Today, Fort Lauderdale and the Peacemaker.

Yesterday, Peoria and the Armadillo.

Persuasion repeats itself, but doesn’t rhyme this time contradicting either Mark Twain or history.

But, it’s still good persuasion.

P.S. Man, if you need a big truck you can get these old Brinks trucks for a song.

In August, police got the first of their two Peacemakers after paying the Brinks company $10 for a discontinued armored bank truck.

Good grief, Penguin is trying to sell my Persuasion Guide for that much. No wonder sales are in the dumper. Even I’d rather have a Brinks truck than my own book!

My Headline Persuasion Rule should drive any serious persuasion effort and it separates the mavens from the muggles instantly. Muggles extemporize, displaying either or both arrogance or authenticity. Mavens think a long while first. And they think about the Strategy, the Big Goal, because they know if you don’t get the Big Goal right, nothing else matters. Today I’ve got a serious, real world example of that strategic planning for persuasion.

Consider the strategy inherent to these questions.

1. Does Israel have the ability to cause severe damage to Iran’s nuclear sites and bring about a major delay in the Iranian nuclear project? And can the military and the Israeli people withstand the inevitable counterattack?

2. Does Israel have overt or tacit support, particularly from America, for carrying out an attack?

3. Have all other possibilities for the containment of Iran’s nuclear threat been exhausted, bringing Israel to the point of last resort? If so, is this the last opportunity for an attack?

This, according to a published article based on face to face interviews with key Israeli leaders is how they are thinking about responding when and if they believe Iran will possess nuclear weapons. The long article develops their strategic planning over the past ten years and the following tactics. In many ways, the article is a blueprint for thinking and acting, strategically and tactically. I highly recommend that anyone who pretends to persuasion maven status read it.

I observe and approve of the clear-eyed or hard-headed focus on concrete outcomes. The strategy produces observable, countable, physical changes. There’s no flowery self-persuasion as if you need to justify the strategy to yourself. It directly aims at doing explicit activities at an explicit group of Other Guys. A persuasion plan falls naturally out of the strategy behind these three key points.

The three key points also provide a great hierarchy of concerns. The first concerns sheer ability and enhancing that. The second concerns allies and public opinion. The third seeks alternatives to the first point. You know how to prioritize with this hierarchy and you also understand you need to address all three simultaneously.

The article then develops how this strategy has played out and is playing out in tactics, some of which I consider as persuasion plays rather than power plays. Even events that involve killing people function more persuasively than just the removal of a key Other Guy. Such violent acts frighten some Other Guys who remove participation or support for the Iranian project – that’s delay and damage. These acts also encourage internal dissenters and opposition. Finally, these acts force potential allies to think about the Iranian project.

It’s also interesting to note how talkative these Israeli leaders are right now. Normally you associate silence with Israel on issues like this. They do or don’t do what they do and always refuse public comment on everything. The fact of their public talk demonstrates a more clear communication application of persuasion than the persuasive effects of killing lead scientists. Consider this quote from Ehud Barak, the defense minister of Israel.

At various points in our conversation, Barak underscored that if Israel or the rest of the world waits too long, the moment will arrive — sometime in the coming year, he says — beyond which it will no longer be possible to act. “It will not be possible to use any surgical means to bring about a significant delay,” he said. “Not for us, not for Europe and not for the United States. After that, the question will remain very important, but it will become purely theoretical and pass out of our hands — the statesmen and decision-makers — and into yours — the journalists and historians.”

Here the Israelis are using fairly traditional persuasion – interviews with journalists – as a persuasive tactic in the service of the three key points. This interview and in particular this quote speaks directly to the second key point regarding allies. We see an Argument from Barak regarding the Iranian nuclear project and what should be done and that Argument is aimed squarely at allies, especially the US.

Regardless of your opinion on this issue, please see the persuasion planning and execution in it. Focus on the three key points that express the strategy and their implications for persuasion. Learn how to devise strategy that is this clear, behavioral, measurable, and operational.

A valued network pointed me to a story about the Pentagon’s new love: Social Media. Consider.

