How good are you at changing your mind? It’s not a question we tend to ask ourselves often.
I once interviewed a political strategist from Washington, who mentioned that practically no resources are spent trying to ‘convert’ voters from one political party to the next. That there was simply no point.
In fact, according to research, when our viewpoints are challenged we usually dig deeper into our position than before.
So that raises the next question - If most of us are terrible at changing our minds, wouldn’t a better focus be to learn how to disagree more productively?
Today's Guest
Julia Dhar is a Managing Director and Partner at the Boston Consulting Group and the founder of BeSmart, BCG's behavioral economics, and behavioral insights initiative.
Julia's mission is to enable leaders in government and the private sector to apply the science of behavior change across a range of social services and topics.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/julia_dhar
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliafetherston/
You’ll Learn
- Why how we’ve been taught to talk about our differences is broken.
- The importance of separating ideas from identity
- And finally… the most beautiful question I have heard in a long time - “What can you share that will help me see what you see?”
In Julia’s words: “We need people with the technical skills of debate and persuasion. Not because we get to be right, but because we get to change people’s minds AND change our own.”
As part of this conversation, you’ll hear her ask me what I’ve changed my mind about recently. Honestly, I haven’t been able to get that question out of my mind since.
It’s easy to believe that we need to take a stance on our viewpoints every chance we get. That we need to be ready to defend our beliefs at a moment's notice, or lest we let the other side win.
I think I’m changing my mind about that.
Which as someone who’s not backwards about coming forwards with my viewpoints, marks a substantial change in my approach.
We know factually that confrontation rarely works. But more than that. What if it also robs us of the ability to discover the ‘shared realities’ where we can meet.
And maybe in doing that, we might change our own minds.
Myself and the team will be taking a break over summer - or in my case the balmy Australian winter. So for the next six weeks we’ve hand picked three of MY all time favorite golden oldie episodes to keep the momentum moving.
We’re also still planning to launch my new virtual program The Influencer Code in the second half of this year, so if you’re not already head to my website and hop on the waitlist to find out more.
References and links mentioned
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