Session 6: Obstacles to Persuasion

The session-5 started with SKG sir giving us some theoretical inputs about the Persuasion. A video of “The Pursuit to Happiness” was shown and then we discussed about people’s attitude. Differences in Attitude and Behaviour were elaborated in the session. Attitude is something which is not expressed explicitly where as Behaviour is expressed explicitly (Thanks to Joydeep for revising!). It is important to note that Persuasion is a process of changing people’s attitude from Position A to Position B. (See Figure)

There can be various obstacles for changing the attitude of the people. People may like to perceive what they want to; they may like to remember what they want to; they might relate the experience they want to; some body may give forewarning of the persuasion; People may have been committed to contrary cause & the pressure of peer group can cause obstacle as well. We did a small exercise on the Obstacles and related strategies to overcome them.

The figure above states various examples dealt in the class reflecting the obstacles in persuasion.

The second part started with the presentation where we saw a video clip when Anup explaining importance of persuasion in Personal Life as well (!). They also showed some traits of decision makers from the movie clip- “Ek ruka hua Faisla”. The point they wanted to emphasise was that different decision makers need different strategies to be persuaded. The next presentation was by Jatin & Mukesh. Here we saw the anger of SKG sir. I must confine that sir has his own way of persuading the students. He himself comes with such preparation and knowledge & then lists down all the expectations from us. Failing on which, he clearly gives feedback. By this way, he also inspires others to work harder.

Assignment- Influencing Audio Clip

I also submitted two audio clips in which I had tried to influence two people in the work-place situation. The first one was when I was trying to Influence Mahesh, my colleague, to substitute me for a meeting. I tried to be Friendly with him and gave reason for my absence. I also bargained with him on the time of the meeting. At the same time I tried to insist the importance of the meeting and why it was important not to miss it. In the second clip I called my friend and tried to create an Onsite-Offshore situation, where I am trying to influence him to provide more human resource for a project. I tried giving reason as well as bargaining for the number of people. I also insisted importance by showing that more projects are coming. At the end he told me that he cannot give more human resource unless he has P.O. from the client (I swear I didn’t tell him to say that). To which I bargained two days time and asked to provide my required number of people after two days.

Session 5: Some Good Persuaders

This blog will be reflecting about some of the persuading characters I have observed recently. Some of them are from the movie SKG sir had assigned us to watch: “The Devil Wears Prada”. One more character I will talk about is Rusty (“Rascal Rusty” as it is called) from the novel “Mediocre But Arrogant”.

Let’s talk about characters from the movie first. The lead character in the movie was a girl named Andy, who is appointed as an assistant to Ms. Miranda Presley (Chief of a fashion magazine). Andy is totally the reverse of what her boss wanted her to be. She is ignorant about the fashion and does not think it is necessary to be fashionable to work for a fashion magazine. The first instance of her persuasion comes when she appears for the job interview in front of Ms. Presley. The tactic she used there was Assertiveness & insistence. She used the same strategies to gauge the work assigned to her from her colleague, Emily. She has also used Friendliness, Assertiveness and collaborative strategies to get the Harry Potter books from a journalist she met in a party. She also used strategy of Coalition to extract some of the information about possible change in magazine chief.

Ms. Presley was a dominating and strong character in the movie. She used Non-Verbal communication to convey her Authority to her sub-ordinates. She was the one who made Andy wear fashionable attires by the simply scanning her from the top to bottom. She had built her credibility and personality by the knowledge she displayed and authoritative tone of voice she used. She dismissed any arguments by simply saying, “That’s all!” She used the strategies of Coalition and Bargaining when her position as the magazine chief was under a threat.

Bozo (fashion designer) was another character in the movie, which had used some of the influencing strategies. At one instance when Andy was about to quit her job, Bozo used strategy of Reasoning to influence her. He also offered her counsel and influenced her by Friendliness. The freelance journalist tried using strategies like Bargaining, Friendliness and Coalition to influence Andy.

The movie effectively showed how various psyche of people requires different strategies to be applied on them. For instance, a decision maker who is more of Controller type, strategies like bargaining, coalition and assertiveness would work. The charismatic decision maker would be more influenced by Assertiveness, reason and insistence. A thinker would be looking for reasons in the persuader. A sceptic would need a lot of reasons, friendliness and assertiveness to be influenced & the followers would be influenced by friendliness, higher authority and collaborative strategies.

