Persuadable

About the Author

Al Pittampalli is a business consultant who has significantly impacted organizations like NASA, IBM, Kaiser Permanente, Hertz, and Hewlett-Packard by helping them adapt to the fast-changing world. He is also the author of Read This Before Our Next Meeting, a manifesto for transforming the way organizations hold meetings. Pittampalli's insights and methodologies stem from his deep understanding of leadership dynamics and his ability to translate complex research into actionable strategies. His work emphasizes the importance of adaptability and open-mindedness in effective leadership, which is the central theme of his book Persuadable: How Great Leaders Change Their Minds to Change the World.

Main Idea

In Persuadable, Pittampalli challenges the traditional perception that changing one's mind is a weakness. Instead, he argues that in today's rapidly changing world, the ability to adapt and change one's beliefs in the face of new evidence is a powerful leadership trait. This concept, which he terms "persuadability," involves rejecting absolute certainty, treating beliefs as temporary, and actively seeking out and evaluating counterarguments. Pittampalli presents seven key practices for becoming more persuadable: considering the opposite, updating beliefs incrementally, killing your darlings, taking the perspective of others, avoiding being too persuadable, converting early, and taking on your own tribe. Through these practices, leaders can achieve greater accuracy, agility, and growth.

Table of Contents

1. The Persuadable Advantage
   • Get Smart: Accuracy, Agility, and Growth
   • The Truest Path to Self-Determination
2. The Seven Practices of Persuadable Leaders
   • Consider the Opposite
   • Update Your Beliefs Incrementally
   • Kill Your Darlings
   • Take the Perspectives of Others
   • Avoid Being Too Persuadable
   • Convert Early
   • Take On Your Own Tribe

The Persuadable Advantage

Get Smart: Accuracy, Agility, and Growth

Being persuadable gives leaders three key advantages: accuracy, agility, and growth. First, persuadability enhances accuracy by enabling a better understanding of the world, leading to smarter decisions and more precise judgments. This improved accuracy paves the way for the other two advantages.

Agility is crucial in today’s fast-paced business environment. A survey by McKinsey & Company found that "nine out of ten executives ranked organizational agility as both critical to business success and growing in importance over time." However, despite its importance, many companies struggle to adapt due to a psychological phenomenon known as status quo bias. Leaders often prefer the current state of affairs and seek information that supports it while ignoring information that threatens it. To overcome this bias, leaders need to seek out unpleasant facts actively. This mindset is the essence of agile leadership.

Growth involves recognizing and addressing one's weaknesses. The tendency to overestimate our skills and performance, known as illusory superiority, can hinder personal and professional growth. Persuadable leaders seek feedback and confront the reality of their capabilities, which allows them to improve continuously. By being open to new information and perspectives, they enhance their accuracy, agility, and growth, making them more effective and adaptive leaders.