An argument communicates ideas by adding reasoning and justification, helping the other party understand the message as clearly and accurately as possible while saving everyone’s time. The more purposeful and clearly articulated an organisation’s members are, the more time and money the organisation can save on its way to achieving its goals.

Let’s Look at the Impact of Argumentation Skills at the Individual Level

Let’s consider the example of Mart and Mari — two fictional characters based on our training experience. They are professionals working in a medium-sized company whose roles require collaboration both internally and with partners and clients. Both are committed, intelligent, and interested in personal development.

Unlike Mart, Mari has deliberately developed her argumentation skills. She has attended training courses, watched educational videos, listened to podcasts, read articles, and even launched a debate club in her company to help colleagues develop their argumentation skills.

For Mart, putting his thoughts into words during a discussion feels like an obstacle course. Sometimes several fragments of ideas emerge in his mind that somehow fail to fit together. At other times, the idea itself is perfectly clear in his head, but when he expresses it in a meeting, the connections between those thoughts somehow disappear — and eventually so does their connection to the topic of the meeting. Mart has repeatedly experienced situations where others either misunderstand his ideas or fail to recognise their significance.

Mari, by contrast, has steadily improved her ability to navigate this obstacle course. She is increasingly able to find compelling reasons to support her proposals and to see the potential consequences more clearly when weighing alternatives and making decisions.

She does this by breaking each position into individual arguments and structuring each argument around a clear model. One of the most rewarding moments is when she comes up with a strong new argument during an important meeting: her thoughts are organised, her words convey them accurately, the listeners understand the essence of her thinking, and they take it into account when making their decisions.

In everyday office communication, Mart is often surprised that even his best ideas sometimes fail to get through to others. For example, at a meeting the previous week about potential budget cuts, one colleague kept focusing solely on the importance of their own department, no matter how many times Mart emphasised that the meeting's focus was the company’s overall budget. Mart is beginning to feel that some people simply are not willing to listen to reasonable arguments.

Mari also understands that not every discussion will end with her position prevailing. At the same time, she knows that having clear thoughts alone is not enough to persuade someone. She has learned to recognise when a conversation partner is not yet ready to listen to her ideas — and what she can do to prepare them for the conversation.

As a result, she can better maintain people’s attention, even during early-morning meetings. In increasingly heated discussions, she can remain calm while also helping others get back on track.

Mart tends to avoid negotiations. To him, every negotiation feels like an exhausting zero-sum game. Should he pressure the other side into accepting his position, even at the cost of damaging the relationship? Or should he give in amicably, knowing that the outcome will leave his own objectives unmet? Not to mention all the negotiations that have ended without results simply because neither side was willing to be flexible.

Mari, on the other hand, sees every negotiation more as an opportunity than a challenge. From the very beginning of a negotiation, she sees not two opposing sides but a single problem-solving team trying to create more together than either party could have achieved alone.

On one occasion, she even came up with an idea that would help the other company achieve its objectives — an idea that its thoroughly prepared representatives had not thought of themselves. She did this without compromising her own company’s needs.

A Versatile Toolkit for Professional Communication

The stories of Mart and Mari are, of course, simplified. Success in interpersonal communication is rarely guaranteed, and the reasons for its success or failure sometimes remain unclear. No single foolproof solution fits every communication situation, just as no single tool can build an entire house.

That makes it even more important to have as versatile a toolkit as possible for professional communication, so you can find the right solution for each specific problem.

When it comes to influencing rational thinking and decision-making, argumentation plays an indispensable role in that toolkit.

Lauri Kriisa
Trainer and Moderator
SpeakSmart

Since the beginning of his debating career in 2006, Lauri has acquired a wide range of experience in debate moderation and debate management.

SpeakSmart is Estonia’s leading training and consulting company in argumentation and communication skills. Its mission is to help individuals and teams communicate effectively, think critically, express their views clearly, and make better decisions. Over its 18 years of operation, the company has trained more than 22,000 people.