Book Review
Jonah Berger
The Catalyst, ‘How to Change Anyone’s Mind’.
Pages: 258
As a lobbyist, you are in the business of persuading people. It is a narrow group of people. Politicians, civil servants, policy wonks and journalists.
As a campaigner, you are looking to get the public to intervene to help bring about change.
If you are interested in how to more effectively change anyone’s mind, constructively, you’ll read this book. I’ve been in enough meetings when a lobbyist or a campaigner has, I can only hope inadvertently, moved an official or politician from support or minding to support, to simple opposition. If you don’t want to copy that outcome, this book is full of practical tips to get anyone to change their mind in your favour.
Some key Ideas I’ve Taken Away
I’ll mention only 12 insights. There are a lot more. Just buy the book, digest and apply it.
Idea 1: Identity what is blocking or preventing change. Then eliminate the causes of inaction.
99% of the time what you think is the reason for a situation is not the reason. If you don’t understand what’s really really driving a position, you are going to run down a rabbit warren, spend a lot of time and energy, and realise, when you come up for air, you have had no influence.
Idea 2: If you want to understand the root cause it is good to listen. The Appendix on ‘Active Listening’ gives 5 tactics to listen better. 1. Use Minimal Encouragers, 1. Ask Open needed questions; 3. Harness Effective Pauses. 4. Reflect on What You Heard. 5. Label Emotions.
Listening is the first thing you need to do. It’s the best way to understand root causes. There is too little listening in Brussels. I’ve found listening to the single most effective tactic to understand what is really driving an issue. It forces you to go and listen to people who you may think are on the opposite side of the divide than you. Doing the listening first saves you a small fortune and helps you get to where you want to be.
Idea 3: Pushing or encouraging people to do something often leads it to becoming less likely to happen. Asking, not telling is more effective.
Idea 4: Before people will change, they need to trust the person they are communicating with. Until that happens, no amount of persuasion will work.
If people don’t trust your client, your chances are at best limited. If your client is trusted, you’ll find things go a lot easier.
Idea 5: Try empathy to understand what the underlying issue really is. If you find out the root cause, you are far closer to a solution.
If you want to be blissfully unaware of what’s driving the issues, you are maybe happier for it, but you’ll be ineffective in persuading enough people in backing your interests.
After 25 years, I sense blissful ignorance is more common than not.
Idea 6: Step outside your isolated intellectual echo chamber. This is important for ideologues. Brussels is not an ideological town. For issue geeks, too many people think their issue of the moment is the same for everyone. They are usually wrong. Most people are not interested in your niche issue.
Idea 7: Understand that status-quo bias is everywhere. Change is hard because people overvalue what they already have.
If you want people to change the advantages have to be 2.6 times better than the status quo. So if proposing change, it needs to be a lot better than today.
Once change starts, it is hard to stop. When it happens, calling for the status quo is often lost in the wind.
Idea 8: Data and evidence do not always lead people to change their opinions in your favour.
Your data is likely going work with people who were already favourably disposed towards you. But, for people who were less favourably disposed towards you, your data and evidence are likely going to backfire.
Idea 9: If you want to get people to consider your view you can try:
- Go to the movable middle. Find people who are already predisposed to you, even on a specific issue.
- Ask for less. Dial down the size of the initial request if it is not in their person’s zone of acceptance. Realise that there is no silver bullet.
- Find an unsticking point. Find one thing that you agree on. Spend time in a deep conversation, even if it is for 10 minutes, to really identify what is driving someone’s beliefs on an issue.
As Berger says: “ To catalyse change, then, we need to start by finding the moveable middle. People for whom change is not as large, and who can be used to help convince other. When trying to change those further away, we need to start by asking for less, as Dr Priest did. Take big change, and change it down into smaller, more manageable chunks or stepping stones. Ask for less before asking for more. And, finally, like David Fischer’s deep canvassers , we need to find an unsticking point. Start with a place of agreement and pivot from where to switch the field. Connecting to these parallel directions should move them enough to see the initial topic differently. And, maybe a little change” (p. 124)
These three tactics are very powerful. I’ve used them all. They move political mountains.
Idea 10: Taking a farther position in the hope that the final position will meet in the middle. This approach is used in house selling. It just does not work in persuading people to back your cause. This haggling approach is common in Brussels. It is nice to see the science agrees it does not work.
Idea 11. If you have a hard problem to shift, the best way to get movement is to deploy a fire hose to the problem, and bring concentrated action to bear over a short period of time.
As Berger states “Moving boulders is tough but not impossible. Like interventionists, we need to solve the translation problem, by finding corroborating evidence. The more proof that is needed, the more important multiple sources become. We need to fin similar but diverse others who provide consistent perspectives, and concentrate those sources in time so their benefit doesn’t evaporate. And when trying to achieve larger-scale change, we need to think about whether to concentrate or spread out scarce resources. The bigger the boulder, the more a fire hose is better than a sprinkler” (p206).
I’ve found this tactic to be the most effective tool I professionally use. It leads to some strange outcomes – all political groups backing you.
Idea 12: To truly change something, you need to understand it first.
As Berger writes “Too often, as potential change agents we focus on ourselves. We centre on the outcome we’re looking for or the change we’re hoping to see. We’re so blinded bye the belief that we’re right that we assume if we just provide more information, fact, or reasons, people will capitulate.
But more often than not, things don’t budge. And by focusing so much on ourselves and what we want, we forget the most important part of change:” understanding your audience.
Not just who they are, and how their needs might be different than ours – as we’ve talked about through the book – why they haven’t changed already. What barriers or roadblocks are stopping them? What parking brakes are getting in the way?” (pp. 221-222)
Conclusion
I enjoyed reading this book. It has a lot of tactics that any lobbyist or campaigning can use. I was happy to see I’ve inadvertently been using some. I now have some more useful models to deploy.