A practitioner asks Maria to rate her readiness to clean her room on a 1-to-10 scale, then asks why she didn't pick lower. This forces her to name her own reasons for change, which stick better than reasons you give her. Self-generated motivation is stronger in sales, counseling, and persuasion.
Let's say that you have a daughter named Maria. And Maria has a messy room, and you want Maria to clean her room. The 2 questions you could ask Maria are this. Maria, on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 meaning I'm not ready at all, 10 meaning I'm ready to do it right now, how ready are you, Maria, to clean your room? So she says, Dad, I'm a 2. Well, here's where the second question comes in. And it's a really interesting, counterintuitive question. You say to Maria, why didn't you pick a lower number? So here's what happens. Maria has to explain why she isn't a 1. OK? And so she says, you know, if I had my room I'd be able to get to school on time faster and maybe see my friends a little bit more. What happens? Maria begins articulating her own reasons for doing something. And this is really axiomatic in sales and persuasion. When people have their own reasons for doing something, not yours, they believe those reasons more deeply and adhere to the behavior more strongly.
