Persuasive presentations

Steve Denning was talking about presentations and persuasion at the weekend. His comments focused on the act of persuasion during presentations, about changing people's minds in real time. I asked myself questions about whether this is how we change our minds, or at least how some of us do. Do we need time to reflect on what we've heard? Do we need time to internalise a point of view and let it resurface as our own idea? I know that in a good active debate I have myself defended, (and watched other people defend), a long- or firmly-held point of view in the heat of the moment, but reflect later. By defending, our views are tested, and flaws and weaknesses can be revealed. But it's quite hard to accept the implications, and more importantly perhaps, construct an alternative view based on the new disposition of beliefs or truths. I wonder what the dynamics of a presentation need to be to accomplish this in one go. I wonder what's been studied in the way of attitude change processes that might help understand this. Ah well, yet another fascinating area I probably won't have time to explore ...