Effective persuasion through ethos, pathos and logos

As learning professionals, it is our lot to try our best to be persuasive, whether we’re trying to convince stakeholders to go with what we believe will be the best solution to their problem, persuade learners and their managers to engage with our interventions, or sell learners on a new way of working. You could say we were in the persuasion business.

As we look for new strategies for persuasion, we would do well to look to those who came before us. They may not have had big data but some of them definitely had big brains. Enter Aristotle, whose three modes of persuasion have plenty of relevance today.