285: Frame Problems Before Selling Solutions | Professor Jay Conger, Claremont McKenna College

Dr. Jay Conger is a leadership professor at Claremont McKenna College. Widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost experts on leadership and persuasion, he has been ranked by Financial Times among the top ten global management educators. He has taught at the Harvard Business School, the London Business School, McGill University and the University of Southern California. Jay teaches executive programs to over 6,500 leaders annually and coaches executives across dozens of Fortune 500 organizations. He is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review and is the author of sixteen books, including his most recent: The Persuasive Leader.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• I loved Jay’s story about the soccer captain. For months, he had tried unsuccessfully to persuade the school to fix the soccer field. His argument was that the team needed a better field to win the championship. But when he discovered that the decision maker had a background in risk management, he changed his frame. Instead of emphasizing winning, he emphasized injuries and liability. And within days, the school fixed the field.


• Jay’s four steps to persuasion: First, diagnose whether people actually care about the issue. Second, establish credibility. Third, find the right frame. And fourth, build arguments based on the frame.


• Different people see problems through different lenses. One person may care about costs, another about customer service, and another about implementation. If we're in a meeting with five decision makers, we may be dealing with five different frames. And the key is to understand what matters to each person and frame our arguments accordingly.


• Sometimes the best approach isn't to pitch a solution at all. It's to focus on the problem. In Jay's soccer story, the athletic director didn't believe there was a problem, so the captain's proposed solution didn't matter. Once the captain reframed the issue around safety and liability, the athletic director recognized the problem and took action.


• We tend to overestimate our credibility. Just because we think we're credible doesn't mean the other person sees us that way. We need to establish our credibility before our arguments will carry weight.


• In summary, effective persuasion begins with understanding our audience. Diagnose what matters to them, establish credibility, find the right frame, and only then build out arguments.