High Stakes Persuasion
Simon Gibson
Founder, World Speech D
An overlooked yet fascinating element of effective persuasion in a speech is the speaker’s ability to use contrast. In order to persuade the audience of the validity of an argument, it is useful to be able to contrast this with one that they will accept as false or weaker. Effective persuasion hinges on understanding these contrasts.
The Art of Persuasion Through Contrast and Strong Arguments
Consider how a speaker might typically contrast the past with the present, tradition with progress, or problem with solution. Despots invent an unseen and fiendish enemy for contrast; Lincoln summoned our better angels, our “last best hope.”
Understanding the dynamics of persuasion can dramatically enhance your effectiveness as a speaker, making the ability to convey your message clearer and more compelling.
This is why mastering the nuances of persuasion is critical for anyone looking to influence others effectively.
In essence, persuasion is about leading others to a desired conclusion through well-structured arguments and contrasts.
True persuasion requires a delicate balance between contrasting ideas and finding common ground with your audience.
By harnessing the art of persuasion, speakers can inspire, motivate, and drive action from their audiences.
The effectiveness of persuasion often lies in its ability to connect emotionally with the audience while presenting logical arguments.
This approach to persuasion ensures the audience is not just passive recipients but engaged participants in the dialogue.
By drawing upon historical examples, speakers can enhance their persuasive techniques, making their points resonate more deeply.
Good persuasion is not just about what you say, but how you convey those messages to create a lasting impact.
But there is also a subtler variation. The speaker chooses not only the contrast, but the position of balance. Real persuasion comes from finding that pivotal idea or balance, where you can actually demonstrate your argument’s strength; where you can demonstrate your ability to shift the balance.
Exploring the nuances of persuasion can provide valuable insights into audience engagement and retention.
It is in this act of balancing — understanding the balance, maneuvering it slightly one way or another — that persuasion often achieves its power. In the infamous OJ Simpson Trial, for example, Johnnie Cochrane, the defense attorney, stated: “If it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” The balance that Cochrane identified so brilliantly and memorably had nothing really to do with the glove; it lay in his understanding of the balance that lay within the jury’s mind: “what is (the) truth?”. He used this balance to create doubt. He didn’t persuade the jury as such; he simply got them to understand, deep down, what being in the courtroom was all about: truth. The contrast was prosecution and defense; the balance was truth. By asking the jury to confront “what is truth,” he inevitably moved their minds in OJ Simpson’s favor.
A speaker’s choice of balance conveys much of the meaning. The balance, to use another memorable phrase by music legend Nile Rogers, is the “deep hidden meaning of a song.” And every hit song has to have a “deep hidden meaning”… right?
Nowhere is this notion of balance more evident than in high-stakes settings like the World Economic Forum in Davos. Here, speakers must navigate high-net-worth topics, with very high-net-worth audiences.
Here’s how five different talks at Davos used contrast and the delicate art of balance to persuade their audiences.
In her address, the President of the EU, Ursula von der Leyen, had a very simple contrast: the past. She opened with:
“The first quarter of the century has come to an end and it has brought about a sea change in global affairs.”
She starts her speech with a reference to the past 25 years and then outlines and justifies changes ahead. She highlights the benefits of Europe’s initiatives principally by reference to the past and the challenges that Europe had to face in the past.
The art of persuasion is a skill that can be honed through practice, observation, and reflection.
Through understanding the principles of persuasion, you can create more impactful messages that drive results.
The DHM – Europe is a response to the past, not the future.
For President Trump, addressing Davos by video link, the point of contrast seems like it is also the past. But in fact, it is not so much the past as the previous Biden administration. He blames the Biden administration for so many of the ills that the United States is facing.
“President Biden totally lost control of what was going on in our country … Because of these ruinous policies, total government spending this year is $1.5 trillion higher than was projected.”
Remember, effective persuasion is a balance between articulation and authenticity.
President Trump needs contrast to emphasize the changes he brings, but by choosing Biden and not the past per se. By shortening the timescale and frame of reference to his immediate predecessor, he achieves several things: he amplifies the sense of urgency, the stakes are high now:
Ultimately, the key takeaway is that persuasion requires skill, strategy, and a deep understanding of your audience’s mindset.
“What the world has witnessed in the past 72 hours is nothing less than a revolution of common sense.”
He doesn’t just want to emphasize change; he wants to highlight action:
“Under our leadership, America is back and open for business. And this week, I’m also taking swift action to stop the invasion at our southern border.”
Our takeaway: the barbarians are at the gate! We need a strong leader because things are so urgent. The meaning for me is action. Action is power. Action alone is power.
Asaad Hassan Al Shibani, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Syria, gave a fascinating and unexpected talk. One would have thought that he would have concentrated his remarks on the past failures of the Assad regime. He refuses to do so:
“We will not look at the past, but we will look at the future. We give a promise to our people that this misery will not be repeated again.”
It’s an interesting shift, because the contrast and balance which Al Shibani and his incoming regime are playing with is perceptions.
He wants to put an emphasis not on the past abuse but on what the world expects of his regime and what it will deliver, nowhere more so than with the role of women:
“We need to share all our people in creating this future obviously half of the population is women… you see the place of women in the future of Syria – yes the women in Syria are respected and they have and they should take their role, an active role in our future and they are a very main part of creating a new uh a new country and uh of course the uh Syrian women Syrian women are uh uh they have their they are empowered – they should be a part of the future of Syria and we guarantee their role.”
Such statements contrast with our expectations. The balance is the role of women.
Making a new Syria is about perceptions.
Friedrich Merz, Leader of the Opposition, Federal Assembly of Germany, focused his talk on the first 100 days of persuasion. The emphasis is between the current malaise in Germany and the persuasive strategies he will bring to bear:
“I guess in those 100 days…. First, you have to deal with German competitiveness. Some things are not easily fixed, but I think about energy prices infrastructure and so on. But how to reallocate more resources (is key) to what brings the German economy back on track.”
The contrasts he uses are certainly problems from the past but the alternatives are in plain sight. They are achievable through a change in mechanism. Time and again he refers to the specifics of structure:
“We have to overcome our structural deficits and that is a lack of competitiveness.”
Or of the law (another structural lever):
“We will immediately stop that part of the migration which is coming from family reunification. To give you just the number: there are 500,000 within the last four years who came to Germany without any control and this has to be stopped immediately.”
Right now, Germany doesn’t have a vision. It’s transactional.
The future depends on which lever you pull.
And finally, a talk from Muhammad Yunus, Chief Adviser of the Government of Bangladesh. For Muhammad Yunus – his point of contrast is intriguingly visual.
He describes the walls of Dhaka. The walls are no longer walls.
“Walls across Dhaka became canvases for protest messages, symbolizing widespread dissent.”
The walls are dissent.
What a wonderful example of balance. The moment when, in his argument, he is able to demonstrate unshakeable change. For he realizes that was the signal, when the authoritarian government knew that the game was up…. When the walls themselves became dissent.
It’s not a contrast as such because that would suggest a clear past and future ahead. It’s a moment of balance. Of change.
The walls of Dhaka advertise a new regime; unstructured and all the more unstoppable for that.
