We’ve all done something similar on occasion: chosen the wrong place or time to have a discussion with our partner, became tongue-tied because we didn’t prepare what we wanted to say, failed to get the funding or close the sale we needed because we didn’t win the trust of key stakeholders.

It’s hard to persuade people to do things they don’t want to do. The gap between the councillors’ values and beliefs and those of the protesters was too wide to bridge in the time available. The protesters who tried to save Wood Quay didn’t have enough time to build on the story the councillors had been telling themselves over several decades about

To begin with, know where your audience spends time.

Progress depends on people having a shared sense of purpose.

Whether our ideas, innovations, communities and societies survive and thrive is still dependent on our ability to unite and work towards shared goals. Equality, justice, fairness, sustainability, creativity, innovation and our collective prosperity rely on us trusting enough to come together.

And we started to prioritise the immediate benefit we wanted to get from the interaction. We neglected to build trust before sharing the message and instead obsessed over just delivering it. The result is that we have changed from purposeful storytellers, who care about how the audience or user feels, to pragmatic communicators who prioritise ‘gett

Before we deliver an effective message, we must consider which tactics are appropriate in which situation. How can we best engage with our audience? What’s the best medium to use? When is the best time to deliver the message? Where is the best place to deliver the message?

From the day we’re born to the day we die, we’re figuring out how to persuade people. We are aware that we can’t do much of anything alone. We can only create the future we want to see by bringing other people with us on our journey. We understand the importance of gaining enrolment, getting agreement or effecting some kind of change of heart.

Facebook likes had value. Marketing goals changed. Now, instead of investing time to understand customers’ unmet needs and unspoken desires as successful companies had been doing for generations, we began to monitor their online behaviour, looking for patterns and vulnerabilities, gathering data to leverage later—sometimes to serve or oftentimes to