Changing Minds

Click here to read an interesting article about how to influence others' thinking--an important issue for economic development, especially in getting business executives to think differently about the image, brand, and desirability of places as business locations.

According to Howard Gardner, a famous Harvard psychologist, there are seven "levers" for changing minds, but deciding which lever to emphasize depends on the context. When it's just two people, for example, resonance [appealing to intuitive sense] is very important. Redescriptions [presenting the same idea in different ways] are the most underappreciated. It's not enough to repeat something a million times; you've got to say it several different ways.