1. Lull the reader into a false sense of security: This article is going to help you with a problem!
2. Really dig into it: Share a highly relevant story and connect with the reader's current frustration. Make it as clear as possible that the reader is understood.
3. Now that you have a shared foundation, introduce your argument.
Discussions that start with the argument immediately don't stick as well to a lot of people. Give them a reason to listen.
You're basically spot on with my strategy in writing the article. I stole it from Extreme Ownership, an excellent book that uses a similar tactic. The authors begin each chapter telling a story wherein they made a serious mistake, but leads the reader through their logic in making the mistake such that the reader is thoroughly convinced that the mistake was the right thing to do. Then they reveal the mistake and boom! The reader learns. I found it to be a very effective way of teaching soft skills so I emulated it here.
I don't want to trick anyone into reading an article that doesn't have any value to them so if folks feel that the title was inaccurate I'm totally OK with the thread title being changed. But I would point out that it means a totally different thing now that no longer reflects what's in my article. :)
Ultimately it dis resolve my issue with handling disagreements in a manner that would have taken me much longer to understand so clearly.