 Seth Godin
of Fast Company and
Purple Numbers fame has a new BHAP (big hairy audacious project)
called ChangeThis.
The idea is that we need to be more open to well-articulated opposing
(or at least different) points of view on important issues. The 'This'
in ChangeThis is Your Mind,
and by changing it, you will become part of a broader, urgent change
movement. The vehicle that gets the ball rolling is something called a
Manifesto. Seth has plans for some online Manifestos penned by some very big
names.
It's a very intriguing idea, but I don't think it will work, not because of the Internet's
limited reach or because of anything inherently wrong with Manifestos,
but because it's out of sync with human nature. Here's why, IMHO:
- What I've observed is that people want to make up their own
minds. They will only read a Manifesto if they already deeply trust its
author. A Manifesto by Krugman or Gladwell will go far, but the same
ideas by the same source in a NYT editorial or New Yorker article
will go just as far. We each have our own (usually small, or very
small) audience of people who trust what we write, what we say. A
Manifesto will not enlarge one's audience. It is preaching to the choir.
- When people write to thank me, it's not for changing their
mind.
It's because they trust me enough to allow me to inform them
about something they're not already informed about -- Tax shifting, or
entrepreneurship, or innovation, or whatever. They know me well enough
to know my spin, and my blog articles help them learn about something
much more quickly than reading books or doing exhaustive research.
- So if it's from a trusted source, a Manifesto or blog post
or
editorial or book review or whatever will help people Make Up Their Own
Mind. On any important issue it will not change
anyone's mind. People make up their own minds by reading sources they
trust. They don't want to change their minds. Only
ex-British private school students enjoy real debates, and that's only
because they're better at them than anyone else. Most people want
reassurance that they're right, and will be more inclined to read
things that reinforce what they've decided than things intended to make
them change their thinking. That's not lazy thinking, it's good time
management. I want to be informed and make up my mind so that IF
I need to make a decision (who to vote for, what to buy) I can do so
quickly. Making up one's mind is a means to an end.
- How and when do people Change Their Minds? Very rarely, and
not
by reading or debate, but by direct experience. If Bill Cosby
goes on the talk circuit and tells me welfare recipients are mostly
lazy black women with too many babies, and I'm a conservative or a fan,
I'll probably believe him (see today's NYT
editorial by Barbara Ehrenreich on this). But if I volunteer at an
inner city soup kitchen I learn from direct experience that Bill is
full of shit -- he has his facts wrong to start with, and what he says
doesn't jibe with direct observation -- the mostly-white women I
meet are dying to work, if they could afford day care for their
two children. I change my mind. And I no longer trust
Bill
Cosby -- he let me down, and the next time I hear him I'm going to be
inclined to Make Up My Mind that the truth is the opposite of
what he's saying.
- You want to change people's minds, get them the
hell away
from the TV, and the newspaper, and the Internet, and let them find out
the truth face to face, in the streets, from direct experience.
- To every rule there is an exception, and the exception to
this
rule is that sometimes you can change people's minds by telling
them a story. The reason stories are powerful
and subversive is that they can be (especially if from a trusted
source, or accompanied by remarkable pictures) a surrogate for
direct experience. That's why the story can't be too detailed -- the
listener/reader needs to internalize the story and make it their own.
Then it's as if they were at the soup kitchen, and all of a
sudden they don't trust Bill Cosby anymore either. And they loved
Bill Cosby. But they suddenly know from 'personal experience'
that Bill's facts don't add up. They've changed their minds.
- So my suggestion to Seth is to change the word Manifesto to
Story before he launches ChangeThis. Ot at least whisper in writers'
ears that their
Manifesto should be a Story in disguise.
- This is not unique to humans. I could tell you a story...
What do you think? Am I just old and curmudgeonly and cynical, or is
this really how people make up their minds, and why they change them so
rarely?
(Diagram is from an earlier
post on The
Decision-Making Process)
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MADE IN CANADA
trust your
instincts 
