Advocacy

John DalyUniversity of Texas

(512) 471-1948daly@mail.utexas.edu

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A. Know your goal and purposeB. Drop what is unimportantC. Chunk what remainsD. Structure your information for memorability

- Primacy/recency- When each works

Enhancing the Clarity of Your Messages

Organize Your Message for Impact

Primacy Effect

Recency Effect

Sign ethics statements

at start

Images make things “truthier”; use graphs & images with

uninvolved and people low in numbers skills, statistics with

involved 3

A. Redundancy makes you more interestingB. Redundancy improves memorability

- always offer two examples of a concept- beware of seductive details- offer visual and concrete concepts- follow the tell-show-do-respond method

Be Redundant

Enhancing the Clarity of Your Messages

KickStarter projects with

videos succeed far more than

those without videos 50% vs.

30%

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• A schema is a category system people have for organizing information

Focus on Your Listener’s Schema

• Schemas help people remember information

Enhancing the Clarity of Your Messages

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The Elevator Problem

The manager of a large office building has been receiving an increasing number of complaints about the building’s elevator service, particularly during rush hours. Several of the long term tenants in the building have threatened to move out unless the service is improved. In response, the manager recently inquired into the possibility of adding one or two elevators to the building. Although it would be feasible, the only elevator company in the area has a six month backlog of orders. As an assistant to the manager, you were asked to come up with a plan to get two new elevators installed within three months. You must present the plan at the next staff meeting.

Please circle one problem statement

1. To get two elevators within three months 5. To keep upset tenants from moving 2. To improve elevator service in the building 6. To keep the offices fully rented3. To get more people out of the building faster 7. To keep the manager happy with me4. To keep the tenants in the building happy 8. To keep my job

List several possible solutions for the problem statement you’ve chosen1._______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________2.______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________this exercise was devised by CRA

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What causes crime?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Schemas aid people in understanding

Enhancing the Clarity of Your Messages

- The problem statement you choose shapes the solutions you generate

- always make sure there is agreement about what the problem is

- when no solution seems to work, change the statement of the problem

fight to define the problem--whoever wins the problem, determines the solutions

Create decision agendas

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1. You can adapt your message to your listener’s schema

2. You can create a new schema for your listener

Enhancing the Clarity of Your Messages

Use schemas to enhance your effectiveness

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Faith(Good will)

Honesty(keep promises)

Reliability(consistency)

Trust

Creating and Maintaining Trust

Competency(Knows)

Vulnerability(Open)

Engaging in behaviors desired by other but not by self; no misplaced benevolence; trusting others; perspective-taking; “take-

care” of others; no blame

Consistency in messages & standards

No Lies or false feedback; “fess” up early

Consistent business performance; Dealing effectively with problems

Trust is about predictability

“Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.”

- Aristotle

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Building Competency Perceptions

Always cite sources Cite your own competence (e.g., knowledge, background,

occupation)…you or introduction.. Record of accomplishment• extraordinary accomplishments• esoteric accomplishments

Appear knowledgeable; be prepared more than others; details matter Even turkeys fly in hurricanes…how do you perform in the tough time Seek out crises Be known for multiple competencies Big picture thinking Keep competent company Effortful-effortless principle

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Engage in perspective taking: Different people may see the same event or issue differently. People don’t say things they know to be wrong

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Developing Perspective Taking Skills

Seek out “interests” that underlie “positions”

Position Possible Interests “I want a raise”

“You are absolutely wrong”

“Why don’t you listen to me?”

What? Why?

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Building Close Relationships Through Stories

- Our lives revolve around stories - We think narratively - We learn many of our values via stories - We create and share bonds through stories

Building Advocacy SkillsEffective Advocates Forge Partnerships

- Stories are an especially effective way of communicating your ideas

- People often “get it” through stories

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Successful Narrative

SettingMain Characters

Characters’ Goals

Obstacles Encountered

Resolution

The grammar of a story

interesting and fun; what do they look like, what do they sound like

Event-Action-Suspense-Resolution

Lesson

Learned

Lesson that matches values

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Keys for effective narrative: Has a point; What do you want your listener to feel,

believe, and remember from your story? Told quickly People need to sense you care about it Authentic: Stories need to match who you are Inclusive—others need to grasp idea and feelings Suspense—something unexpected happens Vivid details matter Validate basic values Is personal

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Questions to asks to discover a story

What are some principles that matter to you? Why? Where did you learn them and their importance? What really bothers you—people, events, ideas. Think, “…for example….” ---ground them in specifics What are some scenes from your past that were important pivotal events for you? Describe them in detail, including circumstances and characters. How have your views of those scenes changed? How do the scenes still affect your life? What has surprised you? Caught your attention? Why?

