Changing People’s Minds
Posted on February 11th, 2012 in Leadership
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Feb 11, 2012
After an interesting encounter yesterday at a meeting I thought that I would not only write on this topic, but actually do it in a video instead to get the point across better.
It's hard changing people's minds because most of the time we don't want to know the truth. It's kind of like how we rewrite the history of our favorite sports teams. We get "cheated" out of a victory by a referee when the reality might be that our teams just didn't play all that well, because if they had it wouldn't have come down to an official's decision.
Those things are easy to deal with. But what if it's in a work situation? What if you're the leader? If you want more, you have to watch the video. 🙂
Tags: changing behavior, leadership
LOL, great video, Mitch. For some people, changing their mind requires Holy Intervention. For example, my wife at some point or another saw a documentary that said many name-brand groceries (i.e. mayo, bread) are made at the same place as the generic supermarket products (i.e. ShopRite, Safeway) and that the only difference is the label. So with that, she refuses to buy the name brand of products that I like because she’s convinced that they taste exactly the same (mind you, these are things that she doesn’t eat, so she has no firsthand knowledge of it). So unless Jesus Christ comes down and SHOWS her that there is a difference, I’ll have to continue eating generic bread!
Mitch, you are absolutely right, but most of the time people are taking things very personally and defend one statement very hard, I definitely agree that sometimes it is better to pass, but for business and personal things, strong defense at any price.
Changing people’s mind is kind of interesting. Don’t you think changing their behavior is also interesting?
Thanks for the video!
-Gerry
Yes I do Gerry, sometimes way more interesting.
Hi Mitch,
This was an awesome video. Totally agree with you. Sometimes trying to change people mind can be an impossible task. If it is worth my time or not, this is a very good question. I think it depends on the situation and the person I am dealing with.
Have a great day,
Daniel
Thanks Daniel, and thanks for watching the video. You’re right, depends on the situation and how critical things are at the time. In business, it might always be critical if it pertains to work.