in my line of work one of the most important things that I have to do on a
daily basis or a regular basis is to persuade people persuade people about
something or other you in your life would probably whether you recognize it
or not have the same requirement the same need to persuade people
we've always persuaded since we were kids and persuaded our parents to give
us treats before or after our dinner we've
persuaded schoolteachers that our version of events as the way homework
wasn't done was true and accept her explanation who's persuaded parents
about going to discos of going to nightclubs are going wherever to engage
in some activity that may or may not meet with approval but we've always
persuaded with persuaded bank managers or Bank people to give us loans and
we've persuaded people to marry us we've persuaded people to give us money for a
mortgage for a house and so on and so forth so persuasion is a vital part of
our everyday life when they recognize it enough the older that I guess and the
more mature I guess and the more I observe stuff the clearer it is to me
how effective persuasion can be brought about and one of the most significant
tools I would even go so far as to say the most important tool in persuading
anybody of anything is to use the power of story the power of storytelling I
wrote a blog post recently about this and about story telling being accepted
required and desired by the human brain going back centuries and it's so
compelling to be able to persuade people to sell them a story to sell them a
version of events if you look at the last couple of years
for example the presidential election campaign in the United States in 2016
where that Charlotte and Trump persuaders the Rose Belt states to vote
for him in sufficient numbers that I became president you consider the story
that the brexit heroes told people in United Kingdom in relation to
he breaks it referendum in United Kingdom all of these stories were so
compelling and so powerful in persuading people to go along with the version of
events that's been put forward ultimately though if you're a lawyer or
if you end up at the WRC or in court or anywhere else you want to end off with
probably a conflicting version of events from the other side and Lords there's
going to be a contest and the adjudicator or the decision maker in
whatever form it may well be a judge and there won't be a jury they will be faced
with at least two versions of events your version and the other party's
version and ultimately the Waterloo in the day will be which version of events
which story is most believable which is most compelling I've seen time and time
again in the WRC for example underneath in court where there's a conflict of
evidence the judge or the adjudicator won't necessarily say that I don't
believe that person or I think that person's evidence is bogus or untruthful
what they say is there was a conflict of evidence I preferred this version or the
other version that's what comes down to and that's what comes down to most often
when you are trying to win an argument trying to win a dispute or recently
involves or attended a science competition in UCD my daughter was
involved in it she's a PhD student in UCD and this competition was an
initiative to allow PhD students to share in as plain language as they can
there are findings and their passion for what they're doing from other
researching but the shares with ordinary people without a science background to
the layperson in other words to explain in plain English and clearly that can be
a difficult task when you consider the vocabulary in the jargon of the various
phrases and words and in vocabulary that's associated with any particular
profession but particularly the science industry but there was experts there
from external experts there judging the competition and one of the questions
that they posed to a particular individual who gave a very good
presentation about the use of cocaine in rats to cure addictions or to test and
carry out research into addiction and how to solve the problem of addiction
for humans now leaving aside on the issue of animal cruelty or animal
welfare and so on the presentation was interesting but one of the questions
that was asked by one of the experts at the end of the presentation of this
particular student was that's very interesting how would you persuade
industry to invest in your research investing what you're doing and the
young PhD student understandably said well I explained to them the data but I
don't think telling the data or selling the data or just relying on the data is
enough to persuade I think if he said or if he embarked upon a project of
combining data with story he has a far better chance of persuading somebody
persuading industry to buy into the project and to invest but bottom line is
storytelling is powerful story is very very compelling when it comes to
persuading or influencing anybody to do anything and obviously it has boundaries
but ultimately at the end of the day in every dispute no matter what forum just
going to be competing versions of events and the winner will be the one
who version of events is most credible most
believable most compelling and I have found and many many other people have
found that one of the most powerful ways to achieve that is by using story I hope
you found this video useful I hope it might prompt some thoughts in your own
mind as to how you may be able to use story in your profession in your
everyday life and political you spur to good news to persuade an influencer
because all you have to do is look at the story as I said that Trump told the
American rushed belt stays voters and look at the story that the likes of
Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage and so on sold to the US or the United Kingdom the
British public you see then the power of story and one of the most interesting
and most liver aspects of story is how real you can actually make the pictures
in a person's mind how vivid is your story because the most vivid or the more
vivid and the more understandable and the more straightforward and more simple
and more easy to understand your story the better chance you have because the
better chance you have of persuading the greatest number of people just ask the
people who voted for Donald Trump for example the United States hope you find
this video useful if you do give it a thumbs up down below and you may be
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