December 27, 2006
Book Review
By Stuart Morley
Changing Minds - The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People’s Minds
Author: Howard Gardner Printed in 2006
“Of all the species on earth, we human beings are the ones who specialize in voluntary mind change.” Howard Gardner
Howard Gardner is best known in educational circles for his theory of multiple intelligences. He is a profession of Cognition and Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Gardner has written twenty books, translated into 22 languages.
The examples in the book include why Newt Gingrich’s approach failed, whereas Mahatma Gandhi’s approach worked. Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton excelled at rational argument, coveted and marshaled data on behalf of their positions, were expert at using resources and sought to take advantage of events in the real world. However, according to Gardner, Gingrich had three problems. First he was not effective at persuading those who did not agree with him. Second he underscored differences while Clinton was good at papering over differences of opinion. Finally Gingrich did not use stories that embodied his life. He denounced big government yet had been on the government payroll for most of his life. He had walked out on his wife yet embraced family values.
The practical tips to use when you are considering a mind change exercise for yourself or others are covered in Gardner’s 6 dimensions which are:
- Content
The content can be in the form of an idea, concept, story, theory, or skill. Content can be assessed in six steps. This involves first defining the current or present content you or your audience has about a situation that you want to change. Secondly defining what is the desired content you want the audience to accept. The third step is detailing the competing “countercontents”. The more explicit the countercontent the easier it is to undertake step 5 which involves developing a strategy that is suitable for mind changing in that particular instance. Step 6 is where the content and the countercontent are presented to the audience in various formats. - Audience size
A mind change exercise is very different for a large audience versus a small audience. For a large audience the power of change comes from the impact of the stories the speaker tells and the lives that these speakers lead. On the other hand a small audience is impacted most from approaches that are customized to that audience. When it comes to changing your own mind we develop an internal conversation with ourselves to do this successfully. - Type of audience
When dealing with a large diverse audience, expertise cannot be assumed and therefore simple stories work best. The book gives examples how Ghandi, Mandela and others understood and developed their successful campaigns by appealing to diverse audiences. On the other hand dealing with audiences who share a common knowledge and expertise the stories or theories can be more sophisticated and counterarguments can and should be addressed directly. - Directness of Change
In general we remember the artistic creators of bygone civilizations more vividly than we recall the political leaders because the artistic creators impact changes using symbol products – art works, inventions and scientific theories that work indirectly and hence more slowly but their effects have the potential to last longer. Political, business and educational leaders normally bring about change through the messages they convey directly to their respective audiences. - Levers of change or tipping points
The book did not focus on the sci-fi stuff of transforming genes, new software and hardware to change minds.
The more challenging step of knowing when a mind change has actually taken place is harder to determine. Howard Gardner suggests there are 7 levers that are needed for a shift of mind to occur. The audience needs the reasons for change backed up by research. In the example using Margaret Thatcher, she laid out the problems and weaknesses of the past 30 years and how her line of thinking would solve those problems. She researched and plotted the increases in unemployment, strikes and inflation under earlier regimes. The next two levers are resonance and reinforcement. Here Margaret Thatcher became a student of advertising to put her complex message into a direct, clear and simple message that sounded like common sense to people. She found many ways to reinforce her message such as the campaign poster in 1979 showing a long queue of men and women lined up outside an unemployment office with the legend “Labour isn’t working.” The next lever is the resources/rewards where Margaret Thatcher secured the resources by reducing the size of government to put more in the pockets of individuals as a reward for supporting her. Finally the real world events and resistances that needed to be addressed in Margaret Thatcher’s case were how she responded to real world events like the seizure of the Falkland Islands by the Argentine military or the terrorist bombings by the IRA. Finally the resistances she faced were from those who opposed her on issues like lower levels of regulation and taxation, minimal bureaucracy and a strong defense. - The Ethical Dimension
Machiavelli pointed out that bringing about change does not and should not have a moral dimension. The techniques in the book can be carried for moral, amoral or immoral ends.
In summary the book the most compelling comment came from the reviewed by O, The Oprah Magazine with the comment “How to get anyone to agree with you"