The Problem with Advocacy

I read a great post today that I am referencing even though it's old.  The author writes, "we are all lawyers".  His or her point is that most people these days take a position and argue it, with little regard for the merits of the other side's argument or for the possibility of changing their own minds.  How often have we all done this in our lives?

Marketers do this all the time, to their great detriment.  They advocate their position, and it's rare for them to take either input (incoming information that changes the system) or feedback (response after a change).  Can we all please get on the Cluetrain and have conversations with our customers, and stop "lecturing" our "audience"?

I liked this person's blog, "Only Connect",  but they seem only to have kept it for a short time, and I can't discern who the author is.  Is this a feature, or a bug, in the "everybody publishes" blogosphere?  Is it a coincidence that their blog ended on the day they wrote the "we are all lawyers" post?  Or did that signal their disillusionment with the creative process online?

Comments

[Russell Nelson]

"Getting To Yes" advocates arguing from principle rather than taking a position. If you argue that "we should help the poor", then you're free to decide that the minimum wage actually hurts them.