In Part 1 of Persuasion Atrophy, I introduced how I see social media and artificial intelligence not only impacting how we work and play, but also how they can fundamentally impact the skill of persuasion. Professionals now and in the future need to be intentional about how they build and exercise what I call their “persuasion muscle” to ensure the skill of persuasion doesn’t go the way of long division by hand.

To apply a layer of practicality to my argument, I’d like to use The Four C’s of Compelling Presentations as the roadmap for exercising the persuasion muscle. This installment in the series focuses on choreographing your content and delivery.

The most challenging and consequential talk I’ve ever given wasn’t to a large group of people or a room full of executives, and it wasn’t even a business presentation. It was when I eulogized my sister Lori, who died of lung cancer in 2012 at age 54.

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There are two seismic-shifting technologies that have already changed just about every aspect of our lives, and will continue to in the future. The first is social media. It’s enabled the rekindling of old relationships, the building of new ones, and the end of others. Anyone with a phone, tablet or computer and internet connection can participate in discussions with others anywhere in the world.

The second is artificial intelligence. Using the internet and its 150 zettabytes of information (that’s 150 followed by 21 zeros), AI can search, analyze and present information that is either humanly infeasible or impossible in no time. It’s changing the way we work and play.

Before going further, I am a fan of both technologies and do not in any way advocate a head-in-the-sand position on either one. I firmly believe that, as leaders and project managers, it’s incumbent on us to learn about these technologies first-hand and weave them into what we do.

I do, however, want to sound a warning bell about both technologies and how they can inhibit development of a crucial business skill.

Persuasion.

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Throughout my career, I’ve facilitated and been a party to disagreements or conflict more times that I can possibly count. Sometimes things worked out okay, and those affected were satisfied with the outcome.

Other times, things didn’t turn out as well. As I’ve thought about both the good and not-so-good outcomes, it caused me to dig deeper to find the underlying factors that helped drive the outcomes.

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Jane was a group manager over a team of six buyers for a large department store chain.  Her team specialized in buying house-wares, including linens, sheets, towels and small appliances.  Her team met every week to discuss advertised specials for upcoming weeks and any supplier issues that the team needed to be aware of.  There was one linens supplier, Patty’s Linens, that has had some difficulty with product quality and the department store was experiencing higher-than-normal returns on the product.  Two weeks earlier, the supplier submitted a plan for how they were going to improve the quality of their product.  The department store decided to keep the supplier on for three more months to evaluate their plan and give the supplier an opportunity to resolve the quality issues.  With this as backdrop, we eavesdrop on Jane’s current team meeting:

In The Clarity PM: 6 Areas to Improve, I talk about six attributes of a what I call a Clarity PM, as follows:

1. Clarity of purpose
2. Clarity of done
3. Clarity of constraints
4. Clarity of what/who/when
5. Clarity of external dependencies
6. Clarity of communication

I’ve certainly been burned by not doing each of the attributes well. Number 5, clarity of external dependencies, has brought unwanted surprises that created ugly fire drills. It has caused me to be more mindful of those dependencies and how I unearth and manage them, making me better at intentional external dependency management.

Given so, I’d like to share some lessons learned to help you avoid getting bit by an external dependency. Here are six external groups that can carry dependencies that can have a material impact on both your work and the external group’s work:

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One of my favorite movies is A Few Good Men. The riveting court scene at the end of the movie where Lt. Daniel Kaffee (played by Tom Cruise) is questioning Col. Nathan R. Jessep (played by Jack Nicholson) ranks right up there with some of my favorite movie scenes. “You can’t handle the truth!” and “Did you order the code red?” are lines that could be said in just about any venue or context, and someone will likely tie the line to the movie.

In another scene, Jessep is explaining to Kaffee that, “We follow orders or people die, it’s that simple. Are we clear?” Jessep then underscores, “Are we clear?” to which Kaffee responds, “Crystal.” The scene intensifies in its back-and-forth dialogue until Jessep…actually I won’t spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen the movie.

The ”Are we clear”? line has stuck with me over the years. Aside from it being powerful theatrics, it’s something that I believe is a foundational tenet of what we as PMs are all about.

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You’ve likely heard the term reading the room, when a person observes words, tone and actions to get a sense of others’ sentiments and expectations. Most of the great leaders I have worked with and for in my career were exceptional at reading the room. They also used that sense to better understand others through employing empathy.

Dictionary.com defines empathy as the psychological identification with or vicarious experiencing of the emotions, thoughts, or attitudes of another. It’s more than just reading the room, it’s taking what you can glean and adjusting your actions to better meet the situation.

When my father died, we held a five-hour wake for people to come and pay respects. When we first got there, my mother, siblings and I were very sad at losing my father. As the night progressed, we talked more about the good times with him, which was shown by smiles and some laughter. Most of those who attended the wake read the room and were sad when we were sad and laughed when we did. Reading the room was mirrored by empathy.

