Monday, September 15, 2003

In today's Managerial Negotiation class, we reviewed the Six Principles of Persuasion, as stated by Robert Cialdini in his masterwork Persuasion.  You can find the principles below, but Lucky cannot urge you enough to go read this book.  It's short and life-changing, giving behavioural insights that explain a wide variety of compliance techniques that are hard-wired into everyone (from genes?  society?  who knows?). Familiarity / Liking Reciprocation Social Proof Commitment & Consistency Authority & Status Scarcity This book was recommended by Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet's right-hand man, and if that makes you more likely to read it, you just fell for #5. If it didn't make you read it, you're lost and should be reading someone else's blog.   7:56:59 PM    comment []

:Last week, Lucky attended a three-hour seminar entitled "Private & Professional Life", given by Fernando Bartolomé, who marched straight through this minefield and managed to offend everyone while making some brilliant points.  On an unrelated note, he is the only professor who uses foul language consistently (ie. frequently) throughout his presentation.  I found it effective, but I imagine that it wouldn't be nearly so if everyone spoke like that.  Uniqueness is everything. Here's a flavor of his style: "Leadership - a bullship topic if I ever heard of one." "If you have a course called 'Managing Your Boss' it's bullshit.  It should be called 'Being a Subordinate'." [gesturing to the assembled throng of students] "A few years ago, many of you wanted to go to tech startups.  Most of you are not entrepreneurs.  You are fucking bureaucrats." "Nowadays you need a Cray supercomputer to decide when to have kids." [comparing the role of a traditional wife] "If you a treat a Dutch woman like that, she will castrate you." "Asking 'why' is a very bad way of understanding someone.  Often they think that they have to justify their feelings, and some feelings can't be justified.  They just are."   7:44:50 PM    comment []