In a post Seth Godin made today, he says:
The easiest way to disagree with someone
…is to assume that they are uninformed, and that once they know what you know, they will change their mind. (A marketing problem!)
For a long time that was the mode in which arts organizations operated, believing that once people were exposed to the arts, they would fall in love with them forever and ever.
I really never thought of that view as “disagreeing” with a potential audience member, but I guess in a way that is what it is.
It wasn’t until I read Godin’s post that I realized that the view people would fall in love with the arts once they were exposed is probably based on a longstanding sales philosophy that being told “No” simply meant that people didn’t have enough information.
I don’t know how many jobs I had where I was told that. I always thought it was a pile of baloney because there are plenty of reasons for not wanting to buy something other than lack of information. I suspect it was just a semi-manipulative way of making the sales person blame themselves for not making the sale.
Godin has a couple more levels of difficulty for disagreeing with someone. However, he says (my emphasis)
The hardest way to disagree with someone is to come to understand that they see the world differently than we do, to acknowledge that they have a different worldview, something baked in long before they ever encountered this situation. (Another marketing problem, the biggest one).
There actually are countless uninformed people. There are certainly craven zealots. And yes, in fact, we usually hear what we want to hear, or hear what the TV tells us, or hear what we expect, instead of hearing what was said, and the intent behind it. Odds are, though, that we will make the change we seek by embracing the hard work of telling stories that resonate, as opposed to dismissing the other who appears not to get it.
So while Godin’s answer does sort of embrace the idea that the problem is a lack of information, that deficit isn’t solved by delivering a spiel*. Rather the most effective approach will likely be a long term communication process based on an understanding of the other person–the audience and community in the case of most arts organizations.
(*Mahagonny-Songspiel might work, but I doubt it.)
Love this. I remind myself every day that people think differently from me. The easiest thing to forget, and, at least for me, it requires constant vigilance to keep relearning and acting on it.