How to Influence Unpopular Decisions
Every now and then I meet someone and think, I must interview them for Cutting Through, my occasional communication podcast.
Russell King, whom I met recently via an online course, fits that bill.
I wanted to learn from him, and I thought you might like to as well so I wanted to share some highlights from the episode.
Asking people to pay for things that were previously free isn’t easy!
And yet, Russell successfully persuaded New South Wales public transport users to start paying, with barely a peep of resistance.
Not only that, he laid the groundwork for one of London’s busiest underground commuter systems, the Northern Line.
He brought decades of public policy experience to this, honed by being an elected official in the UK.
In our conversation, Russell shared several things that I think you will find useful while throwing in a few cricket terms too. He discussed …
- How to gain stakeholder buy-in well before you pitch anything. He calls this ‘rolling the pitch’. Imagine getting the field ready before a game.
- How to navigate decade-long-term projects that could fail at any point should community support dissipate.
- The importance of verifying and explaining thoroughly. Assumptions about understanding and positions can be very damaging.
- Why you must prepare for performance dips after any initial implementation goes live.
You can listen to the episode on any of your favourite podcast players or YouTube, or visit the podcast page on my website, where you can also find the show notes.
I hope to see you there.
Davina
Today’s fun fact
As far as inventions go, the semicolon has stood the test of time, but along with typewriters, it is now officially outdated.
The semicolon first appeared in 1496 in the work of an Italian scholar (says Wikipedia) and was used extensively by writers like Charles Dickens and Mark Twain.
But these days, it’s largely vanished.
Apparently its use in English books has plunged by almost half in the last 20 years, from 1 in every 205 words in 2000 to 1 in 390 today (so the Guardian apparently reported).
Strangely enough, this week I saw a client use one for the first time in what feels like ages.
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ABOUT AUTHOR: DAVINA STANLEY
Davina helps senior leaders and their teams prepare high-quality papers and presentations in a fraction of the time, nailing the message that engages decision makers fast.
She learned structured thinking at McKinsey in Hong Kong in the 1990s, was approved to teach the Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto in 2009, and has coached leaders and teams globally for 25+ years. Clients report cutting review cycles by ~30% and prep time by ~20%.*
Recent clients include 7Eleven, KPMG, Mercer, Meta, and Woolworths.
Learn more at www.clarityfirstprogram.com
* Based on 2023 client benchmarking results.