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If you cannot tell stories, collect interesting “factoids”

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Strengths: What are our strengths that make it possible to pitch this idea? What makes this idea especially good? Weaknesses: What weaknesses exist in our environment that mandate this idea? Opportunities: What opportunities exist, right now, that make this the right time to pitch this idea?Threats: What is wrong with the status quo? What external threats mandate we adopt this idea? What are our vulnerabilities? Why now?

Why Now?

Strengths

Threats(vulnerability)

Weaknesses(constraints)

Opportunitiesmatch

convertconvert

Minimize/avoid Minimize/avoid

Internal External

What are the advantages of the idea? What does

this idea do well?

What are the positive changes facing us? What are the

favorable trends?

What could be improved? What is done poorly?

What factors are threatening us? What

could “kill” us?

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Threats• Entry of foreign competition• Introduction of new substitutes• Resource shortage• New regulations• Product life cycle in decline• Changing customer needs/tastes• Rival firms adopt new strategies• Increased regulation• Recession• New technology• Demographics shifts• Foreign trade barriers• Poor performance of ally firm

Opportunities• Rapid market growth• Rival firms are complacent• Changing customer

needs/tastes• Opening of foreign markets• Mishap of rival firm• New product uses• Economic boom• Deregulation• New technology• Demographic shifts• Other firms seeking alliances• High brand switching• Sales decline for a substitute• New distribution methods

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Create A Need

Have A Plan

Show Benefits

What HappensIf We Don’t Adopt

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Building Advocacy SkillsEffective Advocates Seek a Competitive Advantage

Person “What’s in it for them?”

Know the answer to WIIFT

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Match Your Proposal to Decision-Makers’ Needs and Wants

Organizational Reputation Financial Efficiency Individual Status Relationship Enhancement Productivity Safety/Security Appearing Effective or Creative Pleasing Customers

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Preparing to PersuadeWhat Are The Likely Objections?

Objection Response Objection Response“We lack the resources”

“I have a better idea”

“It will be too hard to do”

“I don’t like you”

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Preparing to Persuade

Handling Objections & Questions

Over-prepare Be the master of the follow-up response Listen carefully (are you listening or just waiting to talk?) Use every concern as an opportunity to further your case Turn negatives into positive Why no? What would it take for you to say yes? What don’t you want to be asked? Write out the answers to those Stay on message Treat each as a valid concern Clarify rather than argue

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Because of _______ you can _________ which means ________ (feature) (function) (benefit)

Features are different from benefits

Feature Function Benefit

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And What Would This Mean?

Bring Home the Point!!!!

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People make decisions in biased ways.

Building Advocacy Skills

Understanding those biases will aid in you in advocating your ideas

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Building Advocacy Skills

The anchoring bias- People reference anchors they have for information

Effective Advocates Understand Biases

The availability heuristic

- People emphasize vivid, most available information

Judges were asked to roll dice between reading the documents in a case and making their sentencing judgments. Those who rolled a one gave lower sentences than those who rolled a six.

Restaurants will add some overpriced wines lower down on the menu to the ones at the top of the menu seem reasonable

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Nudging

Building Advocacy SkillsEffective Advocates Understand Biases

- Create settings, events that “make” people engage in different behaviors without feeling forced

12%

99%

Opt-in Versus Opt-out for Organ Donation

Countries with opt-out systems have 25-30% higher donation rates than countries with opt-in systems. Among 17 European countries there is a 16.3% increase in donation when donation is the default.

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Escalation & Entrapment - People can get trapped into positions they don’t want

to take

Building Advocacy SkillsEffective Advocates Understand Biases

The norming bias- People don’t want to appear deviant, especially in uncertain situations

Overcoming: Separate proposer from decision-maker

The likelihood that teenagers will become addicted to cigarettes increases with every smoking scene they see in movies

If you tell people what percentage of their neighbors has already paid their taxes, you are more likely to get late filers to pay than if you nag them in another way

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Balance Theory

Building Advocacy SkillsEffective Advocates Influence Opinions

- People prefer consistency among their beliefs- When people believe there are inconsistencies among

their beliefs they will try to restore consistency by making a change

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Building Advocacy SkillsEffective Advocates Influence Opinions

“Lite” Beer

Famous AthletesJohn

+

+

?

