Winning an argument..

Written on Friday, July 24, 2009 by Siddharth PV

I am not sure what's the best and sureshot way to win an argument (am not even sure if there is one).
But corporate life has taught me a technique that can significantly help increase the chances of winning one.

The technique is:

*  When faced with an argumentative discussion, let the opposite party speak up first.
    Be a good listener. Encourage your adversary to come clean about his thoughts on the issue.
    (Chances are this will happen readily as most people believe in the first mover advantage too much..)

* Note each and every reason / pain-point mentioned by him in favor of his argument
   When he is done, its payback time.
   For each and every reason mentioned by him, give him your counter-logic and argue it out.

The advantage of doing this is:
Once you opponent has finished speaking you might realize that his pain-points are completely different from what you had in mind.
Knowing your opponent's arguments is equivalent to knowing his best cards. Now you can modify your arguments accordingly.

But, another important thing to be able to do this is - one has to learn to be passionate (and not EMOTIONAL) about issues.

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1 Comment

  1. Dinesh_Corner | July 24, 2009 at 7:04 PM

    very true... should check The prodigial daughter last few chapters on these.. at times it can be tricky also...

     

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Winning an argument..

I am not sure what's the best and sureshot way to win an argument (am not even sure if there is one).
But corporate life has taught me a technique that can significantly help increase the chances of winning one.

The technique is:

*  When faced with an argumentative discussion, let the opposite party speak up first.
    Be a good listener. Encourage your adversary to come clean about his thoughts on the issue.
    (Chances are this will happen readily as most people believe in the first mover advantage too much..)

* Note each and every reason / pain-point mentioned by him in favor of his argument
   When he is done, its payback time.
   For each and every reason mentioned by him, give him your counter-logic and argue it out.

The advantage of doing this is:
Once you opponent has finished speaking you might realize that his pain-points are completely different from what you had in mind.
Knowing your opponent's arguments is equivalent to knowing his best cards. Now you can modify your arguments accordingly.

But, another important thing to be able to do this is - one has to learn to be passionate (and not EMOTIONAL) about issues.