Empathy = persuasion.
25 July 2012
For those whose only persuasive style is bombast, let me paraphrase Otis Redding: Try a little empathy. For example, note how the good folks at Jack Daniels reacted when someone published a book with a cover emulating the Jack Daniels label. Instead of threats, the letter-writer aimed for persuasion through empathy, with the goal of persuading the other side rather than trying to beat them over the head. The result: everybody won.
Hat tip to Doug in Wisconsin.
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p.s. Perhaps Otis’s last performance of “Try a Little Tenderness”: