Discussing electoral reform can be a ‘hot button’ issue because it carries considerable emotional weight. We often encounter people who have differing views, and we can encounter differing perspectives even in discussions with like-minded people. So how do we exchange ideas in a constructive and convincing manner?
We need to respect the differences that a variety of people bring to the table. We respect differences by recognizing that people have a variety of ways to process and digest information and a multiple ways of making decisions. That recognition of differences is turned into action by preparing how to interact with people who have learning styles that are different than our own, and who have differing decision-making processes than our own.
The foundation for convincing communication lies in assessing the preferred learning style of the person with whom we are conversing (visual, auditory, or tactile), and determining their dominant decision-making processes. These features, and what to do after we made a successful preparation (building rapport and digging past the surface issue), are explored in their respective links.