Often, when faced with a problem or decision, we’re too close to the situation to get perspective. It might sound impossible to create distance from a situation when it’s our own, but the good news is, it’s not. That’s where self-coaching comes in, and to self-coach, we need psychological distance—here’s how to create it.

If people don’t change, your organization doesn’t change, and one of the main reasons people don’t change is because of poor communication. You can have a massive budget and killer spreadsheets but if you’re not telling a story and changing people, your organizational change will never happen. So how can we improve our communication strategy, sway hearts and minds, and get changing?

When we want someone to change their behavior, our instinct is to try to alter their beliefs and actions by introducing data to prove that we are right and they are wrong. It often fails, because in the face of facts that clash with their prior beliefs, people tend to come up with counterarguments or turn away. So when we want someone to change their behavior, what can we do?