Persuading my colleagues outside student affairs

In an increasingly interdependent world where many points of view must be weaved together for any initiative to achieve success being persuasive is an important skill. Different strategies can be used to be persuasive.   

One strategy you can use to persuade someone is to relate your point to your audience's experience. To that end, I have recently started to explain to colleagues how our lives, in general, have seen a blurring of the lines between personal and professional in an effort to convey that our students learn inside and outside the classroom. I believe that institutions who understand this phenomenon, and leverage it, can greatly enhance learning and development opportunities for students. 

Using evidence to make a point is another obvious strategy that can be used to persuade someone. When it comes to the power of living on campus I have found myself going back to the 2007 submission I made to Ryerson's Master Planning exercise where I opened with the following:

“Powerful learning occurs in situations where people come to know each other as friends”  (Chickering & Reisser, p. 399).  On a university campus these friendships can form in many places, but one of the best locations for friendships to form is in a residence hall.  Living in residence has been proven to enhance the student experience.  The following points from Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) summarize some of the key findings of research on residence living. When compared to students living off-campus, students living on-campus are:

• more likely to participate in extracurricular activities
• report more positive perceptions of the campus social climate
• tend to be more satisfied with their college experience and report more personal growth and development
• engage in more frequent interactions with peers and faculty members
• more likely to persist to graduation

What is your favourite persuasive technique? 


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