Make them right, but make them uncomfortable

It's hard to inspire people if you start by telling them they are wrong - they immediately resent you. But it's also hard to motivate them if they think they are right, and don't have to change. How do you resolve this dilemma?

One way is to convince them that what they are doing used to be right, but might no longer be as effective today.

For example:

• Paying off a home mortgage used to be an effective investment strategy. But now there are so many other options for using the equity in your home to purchase investment properties.
• Thirty minutes of exercise three times a week used to be good advice, but now you have to do forty minutes four times a week because of even more desk-based jobs.
• Salespeople used to focus on product knowledge, but customers with Internet access now come to the sales meeting armed with all that knowledge themselves.

In other words, you make the audience right, which encourages them; and then point out that circumstances have changed, which motivates them.