Change Someone’s Attitude by Entering Their “OK-Zone”
It is incredibly difficult to change someone’s point of view to your point of view, but of course it is possible. Harvard Business Review suggests finding someone’s “OK Zone” and working from there.
We are all very deeply rooted in our ideas and it is difficult for us to see other points of view. Because of this, when someone offers us a new idea, we tend to reject it if it is even close to what we already believe. Harvard Business Review calls this the “OK Zone,” where the idea is close enough to ours that we will entertain it. Here’s how they explain it:
If Brian’s presentation started with a big slide proclaiming, “You are all biased,” that is far beyond the normal position of this engineer. It is in her breadth of rejection – or in the “zone of rejection .” This is a defining moment: when a relationship is too far from our OK zone, we not only do not buy it, but we actively oppose it. We mobilize all our resources to confront the person who makes the argument. If Brian began his talk by declaring everyone’s bias, the engineer would likely react even more to denying any bias in himself. If we want to change someone’s attitude, we first need to understand where the “normal zone” of that person is. We do this by asking questions to determine where they are on the relationship continuum right now.
So, to get someone to move into your mindset, you need to find that zone, and then provide information gradually, in small chunks, before they are convinced. This is an interesting approach, and you can find many different examples of how it will work in the Harvard Business Review.
You Don’t Need To Be A Boss To Change Your Business | Harvard Business Review