Empathy doesn’t necessarily mean you agree with the person you are empathizing with; it just means you recognize the person is feeling a particular way and your actions reflect the recognition.

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About a week later, the young man came into the store. “Excuse me, sir,” Jose said as he greeted the man. “We were reviewing some of our security footage and saw you stuff a ribeye into your backpack and leave without paying for it. We thought that, rather than get the authorities involved, we’d ask you about it. So if you’ll just pay for it, we’ll be good.”

The young man, unfazed, replied, “Well, I ate the ribeye and it’s gone, so why should I pay for it?” He abruptly left the store. Jose just stood there, at a loss for words at the twisted logic.

*** *** ***

You may be looking at this scenario wondering how the young man could possibly feel that he shouldn’t pay for the ribeye just because it no longer exists. He brought it home, prepared it, and enjoyed it. Jose and Linda lost money because of the young man’s actions. And to add insult to injury, the young man felt absolutely no remorse for stealing the ribeye. Sounds crazy, huh?

Yet, it’s precisely this logic, the ribeye alibi, people have used when I’ve caught them plagiarizing my articles.
Dictionary.com defines plagiarism as “an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author.” According to Grammarly.com, there are seven common types of plagiarism:

1. Complete plagiarism – when a writer uses a complete work written by someone else.
2. Direct plagiarism – when a writer uses portions of a work written by someone else.
3. Paraphrasing plagiarism – when a writer uses a work written by someone else and changes a few words or phrases.
4. Self-plagiarism – when a writer reuses work written by himself inappropriately, as in creating work for a client that the client owns, then reusing the work for subsequent clients.
5. Patchwork (or Mosaic) plagiarism – when a writer interweaves plagiarized work with his own work.
6. Source-based plagiarism – when a writer incorrectly cites or fabricates sources.
7. Accidental plagiarism – when a writer doesn’t realize they are plagiarizing another’s work, which includes forgetting to cite sources, not citing them correctly, or failing to put quotes around cited material.

I wrote my first book, The Project Management Advisor, in 2004. Since then, I have written more than 50 books and more than 400 articles. Periodically, I run my articles through a plagiarism checker to see where else they show up and if I have been given proper attribution. Many times, someone will repost one of my articles and give me proper attribution. Provided proper attribution is given, I am completely cool with my article being reposted. But there are times when someone will either completely plagiarize my content or paraphrase it with no attribution whatsoever. Finding plagiarized content is one thing; getting action is a horse of a different color. I’ve experienced everything from having the content removed by the platform, to being reimbursed by the plagiarist, to having the plagiarist make a donation to my favorite charity, to being ignored, to hearing the ribeye alibi. Two instances of the ribeye alibi went as follows:

1. The plagiarist admitted that the content was plagiarized and passed off as their own.
2. The plagiarist failed to recognize that he or she enjoyed the use of and profited from my content that they passed off as their own.
3. The plagiarist told me that their only legal responsibility was that the plagiarized content be taken down.
4. The plagiarist told me there was nothing else they needed to do; they complied with the law.

From a legal perspective, they worked, at least in their own interpretation, within the boundaries of the law. From an ethical perspective, they abandoned any sense of doing the right thing by claiming the ribeye alibi. They posted my content under their name (the shoplifter stole the ribeye), enjoyed the use of my content (the shoplifter ate the ribeye), then when they were caught (the shoplifter was recorded stealing the ribeye on camera), they claimed that because they took it down they weren’t required to do anything else (the shoplifter said he wasn’t in the wrong because the ribeye no longer existed).

In this analogy, most rational-thinking people would say the owners of the grocery store deserve to be compensated for the stolen ribeye. So why shouldn’t I as the victim of plagiarism deserve to be compensated for the unauthorized and improperly cited use of my content?

My intent is to dig deeper into the ribeye alibi and give you some practical nuggets on how to discover if you’ve been plagiarized and how to address plagiarism matters. I will also tell you five real-life stories about my being a victim of plagiarism. I will not be divulging entity names; they will only be known as RibCo, RightThingCo, Coward, RibGuy, and SorryDude. My experience and focus are on articles, blog posts, and other written content available on the Internet; I am not focused on other digital assets like music and pictures. Also, please keep in mind that I am presenting this from a business and ethical perspective and giving you some ideas to consider. You should consult with an intellectual property attorney before taking action on your own.

See more about RibCo, RightThingCo, Coward, RibGuy, and SorryDude, and how you can fight plagiarism in The Ribeye Alibi: What I Learned as a Victim of Plagiarism.

Since my first book in 2004, I have written more than 50 books and 400 articles on topics such as project management, leadership development, work/life balance, and raising a child on the autism spectrum.

My earlier attempts at writing articles were a jumbled mess and required hours of refining thoughts after my editor had given me constructive feedback. I’ve spent a lot of time figuring out how to write both more effectively and efficiently.

If you’re interested in writing articles, my singular goal is to help you produce topical content that’s relevant, helpful and entertaining for your readers.

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