I recently read a novel- “Mediocre But Arrogant”. Which is a fictional story on a campus of a B-school called Management Institute of Jamshedpur (XLRI). Rascal Rusty, who is a friend of the lead character in the book, is a very persuasive personality according to me. The character has various traits of influencing others with different strategies at different times. He has been shown to be using Reason & Logic backed by the credible sources to influence some of the professors. He used to help others in the assignments on paid basis. He showed the bargaining and coalition in those trades to extract more amounts. He used friendliness and bargaining with the Mess contractor in getting good supply of foods from the mess. In fact, he was such an influencing character that people fell into his trap many a times. His mischievous practical jokes gave him the tag of Rascal in the book.

At the end of the session-5 we ourselves performed a persuasion task (apart from the assignment). We were facing the problem of excessive sunlight in the classroom that made the projector ineffective. Three of us (Me, Shobhit & Shashank) went to Mr. Vipul for possible solutions. He told us that the curtains were ordered but somehow GERMI had cancelled the order for that. We then went to GERMI office to sort the matter out. We shared our concern with him in an Assertive way and insisted not to let our education suffer. We explained that this was a permanent problem and required urgent attention. He agreed that we required the curtains on the windows. But the same took some time to be delivered. In response to that we suggested him to give an intermediate solution till the curtain was installed. We asked him to stick a chart paper in the meantime. We gave the reasons and bargained the solution to be taken effect immediately. Next day when we walked into the classroom, we saw the chart papers stuck and some people taking measurement of the window for the curtains.

Session 4: Standard & Poor SPM Stock Exchange

The class geared up for yet another surprise (I wonder till when I’ll keep writing this word). Indeed, SKG sir put one more bundle(s) out of his bundles. He asked us to get divided into groups of 5 randomly. Then he gave various shapes badges to wear on our pocket (Square, Round & Triangle). I was under the square badge.

The game was like this: we were given some chips with each colour signifying some value. Also, the repetition of the colour also gave some bonus value. The task was that each player had to keep his chips to himself and trade it with other players. The trade, however, was to be done following certain rules and regulations. We could not talk with other players except for entering into a handshake. Once the players enter into a handshake, they have to exchange chips with each other. Also, they should not reveal which chips they hold. A player could show his/her intention of not to trade by keeping the arms folded.

The game started and after 5 minutes SKG sir asked all the people to report their points. The top five scorers were given square badge. Hence, people wearing the square badge were demoted if they were not among top five. Before the next round of trading RBI (Sir) infused some more liquidity in the market by giving some more chips. This however came with a condition that groups had to decide which members should get those chips. After the next round of trading we witnessed another twist; after listing the top performers and promoting/demoting people to the respective groups, sir termed the “Square Group” as the policy makers. He then asked other two groups to give suggestions about revision of the points of each colour. The acceptance of these suggestions was subject to the description of the Policy Makers. The policy makers could also change the values without any such suggestion.

Distinct attributes of the people with varying wealth were witnessed here.

The Rich Capitalists: The policy makers, the rich people were seen to dominate, protecting their own wealth and at times also self-centred.

The inactive Middle Class: The middle class meaning people midway in the wealth were passive in their approach and body-language. They were also tending to protecting what they had with not ready to take more risks.

The aggressive Low Strata: People having the lowest wealth were aggressive and unhappy about their position. They were also adamant on their point and also seen to put everything at stake to prove their point.

Phew! What a game that was. In fact it was a great learning experience. How difference in position of people can affect their bargain power in the deal was the most important lesson to be learnt. Psychology of people entering the negotiation affects their performance to a larger extent. In fact, we can use the information about the person in front of us to judge his action in the negotiation. As I have discussed earlier as well, today the information plays pivotal role in the Persuasion.

The second half dealt with the spill-over of my group’s presentation. We discussed the Maslow’s needs of hierarchy with the help of a sound clip of Martin Luther King (MLK). We also explained importance of initial credibility, gaining credibility showing own experience and emotional appeal. The videos we had shown belonged to the movies Men of Honour & JFK.