I have taken advantage of illness to catch up on a lot of reading. At last I got around to finishing George Lakoff’s “Don’t Think of an Elephant“.
Progressive Guru
George Lakoff is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of California at Berkeley. He’s been helping progressive causes better frame the public and political debate. He acknowledges that progressives in the US are not very good at framing the public debate and that conservatives are. I’d think the same is true for most progressives in Europe.
Why Conservatives Are Better at Winning
Lakoff thinks that Conservatives are much better at framing debates, and winning, for many reasons, but two stand out.
One, they have invested in framing the public debate, by supporting think tanks, scholars, and media training, that have allowed them to dominate the airways. Progressives in the US have not made serious investments. In Europe the same is true.
Second, they take it seriously, and progressives have not.
Reframing – Using Language To Dominate Ideas
Reframing is changing the way the public sees the world. Lakoff notes that if you use the other sides language you are accepting their frame. Progressives often use the language, and hence the frame, of conservatives, and then they are surprised when they don’t persuade the public and win over people.
What Can Be Done
Lakoff lays out 11 things progressives can do:
1. Recognise what conservatives have done right and where progressives have missed the boat.
2. Remember, “Don’t think of an elephant”. If you keep their language and their framing and just argue against it, you lose because you are reinforcing their frame.
3. The truth alone will not set you free.
4. You need to speak from your moral perspective at all times… Drop the language of policy wonks.
5. Understand where conservatives are coming from …Know what you are arguing against. Be able to explain what they believe. Try to predict what they will say.
6. Think strategically, across issue areas.
7 Think about the consequences of proposals.
8. Remember that voters vote their identity and their values, which need not coincide with their self-interest.
9. Unite and cooperate.
10. Be proactive, not reactive. Play offense, not defense.
11. Speak to the progressive base in order to activate the nurturant model of wing voters.
(see pages 33-34).
No 5 – Understand Where They Are Coming From
I have met a very few people who understand where the other side are coming from. These few people have an uncanny knack of winning over opponents, or at least neutralising their public opposition, to their side.
Their colleagues often think these persuaders are cheating. Why is it one person can persuade the other side to back off, when organisations have spent decades and millions trying to beat the other side and failed?
Secrets of the Hidden Persuaders
When you spend some time with these hidden persuaders and listen to how they win people over, the fundamentals come down to two things.
First they know where the other side is coming from. They understand their positions and arguments for each of those positions. They have reasonable responses for each of these positions prepared in advance in language the other side understand and can readily accept. These hidden persuaders go out of their way not to piss people off, even if they seriously disagree with the other sides positions.
Sometimes their colleagues think they by not repeating well warn official mantras (even if they know they don’t persuade anybody of anything outside the organisation) is an act of treachery. Reframing language in a way that wins over people is not treachery; keeping to language that alienates people is just foolish.
Second, these hidden persuaders listen. They listen intently and focus on the hidden verbal and non verbal clues people give off. They’ll bear down on you with focused eye contact and listen to the other side.
George Lakoff has written a book that progressives need to read and learn from. Business should also add Lakoff to their reading pile, next to the works of Frank Luntz, and find out ways to really persuade and influence.