How to Convince a Skeptic
“Collaboration, talk about a waste of time!”; “Mental ecology… ugh, the new hipster trend!” and so on. We all know a skeptic, the one on the team who doesn’t want to get onboard…
All organizational innovation will cause some degree of upheaval, which skeptics are quick to identify in advance. Their attitude? Wait until the hype dies down to see how, ultimately, nothing really changes. Where do these skeptics come from? According to Ken Favaro, whose brevity I commend, all transformation relies on two determining factors: clarity and collaboration. I would personally add a third factor, trust, because after all a 3-legged stool is the sturdiest!
Effectively combining trust, clarity and collaboration fosters commitment, accountability, and autonomy, and avoids employee overloading that can result from insufficient planning. On the other hand, lack of clarity and/or collaboration harms collective intelligence, creativity and innovation, and produces doubts, collective overload, headaches, lack of initiative, group thinking, and ultimately resistance. Resistance to everything. So how do you convince a skeptic?
When dealing with someone who expresses serious doubt or even outright resistance to what you say, the project you are presenting, or the team dynamic that you are trying to develop: use the same 3 key points: 1) clarity (provide facts and tangible proof), 2) inspire trust by being consistent, and 3) collaboration? Yes, that too, and when you start engaging your team, be mindful of your non-verbal communication. If your body language and your words contradict each other, there is very little chance that you will sway the skeptics — or anyone else.
To learn more : “How can you convince a skeptic” (HuffingtonPost.com)
© Copyright Business Digest - All rights reserved
