people heat up frozen pizzas than make pizza dough from scratch. Give people all the information they need to do what you’re asking them to do and give them as many options as possible.

If you’re trying to get people to contact their MP:

  • Tell them exactly the points you want them to make
  • Explain where they can find out who their MP is and how to email them or fax them and give them the address of the House of Commons
  • Give them facts and figures to back up their points.

If you’re trying to get a journalist to write an article on your story:

  • Give them local statistics – how many people in your region/area are affected by this issue
  • Make yourself available to them – give them contact details for you at all hours
  • Do the work for them – arrange meetings with case studies for them, at their offices or nearby; have quotes from case studies at the ready; have photos available or have a photocall at a time and location convenient to journalists.

Make it seem possible

  • Give clear suggestions for changes to be made – don’t say “we need GPs to take this issue seriously” or “we need people to understand mental illness better”. Ask for a local training day on the subject for GPs or for a commitment to hold a weeklong mental health awareness week in the area.
  • Give examples of where people have achieved what you’re asking for. In other words, quote ‘good practice examples’.

Make yourself an expert

  • If you seem as knowledgeable about the issue as the person you’re targeting, they’re more likely to listen to you. They may even think you can provide them with information.
  • Work out what objections there might be to your point of view – you can then think of answers to those objections. Forewarned is forearmed!
  • Do your research – see Getting your facts straight.

Make up numbers
The more people you can get supporting you, the more convincing your case will be. Contact your local Rethink group or service or User and Carer Involvement Officer to find other campaigners in the area.

Depending on who your target is, however, there are some more specific principles that apply.

What do people in health trusts/local authorities care about?
Managers and directors working in health trusts and local authorities are likely to be interested in whether your change fits in with their current objectives, like fulfilling guidance from national Government (e.g. the Department of Health). They will also have their own strategic plans and objectives. You need to look at these documents to work out how your change might help them to achieve these targets. They’re usually available on their websites.

Everyone has their own particular interests, especially politicians. You need to link your objectives to theirs or use their plans and strategies as ‘drivers’ for change.
Keep manifestos at local elections and then link your objective to the promises made in them. Keep any other communications from local politicians and use their style of rhetoric to communicate your campaign proposition – they’re far more likely to respond to their own type of words than to yours.

Officials, whether in local Government or in health trusts, will want to know that your change is practical, that it can be made to work. Remember, if the change is
made, it will be them who will be responsible for any new system, so they want to know that they won’t be given impossible tasks.

Local authorities and health trusts also care a lot about their image. Local authorities have to worry about what local people think of them – they need to win elections after all. Health trusts are not directly elected, but they are supposed to respond to the needs of the local population – and a story in a local newspaper with residents saying they’re not doing that is very damaging.

Both also care about regulators, like the Healthcare commission and the Local Government Ombudsman - ultimately, they are answerable to these bodies.

What do people in local media care about?
People working in regional and local newspapers, TV and radio all care about how many readers, viewers or listeners they have. If they don’t have enough, they will
go out of business. They also care about decisions made by Ofcom, the regulator for broadcast media, and the Press Complaints Commission, an independent body which deals with complaints from members of the public about the editorial content of newspapers and magazines.

What do MPs care about?
MPs must respond to communication from people who live within their constituency. Oxfam conducted some research recently on what moves MPs – the overwhelming response was that MPs want to hear personal stories from constituents.