Harvard Business Review March-April 2021 pp131-135 |Experience Advice and Inspiration|MANAGING YOURSELF “PERSUADING THE UNPERSUADABLE Lessons from science-and the people who were able to say Steve Jobs” by Adam Grant.
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Summary from HBR-edited to brevity
“We live in an age of polarization. Many of us may be asking ourselves how, when people disagree with or discount us, we can persuade them to rethink their positions. The author, an organizational psychologist, has spent time with a number of people who succeeded in motivating the notoriously self-confident Steve Jobs to change his mind and analyzed the science behind their techniques….’it is possible to get even the most overconfident, stubborn, narcissistic, and disagreeable people to change their minds.’
Key points
“Ask a know-it-all to explain how things work”. As they do this they realize they don’t fully know-it-all and are more willing to dialog.
“Let a stubborn person seize the reins”
“Find the right way to praise a narcissist”. Praise them for a towering strength then render specific criticism in an area of concern.
“Disagree with the disagreeable”. Ideas that make it to implementation “did so because their proponents kept fighting for them by refining and addressing weaknesses, offering proof of concept and enlisting supporters.”
“When leaders lack the wisdom to question their convictions, followers need the courage to persuade them to change their minds.”
The article points out that Jobs’ greatest successes resulted from reshaping his own vision having adopted ideas his team were persistent in nurturing despite his initial outright rejection of some ideas. This change in mindset explains, in part, his successful second term at Apple that led to more success in creating unique products that captured demand in the marketplace.
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