Driving Technical Change

Wrapping Up

The important lesson to take away from this is, What you say is less important than how you say it. The other important takeaway is, What you say matters less than what they hear. Going forward, think about the way you’ve been talking to people about this, and try to improve your message.

Putting It into Practice

Here are a few suggestions to try to improve your delivery:

• Practice your pitch, either with a willing partner or even alone—the important thing is to do it out loud.

• Record those practices, and listen to them. If you weren’t listening to yourself, would you be convinced?

• If you’re writing something to pitch your ideas, pause for an hour before sending it out, and reread before you hit Send.

Footnotes

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