190. Motivation Matters: How to Leverage What People Already Want

Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

Think Fast Talk Smart

Communicating, Influence, Career Skills, Career, Business, Education, Leadership, Careers, Communication, Career Growth, Public Speaking, Language Learning, Improv

4.7 • 711 Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How to turn latent motivation into fuel for change.

If you want to be a changemaker, you’ll have to convince others to join your cause. But according to Dan Heath, persuading your audience isn’t about creating new motivation — it’s about leveraging the motivation that’s already there.

“The most important fuel for any change effort is motivation,” says Heath, the number-one New York Times bestselling author of Reset: How to Change What's Not Working. Instead of struggling to persuade people to want what you want, Heath suggests finding where your goals overlap with the things they already desire. "Before you even get to persuasion, if you can just tap and unleash the energy that's already there, you've already catapulted yourself toward success,” he says.

In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Heath and host Matt Abrahams explore how to create more compelling communication using “leverage points,” or as Heath says, “where a little bit of effort yields a disproportionate return.” Whether getting buy-in from one teammate or achieving change across an entire organization, Heath shares practical tips for turning latent motivation into an engine for change.

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Chapters:

(00:00) - Introduction
(02:14) - The Power of Storytelling
(05:24) - Leverage Points for Change
(08:47) - Wasted Resources & Motivation
(12:00) - Latent Desire in Systems
(14:08) - Communicating Progress
(17:45) - The Final Three Questions
(24:28) - Conclusion

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, Matt here. I need to let you in on a secret. I am incredibly insecure about my written communication.
0:07.0	I get nervous when I write important emails and articles. That's why I and the Think Fast Talk Smart team use Grammarly when we write.
0:15.0	Grammarly helps us find just the right wording based on audience and context and works across more than 500,000 apps and
0:22.5	websites. You too can write better and get more done with Grammarly. Download Grammarly for free at
0:28.7	Grammarly.com slash podcast. That's Grammarly.com slash podcast.
0:47.7	When it comes to effectiveness and our communication, it can benefit us to take a step back and appreciate the systems that influence what we do and to look for the leverage points
0:53.4	to maximize the resources we bring to bear.
0:57.2	My name is Matt Abrams, and I teach strategic communication at Stanford Graduate School of
1:02.9	Business. Welcome to Think Fast, Talk Smart, the podcast. I am really looking forward to speaking
1:09.8	with Dan Heath. Dan is a number one New York
1:12.6	Times bestselling co-author and author of six books, including Power of Moments, Decisive,
1:19.5	Switch, and Made to Stick. Several of his books, he co-wrote with his brother Chip, who we
1:25.0	interviewed in episode 49. Dan also hosts the award-winning
1:29.3	podcast, What It's Like to Be. Dan's latest book is Reset, How to Change What's Not Working.
1:36.3	Welcome, Dan. I am a huge fan of your work. Thanks so much for being here. Thank you, Matt.
1:41.7	It's an honor to be on the show. I'm a follower.
1:49.8	Before we get started, I wanted to invite you to join us for our upcoming Think Fast Talk Smart Live event on April 14th and 15th. I'll be giving a brief talk and then I'll take questions live.
1:56.5	If you want to appear on video with me, consider joining premium. Register at FasterSmarter.io slash
2:03.0	live. That's FasterSmarter.io slash live. I look forward to celebrating with you at one or both of these events.
2:12.1	Thank you. Shall we get started? Let's do it. I've enjoyed all of your books, but made to stick, which focuses on how to get ideas to stick
2:20.3	in a world of so much information, and Switch, which is all about effective persuasion,
2:25.4	continue to have a profound influence on my life and in my communication.
	...

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