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In 2010, sales of Lego's Taj Mahal kit rose 663% after soccer superstar David Beckham told fans in an internet chat that he had recently built the model, one of Lego's most challenging and expensive ($300), in a hotel room in Italy. Lego makes figurines representing Beckham and his wife, Victoria

Celebrities appear in 20%-25% of TV ads in the U.S., 57% in South Korea, and 85% in Japan.

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Building Advocacy SkillsEffective Advocates Influence Opinions

“God” Term

Your IdeaYour Listener

++

?

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Elaboration Likelihood Theory

Building Advocacy SkillsEffective Advocates Influence Opinions

Two Routes to Persuasion

A. Central route: Attitude change that results from a person's careful consideration of information that reflects what that person feels are true merits of a particular attitudinal issue. Issue relevant thinking based on cognitive response [Positive thoughts-negative thoughts=degree of attitude change]- supportive cognitive responses yield attitude change- antagonistic cognitive responses preclude attitude change- balanced cognitive responding which leads to no alteration of attitude

Building Advocacy Skills

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The Place of Involvement—Central Route

When people are involved, what persuades them? high quality evidence logical arguments compelling statistics comprehensibility of message distractions

How do you increase involvement? create personal relevancy create a sense of responsibility create suspicion about motives and/or credibility of advocate use rhetorical questions to prompt thinking make a counter-attitudinal request

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The Place of Involvement-Peripheral Route

When people are not involved, what persuades them?

liking for advocate credibility attraction bias (what is good looking must be good) numerous arguments (sheer quantity) length means strength perceived consensus labels Images and graphs (vs. statistics with involved)

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Moods Affect Persuasion

People in happy mood decrease their attention to argument strength

Positive mood

Heuristic and global processing of information; reliance of general knowledge; less working memory available

Negative mood

Effortful processing, careful, analytical, systemic, and detail-oriented

Fighting the mood effect: Highlight the transient causes

of the mood--Make the mood irrelevant to the task

Affect as Information Model: Moods provide people with conscious feedback about on-going non-conscious appraisals; positive moods signal things are safe and benign and thus careful processing is not important; negative moods signal a problem leading to a need to engage in careful and systematic processing

Well Fed Judges Are Nicer

Source: Danziger et al. Proc of Nat Acad of Sci, Mar-Apr, 2011

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Perceived Confidence

Perceived Competence“What convinces is

conviction”Lyndon Johnson

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Language intensity: The degree to which yourlanguage choices vary from neutrality.

Perceptions of confidence are associated with greater language intensity.

My idea is: Okay Good Great

The new project has__________ potential

His skills are _______

Lots of

Adequate

Issue Low Moderate High

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Too much

Confidence

Judgment

Where most of us are

Range of opportunity

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Strong qualifiers: Qualifiers can weaken or strengthenyour statements

A marker of confidence is the use of strong qualifiers

“I think this idea might be one we maybe should consider.”

The new plan is one I think we might explore. It has somefeatures that could possibly make it somewhat successful.Apparently, there are a few features that could, undersome circumstances, be helpful. But, it will depend upon how much it costs. It isn’t really that expensive so we should probably adopt it.

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Lexical diversity: The amount of variation in your wordchoice

Perceptions of confidence are associated with greaterlexical diversity

Firm -- Organization -- Company -- BusinessPlan -- Proposal -- Idea -- Concept

ProblemTalkative

Clear

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Vivid details: How vividly and detailed your statements arewhen describing an event, idea, person, or product

Confidence is associated with more vivid detailsThe car drove past the stop sign.The red car drove past the stop sign.The red sports car drove past the stop sign.

The car drove past the stop sign. The red sports car sped past the

stop sign.

