Now I Know Why I've Never Aspired To Political Office -- Too Much Reason & Too Many Facts

I had to laugh when I read The Washington Post piece, "Language lessons for Democrats, from the political brain of Drew Westen." Dr. Westen is the psychologist and neuroscientist at Emory University who wrote the 2007 book, "The Political Brain." His advice to Democrats is to quit using the terms "the environment," "the unemployed" or "the uninsured." I love his comment, "There are a few things if you know about the brain, they change the way you think about politics... If you understand we evolved the capacity to feel long before we evolved the capacity to think, instead of barraging people with facts (the standard Democratic way of talking to voters), you speak to people's core values and concerns. His basic advice is to quit communicating with "reason and facts" since people respond more to "emotional appeals."

I guess this is consistent with some of the new writing about change and leadership. I am particularly taken with the metaphor of the rider and the elephant by UVA psychologist Jonathan Haidt in his book The Happiness Hypothesis. Dr. Haidt's premise is that our emotional side of change is the Elephant, while our rational side is the Rider. Perched atop the Elephant, the Rider often seems to be the leader that holds the reins – but the Rider’s hold is precarious because it’s so much smaller than the Elephant. Any time the Rider and Elephant come to blows about which direction to go, the Elephant (our emotions) wins.

 All that said, it's a sad reflection on the state of advice for politicians or managers. I'm reminded of the words of Justice Felix Frankfurter, "Fragile as reason is and limited as law is as the institutionalized medium of reason, that's all we have standing between us and the tyranny of mere will and the cruelty of unbridled, undisciplined feeling…"