One easy way to make your presentations more persuasive

If you add this technique to your persuasive toolkit, then you will see a marked increase in your ability to influence others. Now read that sentence again. In it, I have embedded the very technique that I refer to in the title of this article. Could you figure it out?

In a previous article, I discussed one way you can be more persuasive. You can read that article here. Today I talk about yet another easy persuasive technique you can employ so that your ideas are more easily accepted by others.

Let me start by asking you a question: Why do you do anything? There are many possible answers to this question depending on your bent of thought.

I remember while working with an educational institution, a British colleague of mine who had graduated with a degree in philosophy stopped by my office. We chatted aimlessly for while but I had the feeling this was not entirely a social visit. So I playfully frowned at him and asked “why are you here?”. With a boisterous laugh he replied in classic British dry wit – “now there’s a question you never ask a philosopher”. Now we were both laughing. He then proceeded to consult with me on course material matters. Here is the key—he had a reason for coming over.

...people will act when they feel they have rationale to act.

But what does this mean for you? How does this relate to persuasion and persuasive presentations?

Well, People do things for a reason. Or more accurately put, people will act when they feel they have rationale to act.

It is true that people are driven strongly by emotion but it is dangerous to assume that empty emotional appeals will secure any lasting influence especially in the technical or business world. You are more likely to motivate action in your audience if you can show them a good reason to act.

But how do you effectively and efficiently incorporate this insight into a conversation or presentation in order to be more persuasive?

If this then that - say what?

In keeping with the theme of philosophy, let me introduce you to if—then arguments also called conditional statements.

Here is an example of a conditional statement using if - then: If five is greater than four and four is greater than three, then five is greater than three.

Now, who can argue with that? It is objectively true. There are no alternative facts to this.

However, few things in life are as self-evidently true as math. In real life, there are nuances and subtleties; there are causes, correlations, conflations and confusions. People are complex beings and life is a complex experience.

For this reason, we have adopted a system of decision-making based on reason. Hence we refer to ourselves as rational beings.

Your audience is not insane

One very interesting definition of insanity that I learned from my favourite college professor is that insanity is taking an action without a reason backing that action. This is probably not an academically accurate definition but we can excuse him—his specialty was chemistry.

His perspective did impress upon me how important having a reason, or more accurately, rationale for our actions is inherent to us as people. And since your audience is made of people (most audiences are), this applies to them as well.

It would be many years after my college chemistry class before I would encounter the work of psychologists in the field of attribution research confirming just how important rationale is in decision-making.

Enter the office photocopying machine

Usually a key character in memes and gifs depicting frustrated office staff, the photocopying machine was the station of an interesting experiment in the power of supplying rationale for action conducted by Harvard psychology professor -  Ellen Langer.

In the experiment, scientists observed a 34% increase in people’s willingness to permit a person to cut in line to use the machine between when a request was made with a rationale triggering word versus when the same request was simply stated without it. The word that was used to trigger cooperation through providing rationale was the word because.

This discovery led me to the development of what I call my If-then model for persuasion.

How to use my if - then model in your presentations

Identify established goals or beliefs that apply to your audience. Then look for a path from those beliefs to your ideas or offerings. Lastly, construct if-then like statements to lead them from these established bases to your offering. Obviously, this implies that you have taken the time to learn about your audience.

For example, when I go out to speak on motivational themes surrounding my expertise, I will often say something along the lines of...if you are truly committed to achieving your professional goals, then you will need to build relationships. And in order to build those relationships, [silent then] you must take your communication and persuasion skills very seriously... And then I begin to share my material to empower them to do just that.

In this example, I have started with something I can assume is true (this will differ depending on my audience). And then I have described a link from that to what I have to offer.

The power of this persuasive model

This model saves time without compromising effectiveness: In one or two sentences, you establish an important connection and set up a favourable reception for your ideas.

This model is very adaptable: it can be used for any audience. The variables are the goals or beliefs of the audience and your offering.

The model is ethical and equitable: This is not some fallacious sleight of hand to deceive or bamboozle. A true link must exist for this to work well. If there is no link between your audiences beliefs or goals and your ideas to begin with, I am forced to wonder why you are talking to this audience at all!

This model helps your presentation prep: In the crafting of your if-then model, you will clarify a lot of things that will help with the crafting of the rest of your presentation by helping you zero-in on the aspects of your material that will be successful with that particular audience.

The method is easy to personalize: The actual words can vary but the if-then model is still in place. In other words, it can be used many times without being obvious in your presentation.

If you apply some creativity to your choice of phrasing, then you can use this model many times over without it becoming stark. See my example above again.

Caveat: Chinks and broken links

Have you ever tried to follow a link online - perhaps to a clearance sale on something you have been shopping for or a really interesting-looking video - only to arrive at a 404 error page? It can be disappointing at best and infuriating at worst. This is how your audience feels when you suggest, or worse, assert a connection that is weak or false.

Make sure a link exists and clarify it. In other words make sure the link is not broken.

"If you are not an idiot, then you will agree with me" makes no sense and any such baseless assertions will infuriate any intelligent audience and vapourize any credibility you had at the outset.

Identify and seal any chinks in your logical armour. Craft something true and compelling and it will be not only be truly irresistible, but also help you connect with your audience on a high level. You can read more about common logical mistakes and the ways of making your speech make sense in this article.

Action

No go try it! See if you can craft a similar phrase (or phrases) for your next presentation following this easy model. It is a small thing that can make a BIG difference.