From the course: Influencing Others

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Compare and contrast

Compare and contrast

From the course: Influencing Others

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Compare and contrast

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- Present striking comparisons or contrasts. Comparisons and contrasts can dramatically emphasize your point and open new ways of thinking and paths to different behaviors, which is crucial when you're trying to influence people to think or do things differently. Here's how to do it. The strongest comparisons focus on how two different things are actually alike in some way. A finance leader began a persuasive presentation by showing two different graphs side by side, but with very similar patterns including a severe dip in the middle. It turns out, one graph was an EKG readout from someone with a heart attack, and the other was the stock market during a flash crash. He drew an analogy that accentuated his point, we shouldn't ignore causes and implications of the flash crash just because it's over. The economy had a heart attack, and you don't disregard a heart attack after it's over, you do things to prevent the next one. Second, use contrast to draw sharp distinctions between your…

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