Journey of Persuasion
Technique

TRAVERSING THE CHUNK MAP

By creating a Chunk Map of your information where the top has the abstract/general chunked-up information, and the bottom has the chunked-down fine detail information with the chunked-across supporting information, it is possible to plot out a Journey of Persuation.

The Journey of Persuasion would have a start point and lead your audience to understanding your point of view, arguement or ideas, by travelling up/down/across the Chunk Map.

DOMAINS

One thing to bear in mind when Chunking Up (or down or across) is that there may be many possibilities, so you should decide what your area of interest, or "Domain", is. This will help to keep your Chunking relevant to your subject.

DESIRED OUTCOME

As with using most maps, there is a start-point and a desired end-point. When using Chunk Maps, it is adviseable to have a DESIRED OUTCOME.

For example, your DOMAIN maybe "Border Security", and your DESIRED OUTCOME maybe "Why new arrivals at airports should have their luggage searched".

JOURNEY OF PERSUASION

A very simple Journey of Persuasion could be a straight line from top to bottom (or bottom to top) through your Chunk Map. In reality though, this may only influence part of your audience.

However, having a rich Chunk Map of your DOMAIN available (either printed in front of you - or memorised) allows you to enhance and embellish (take alternative routes) during your discussion (presentation, sales pitch, arguement etc) if neccessary.

Traversing up, down, across the Chunk Map leads your audience on a journey of knowledge and discovery while at the same time allowing you to influence your audience to your point of view by taking advantage of their natural TDS.

Example CHUNK MAP

The Chunk Map below shows that we started with the Domain (discussion topic) of "Border Security" and the start Chunk "Food". We theh applied the CHUNKMAPS techniques and created the Chunk Map which visually shows our reasearch information and the associated logical relationships.

Domain = Border Security
Desired Outcome = Why new arrivals at airports should have their luggage searched


Let us assume you started your presentation talking about "Border Security" and "Food" at airports.

If you were to simply Chunk Down from Food and straight into Cavandish Bananas, you would probably leave your audience in a state of confusion as to why such Bananas were a problem for Border Secuirty!.

But, if you were to take you audience on a Journey of Persuasion from "Food", chunked-up to explain about "prohibited items" identified by "Environmental Protection" as being hazardous to the country's natural crops and vegetation and then chunked-down to mention that it was "Government Policy" to enforce screening of items entering the airport and that insects, pests and plant-diseases could be found in certain "Fresh Fruits" such as "Bananas" and "Dairy Produce" such as "Cheese" - then this journey could bring deep understanding to your audience and allow you to influence their understanding and eventual agreement to your point of view.



When influencing an audience, you will want to ensure that the audience TDS results in agreement with your proposition/idea. This means creating a Journey of Persuaion which links your new Chunks of information (your ideas/propositions) to their existing core body of knowledge and experience (held in their long term memory). Obviously the links need to be links of agreement.

That is to say, your proposed new idea or concept must compliment your audience's existing knowledge and experience - Getting your Journey of Persuasion right is key.

Ensuring the Chunks your present during your Journey of Persuasion relate to your audience's existing core body of knowledge and experience in a complimentary way will influence their acceptance / agreement of your new ideas or propositions.

Using the power of Chunk Maps and Journeys of Persuasion will empower you to gain new levels of confidence and success in your communication - whether spoken or written.