As communicators we like to believe that we have the power to persuade others to our or our clients’ positions. But as we approach election day, we are being reminded of the limitations of our power to persuade. 

The vast majority of Harris supporters and Trump supporters are unmovable, and the truly undecided likely constitute a vanishingly small number of voters. But given razor-thin electoral margins that will decide the outcome it should be no surprise that both campaigns are chasing the margins. 

It may be tempting to see the election as the exception rather than the rule. But, in reality, it is a macrocosm of the challenges communicators face when working with clients to build their businesses, drive consumer adoption of new products or change perceptions in a crisis.  

If it was easy, anyone could do this work. Patently, it is not. 

Changing behavior is hard, and it is rarely about logic. A company may believe it offers the best and most compelling products, and that may be true, but it doesn’t mean people will buy those products.  As counselors, we can advocate for our clients, describe how their services are better than others or explain why they’re not guilty as charged in the court of public opinion. But we may well still fail to change entrenched opinions.  

In an election, a former chief of staff may call out a candidate as being the definition of a fascist, but fail to persuade his supporters, who will claim the other candidate is a communist. When all is fair in love and war, logic and reason are superseded by partisanship and vitriol. 

We know this. People, like the extraordinary Helio Fred Garcia, have written powerfully about the mechanics of the communication process that brings us to the Orwellian world where up is down and down is up and no one will be persuaded otherwise.                                                               

Although we are, in many ways, condemned like Sisyphus to push a rock up a mountain, we cannot throw in the towel and give up - because we are in the persuasion business. 

We need to be humble and smart about how we achieve our goals. Finding levers that give us purchase and tools that make the load lighter while maintaining the confidence we need to keep at it, are all keys to success. 

And yet, we will also have to accept some ugly truths that are at variance with what we may want to believe:

• Our ability to persuade is limited – even when we believe that we are right.

• We have never before had more information about political candidates or companies to form opinions or make purchase decisions, but audiences are selective and choose what they want to focus on.

• It’s tempting to look at others as victims of misinformation or that they are being manipulated by candidates, companies or countries focused on their own nefarious ends. A more uncomfortable truth, irrespective of perspective, is that what we are seeing is simply a reflection of where Americans are on the issues

As much as the presidential candidates or we as communicators may want to change minds, minds are resistant to change. Both candidates Trump and Harris are playing to what they believe, and what they believe their supporters want to hear. 

There’s something magical but also dark in the idea that we can play the Pied Piper and that others will follow to their delight or potential doom. As the election, and history show, along with what we know as communicators, it’s much more complicated.