In talking with people, don't begin by discussing the things on which you differ. Keep emphasizing, if possible, that you are both striving for the same end and that your only difference is one of method and not of purpose.
Keep your opponent, if possible, from saying "No". A "No" response is a most difficult handicap to overcome. When you have said, "No", all your pride of personality demands that you remain consistent with yourself. Once having said a thing, you feel you must stick to it.
When a person says "Yes," none of the withdrawal activities takes place. The organism is in a forward-moving, accepting, open attitude.
It often seems as if people get a sense of their own importance by antagonizing others at the outset.
"I finally learned that it doesn't pay to argue, that it is much more profitable and much more interesting to look at things from the other person's viewpoint and try to get that person saying 'yes, yes'." - Joseph Allison
Socratic method was based upon getting a "yes, yes" response. He asked questions with which his opponent would have to agree. He kept on winning one admission after another until he had an armful of yeses. He kept on asking questions until finally, almost without realizing it, his opponents found themselves embracing a conclusion they would have bitterly denied a few minutes previously.
"He who treads softly goes far." - Chinese Proverb
Principle 5: Get the other person saying "yes, yes" immediately.
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