Education, Motivation & Classroom Management

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Saturday, October 21, 2006

Commitment and Consistency - Principle of Influence

Commitment and Consistency is another principle of influence.

Similar to eariler posting, this principle also acts on human nature; to standby what they had agreed. This is a very powerful tool compared to the previous ones, (which I have mentioned in my earlier posting) this influencing tool once applied and succeeded, is long lasting. The pricinple states that once a person agreed to a certain cause he would standby what he said, as he is commited to what was said and the effect of consistency does not allow conflicting thoughts in him. Sounds confusing? Here are some examples..

1. Action Group X, asked you to sign a petition to support a certain cause, you signed on the petition. The act of signing is a show of commitment from you. Therefore, when the time comes for the group to standup for the cause, he are committed to show your support even how uncomfortable you are.

2. During a Sunday service, when the congregation was asked to respond to a message. The very act of getting up and walking to the altar is a commitment from you. Therefore, you will likely to standby and live up to what you have committed.

Insurance agent (or financial planner) and salesman usually use this tactic to get you commit to a certain statement or fact and went in to corner you when you tries to backout. Some of their questions are most of the time very subtle and can really caught you off guard. So next time observe how they question you and watchout for your response... can be real interesting.

Applying this principle in our context, we as educators can use this powerful tool in getting our student to commit to what they promised to deliever..

posted by Ong Tiam Chye at 10:00 PM | 0 comments

Friday, October 20, 2006

Emotion II - Pricinple of Influence

More about using of emmotion to influence..

Instilling fear and worry is another tool.. especially when you hold certain degree of power or authority over that person.

Using this tool will get things done your way and usually very fast. However, do you realise that once the element of fear or the authority you have, is removed, you will be lose that power of influence!

Using of fear and anxiety is never long lasting. Therefore, if you wish for a long lasting commitment you have to use another principle of inflenuce, Commitment & Consistency.

posted by Ong Tiam Chye at 4:27 PM | 0 comments

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Emotion - Pricinple of Influence

Do you think a 4 year old has influence on others? If your answer is yes than you are right. Than who can they influence? Answer is obvious, their parents!

Scenerio: You were shopping at a shopping mall... A young boy is lost and wailing for attention, he may have caught your attention but do you feel emotionally for him? Most likely his parents will be the one who are emotionally worried.

There are other examples where emmotion is used to influcence; like between siblings, husband and wife, good friends and etc.. do you realised the link between them? The common trait between these examples are Relationship; to effectively use emotion to influence, relationship between the parties plays a vital role. If i barely knows you, mostly you will not succeed if you use emotion on them.

However, having say this, there are still people out there who will use sympathy as a tool to influence others in parting their money. That is because of the weakness in human to have a soft heart for the needy. Therefore, emotion is very powerful tool. We may unconsiously falls into, or use it on others even without we knowing!

The key word is value add others... so use emotion to influence other with good intention.

posted by Ong Tiam Chye at 9:22 AM | 0 comments