Streamline Training & Documentation: Coping with Belief Bias

Friday, July 10, 2009

Coping with Belief Bias

As a follow-on to yesterday's post, and to a post from about three years ago, I'd like to mention the suggestions Mario Moussa and Richard Shell offer for handling situations in which you find yourself trying to get a fair hearing from someone who presents a strong "contrary beliefs" barrier.

In a 2007 interview published by the Conference Board, Moussa observes,

Some people are simply not persuadable because their outlook on a topic falls on an extreme end of an ideology. This is the case with things like abortion. So we suggest trying to find a different belief [perhaps deeper] or point of view around which you can come together. Never go head to head against a core belief that someone holds deeply. It's very rare for people to change such beliefs.

Moussa offers some additional "workarounds" in a 2007 presentation (pdf) he prepared for the Wharton Strategic Persuasion Workshop:

Persistence

Shift audiences

Fly under the radar

Aim to advance "one small step"

In the talk (video) Shell gave at Google in February 2008, he recommends reframing the contentious issue in a way that plays down conflict with the other person's firm core beliefs, a suggestion that corresponds to Moussa's recommendation to look for a different point of view that can serve as common ground.

A further point Shell offers is that you can sometimes actually leverage the other person's beliefs in a way that helps the person see their way clear to cooperating with you.

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Labels: Conflict management, Negotiation, Persuasion

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