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Estim

ated

Spe

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smashed collided bumped hit contacted

Loftus & Palmer, 1974

Vivid Language Affects People’s Judgments

Irrelevant Details Increase Perceptions of Quality

Source: K. Eriksson (2012). “The nonsense math effect” Judgment and Decision-Making, Vol. 7, 746–749

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Make Declarations: The degree to which your languageIs direct, clear, unambiguous; no jargon

Martin Luther King: “I have a dream” vs. “I have a strategic plan that will enhance our competitive opportunities” Thomas Jefferson wrote the “Declaration of Independence” not a Colonial “white paper”

“We need to modify our logistical supply chain to bolsterthe velocity of our delivery systems to our markets”____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________“His performance on the team project far exceeded the parameters of expected quality” ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Use powerful metaphors, analogies: People often“get it” with a strong metaphor or analogy

-"We have gone from boom to bust faster than anytime since the oil shock," said Stephen S. Roach, the chief economist of Morgan Stanley, a New York investment bank. "When you screech to a halt like that, it feels like getting thrown through the windshield.“

-The experience of going through an in-depth audit by the IRS is “an autopsy without the benefit of death.”

We’re spending too much money ________________________________________________There is a great deal of demand for our product ________________________________________________

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Sound organized: When you sound organized, people believe you are more confident and competent

- use orienting and summarizing statements- naming points (but beware of announcing the count ahead of time)- highlight organization on visuals

We need to talk about the shift changes, the recent hires, the benefits plan, and the consultant’s report.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Prime people unconsciously: When you use words that imply what you are seeking people will be more open to the influence

- is kind agree she very- dinner Jack ate comply his- drove oblige home he fast- off television turn the conform- watched movie he the is- to Michelle bed influenced went- the off computer convinced was- she car accept cleaned the- Marcus sick very was red- plane the off took concurred- persuaded Jeff yesterday Paula red- she tired was brought very

Source: Epley & Gilovich, JESP, 1999

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Polite Neutral Rude

Priming Matters

Percentage of people who interrupted after being primed to be polite or rude

Source: Bargh, JPSP, 1996, 71, 235

Source: Berger, et al. Contextual priming: Where people vote affects how they vote. PNAS, July 1, 2008 vol. 105 no. 26 8846-8849

64%56%

Priming Voting: Voting in a School Makes People More Likely to Support Educational Initiative

Support for Tax Increases to

Fund Schools

- Placing decals indicating stores accept MasterCard or Visa makes them consumers more likely to make a purchase

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Precision counts: More precise numbers communicate greater confidence and more believability

Source Pandelaere etal. 2011; Zhang & Schwartz, 2012

- When choosing between two dishwashers, a long warranty receives more weight when a fine-grained unit results in a large numerical difference between the two warranties (e.g., 84 months vs. 108 months) than when a coarse unit results in a smaller numerical difference (e.g., 7 years vs. 9 years)

- The more fine grained the numbers, the more precise people perceived the speaker to be (1 year vs. 365 days)

- People felt that a battery touted to last up to "two hours" would function for just 89 minutes, but they believed, on average, that a battery with life up to "120 minutes" would last 106 minutes

- People predict a more timely launch when told a new product would appear in “104 weeks” than if they are told it will appear in “2 years”

But only when communicated by humans; not with

“machines”

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“Forgetting the business logic and the price, there will be options down the road there, I would answer your question about capable and that we weren’t really quite capable yet because our army was doing all the other stuff we had to do, particularly the systems conversions…The army will be capable to do other stuff sometime next year, which is reasonable. Doesn’t mean we will.”

or

We’re not ready to do a deal yet

Jaime Dimon, CEO, J.P. Morgan

NYTimes, 11/9/05

Simple is better: The simpler your language, the more confident you sound

"We can do no great things. Only small things with great love." Mother Theresa

"Words easy to be understood do often hit the mark; when high and learned ones do only pierce the air."

John Bunyan

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Simple is better: The simpler your language, the more confident you sound

Perform an analysis of AnalyzeTake action on ActReach a conclusion about ConcludeExhibits a tendency to TendMake a recommendation thatMake an examination ofGive consideration toDue to the fact

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Don’t show off

Annually Every yearComprehend UnderstandSpatial SpaceTemporal TimeAssistance HelpPrimary FirstDisseminateUtilizeAttenuate

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Don’t show off

Equities StocksFixed Income BondsAsset Allocation DiversificationDollar Cost Averaging Automatic Monthly

Investments

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Using Evidence as an Influence Tactic

Evidence must be seen as relevance Evidence needs to be believable New evidence is the best evidence Evidence should be comprehensible Best used when:

- you think you may be seen as low credible- you think you may be seen as having vested interests- you use multiple sources - strategically cite sources of evidence

Message Strategies