Each of us has often thought, “if only I could make somebody understand… If only I could give them more information, they would come to see things like I do.” In reality, people don’t come around to our way of thinking because the pros outweigh the cons or by some algorithm.
Picture a man riding on an elephant. The man represents rational thought; the elephant, emotion. Their relative sizes are proportionate to their roles in decision making. Yes, the man may provide some direction, but at the end of the day, it is little more than a suggestion to the animal. People make decisions emotionally. They provide rational alibis to support the decisions they have made.
If your message of change is completely rational, you will struggle to gain employee alignment. Adding more proof points will not win the argument. By contrast, if you provide an emotional benefit, if you lead employees to understand how they will feel, you can get buy-in. In a business setting, we often seek substantiation and rational arguments. We are often Myers-Briggs “T’s” rather than “F’s.” But rational arguments are usually what is needed to provide credence to an emotion-based decision. We miss the importance of emotion in our decision making process.
Finding the emotional benefit for customers is what marketers do everyday. It is what we do for you internally.