Welcome to Dr. K’s Persuasion Skills and Savvy Blog. I’m Rick Kirschner, ‘Dr. K,’ and I’ve got a lot to say on the subject of persuasion. For example, I can tell you that there are a few (annoying) constants in life and work when it comes to how people communicate with one another. I’ve observed that people love to be right, even about being wrong. And all too often bad ideas win out over better ideas.
How frequently have you had to resign yourself to the inevitable because you don’t know how to change someone’s mind? How often has the goal of positive change seemed just out of your reach?
Actually, during my career I have helped lots of people make positive change, grow businesses, improve their management skills for taking charge and leading change, and dramatically enhance the skills of their employees for persuading others and, yes, bringing out the best in people who were at their worst.
As a result of doing this work, I was able to develop a reliable approach to dealing with change. And I have enjoyed the reward of seeing my approach help others accomplish wonderful outcomes.
With this blog, I would like to share with you my experiences and offer practical ways to achieve some mastery over the Art of Persuasion in your life, family and work. I hope you will join me for this series of posts, in which I’ll be sharing techniques that I’m certain can work for you. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep this blog going. Life has a funny way of taking surprising turns. But as long as I can, I will, at the pace of three posts a week.
In my work developing the material that became the audio and two books of the Insider’s Guide To The Art of Persuasion I make the claim that if you have to be right, you’re doing it wrong. I’m convinced that persuasion finds success in meeting people where they are, by first understanding and then speaking to their needs, interests, and
motivations.
There are two important reasons to learn and use the Art of Persuasion.
1. You’ve got to know how to protect yourself from unscrupulous people with hidden agendas who use ignorance and emotion to bring about negative ends.
2. Consider how many great ideas you have witnessed disappearing into the mists of time because of a failure to persuade. In your life, think of the opportunities squandered, the resources wasted, and the money and income lost because the right person at the right time lacked the persuasive skill to persuade the key people to take the necessary actions.
If you have the answer to a question, or the solution to a problem, and you are unable to persuade others, the people who need that answer or solution have no hope. Your business, your family, your community, your country and the world itself may one day depend on your persuasion skills. Think about that.
I hope you will make reading my blog your habit. At the least, please check back often for fresh content! And if you’d like to leave a question, or make a comment, I’d love to hear it.
One more thought for today: Change is inevitable, but progress is not. Let’s take a journey together to discover how you can make the difference.
Be well.
Dr. Rick Kirschner
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Hi, Dr. Kirschner
My name is Julie Poole and I am a student teacher at Christiansburg High School in Christiansburg, Virginia. In passing, I fell upon your blog and found this particular post to be very interesting and informative. I am currently teaching a unit on persuasion in my 11th grade English classes and am in the process of moving my students from reading the persuasive writers to becoming the persuasive writer. In hopes to connect them to the world around them, their end of the unit task is to create a group persuasive commercial to bring community awareness concerning an issue they feel passionate about. Just like you said, so much can go unseen and unchanged without the correct people or words to persuade an audience to move towards that change – and that is what my students are currently working on.
I was hoping that when it is all said and done that you wouldn’t mind giving my class of 11th graders some feedback on their commercials. We have been discussing persuasive techniques and how to incorporate that into our writing and speech. But, with this particular assignment, I hope for them to gain more than just the technique behind persuasion. I want them to see what they can do with their words and that change is possible.
Once my students have completed their assignment, I hope to upload their work either to their class blog or their wiki. If you are at all interested in becoming a part of this project and helping us out, please let me know!
Thank you for your consideration for I know you are an extremely busy man, but any feedback from you would be greatly appreciated!!
Hi, Dr. K!
Thank you very much for your response. I am assigning their persuasive commercial projects today so hopefully all goes well! I am allowing them to choose their issue they want to talk about. I want them to educate their classmates about that particular issue and what they want to change about it – in other words, persuade us to want that change too and how we should do that. Are there any suggestions or tips that I should tell my students when creating these commercials? We’ve been discussing persuasive techniques for quite some time, but connecting the technique to purpose is very difficult sometimes.
I will keep you updated on their progress!
Thanks!
Best,
Julie Poole
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