The American intelligence and defense communities have become enthralled by the possibilities of social media. They’re looking to use the networks to forecast political unrest, spread friendly messages, spot emerging terror groups — and even predict the next natural disaster . . . A new project from U.S. Special Operations Command, on the other hand, looks to create something brand new: a “user-generated social media radio application powered by the human voice, available on the PC, Mac, Android, iPhone, and Nokia smart phones, that lets users share their thoughts and experiences.” And this voice-activated SOCOM network is being billed explicitly as a tool for “military information support operations” — shaping public attitudes.

Now. Let’s look at social media from a financial and investor perspective. How’s it going with Google+?

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — When it comes to web sites and apps, active users totals issued by companies are often hard to interpret, unreliable or just plain jacked up.

The writer then details the lack of details about Google+ and its success or failure. He notes that none of the social media monsters can produce a reliable metric of communication and persuasion impact. He cautions caution to investors about Google and by implication all other social media. So, I guess, if it’s your money, you might want to think about it, but if it is taxpayer money, you don’t?

And, we know the numbers don’t add up with Google+ along with the other gang of suspects. As noted recently, 80% of these IPO are trading below their opening day price. There is not as much there as some people thought and bought.

If You Cannot Count It, You Cannot Change It!

What’s the count? Sure you can count the number of devices and network links and data packets and on and on with measures of technology and reach, but what about counts on Changing the Other Guys and how They think, feel, or act?

Warfighting is different from persuasion even though both seek to Change the Other Guy. With warfighting, a new technology that reaches the Other Guy almost certainly also Changes the Other Guy. Bang! With persuasion, a new technology may reach without Change. Hello!

Realize the trap here. People are looking at devices and content for their persuasion when the maven realizes that persuasion produces its effect through function. An iGizmo is what it is, but has no inherent persuasion function. Just having it does not win hearts and minds.

Count the Change. Please.

This looks like a fun persuasion environment, doesn’t it?

This photo is from a rare Obama press conference at the Pentagon to discuss the future direction (PDF) of the US Military. Talk about tight lips. Even the smiles are only mouth. Why? Trying reading that pdf Guidance document, especially the italics. Start here.

For the foreseeable future, the United States will continue to take an active approach to countering these threats by monitoring the activities of non-state threats worldwide, working with allies and partners to establish control over ungoverned territories, and directly striking the most dangerous groups and individuals when necessary.

Hey, we’ll whack Bad Guys where we find them and we will be looking. Sounds tough, almost Bush-y Except.

However, with reduced resources, thoughtful choices will need to be made regarding the location and frequency of these operations . . . However, U.S. forces will no longer be sized to conduct large-scale, prolonged stability operations . . .

Oh. We’ll be Thougtful Whackers using Nudge rather than Push!

The White House has charged McRaven’s Spec Ops team to Nudge Assad out of Syria. They’re going to hit all his men’s rooms and swap out the urinal cakes with new ones that have Resign Now! in Arabic on them.

Volunteers for that adventure in applied persuasion?

You might recall the famous, long-running, and successful ad campaign with the tag line, Does She or Doesn’t She?  Refresh your memory.

The image combines two Rules:  All Bad Persuasion Is Sincere and Persuasion Is Strategic Or It Is Not.  We have the maternal combination of mother and child, but mom is smoking hot.  Does she or doesn’t she . . . do what exactly?  Pick whatever TACT you prefer and the Blonde can deny it, confirm it, or ask you to move closer.

Now consider this word picture.

During the Bush Administration many former generals appeared on TV to provide expert comment on actions in the War On Terror.  Some observers cried foul, perceiving the dark hand of SecDef Donald Rumsfeld as the man behind the curtain, manipulating public opinion.  Sure, they are retired and independent.  Sure, they are unbiased and objective purveyors of fact.  Well, according to the story, a two year investigation conducted by the Obama Administration (!!! aka, not the Bush Administration !!!) has found no such conspiracy.

I have always admired the persuasion and power skill of the Bush Administration.  They used words to accomplish change in freely choosing Other Guys and no one was sure whether the Administration was run by Idiots or Propagandists.

There’s a Difference between Persuasion, and Smoke and Mirrors; With Persuasion the Illusion Lingers.