HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations (HBR Guide Series)

Anticipate Resistance

As a presenter, you’re asking people to change their beliefs or behavior. That’s not something they’ll enjoy or find easy, so every audience will resist in some way. People will adamantly defend their own perspectives to avoid adopting yours. While listening to you, they’ll catalog what they hear. Having come into the room with their own knowledge and biases, they’ll constantly evaluate whether what you say fits within or falls outside their views.

So think through why and how they might resist, and plan accordingly. Here are the most common types of resistance, and how to get ready for them:

Logical resistance: Can you find logical arguments against your perspective? Dig up articles, blog posts, and reports that challenge ...