Persuading: Being Buoyant in the Face of Rejection

Chapter 5 in Daniel Pink's book To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others is titled "Buoyancy." It is the second chapter of Part II in the book titled, "How To Be."

Many of you reading this post are teachers, instructional coaches, and administrators who are leading the way in integrating technology effectively.  As we are on our journey, how many of you can describe situations similar to that of a door-to-door salesman.  “He found door-to-door selling especially brutal.  These rejections came fast and ferociously, often in the form of a rude comment and a slammed door.” (Page 99 of 260, Loc 1190, Kindle App for iPad)  Now I’ve never had a teacher slam a door in my face but many emails go unnoticed.

In order to stay positive in our quest to integrate effectively, Daniel Pink suggests we stay buoyant.

1) Have Interrogative Self-Talks – Example – How can I best persuade the teacher to have his/her students write online?  “Can I move these people.” (page 117, Loc 1399)

2) Positivity Ratios – Be positive about what you are trying persuade teachers to do.  Negative emotions narrow people’s vision while positivity broadens it. (page 105, Loc 1286).  Also, you need to believe in the positive effect that technology integration has on the learning for students.

3) Optimistic Explanatory Style – “View your rejections as temporary rather than permanent, specific rather than universal, and external rather than personal.” (page 111, Loc 1369)

Practicing buoyancy is going to be important for me.  Many times, like today, I get dismayed when only a handful of teachers welcome me into their classrooms to share ideas of technology integration.  However, I need to be positive, have interrogative self-talks before entering a building, and be optimistic to help myself be persistent through the tough days.