The Apprentice Week 2 – poor decisions and poorer tactics

May 13, 2011 Leave a comment

So, now we know the second person to be fired from The Apprentice, but it was a strange set of circumstances which resulted in Alex Britez Cabral leaving the competition. The Project Manager (PM) was Leon Doyle, and he deserves credit for a relaxed Leadership style. He certainly seemed to have the support of the whole of his team. But still the Boy’s team lost for the second week running. Why?

It really comes down to poor decision making within the Boy’s team. The Girl’s team, led by the redoubtable Edna Agbarha showed many signs of being dysfunctional, and Edna herself did not come out of this week’s episode very well. Crucially, though, they got their product spot on and their App had Global appeal. The Boy’s App did not, and so they failed the first part of the Action Centred Leadership Model (Task) and the Boys ended up in the Boardroom again. To be a successful Leader, it is important that everyone is clear on the Task. 

In the Boardroom, it was all about decision making and tactics. In terms of the former, PM Leon looked weak and indecisive when he first chose Jim Eastwood to come back into the Boardroom, and allowed Jim to persuade him he was wrong! Amazing. Watch this space as that inevitably comes back to haunt Leon. Especially as he replaced Jim with Glenn Ward who survived. Glenn will now be out to get Leon. The other person to come back into the Boardroom was Alex.

Tactically, early favourite Jim got it spot on, whereas Alex didn’t and paid the ultimate price. Alex had stated (oh, those quotes) that he was against people who hid in the background. And yet he did just that for the first two weeks.  He was just about the only member of the Boy’s team not to volunteer for the role of PM in week 2. This was spotted by Sir Alan & team and Alex was fired.

So, Jim’s position as my early favourite to win the competition has been consolidated, but I think he could do with a quiet week to avoid over exposure.

Favourite to win: Jim

Quote of the week: Edna “I’ve looked at all of your strengths and I’ve decided that the person to do the 3 minute presentation at the Trade Fair will be… myself”

More next week.

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How Company Culture Evolves – “The 5 Monkeys”

April 23, 2011 Leave a comment

With thanks to CasaZaza.

The attached video beautifully explains the story of  “The 5 Monkeys”. This is a metaphor for how cultures evolve, and more importantly why they are difficult to change. It is not only about politics, it is about culture.

As you watch the video, reflect on the environment that you work in, play in or live in.

 Are you a victim of 5 Monkey Syndrome? Or maybe a perpetrator?

Can you become a Change Agent and undo 5 Monkey Syndrome?

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Semantic links, NLP and embedded commands

April 7, 2011 Leave a comment

We are all familiar with semantic links. They are words in electronic media which are highlighted, often in a different colour to the main text. When you move your cursor over the word, it is revealed to be a hyperlink (a link that takes you to another web page) with more information the author wants you to read. Sometimes the sentence that the semantic link appears in is a pretext to get you to click on the link. This can be to link you to adverts or web pages, but it is also the trick used to infect your pc with trojans or viruses. You recognise the set up – a screen pops up looking like Windows Defender with scary threats that your PC is infected. You are then encouraged to activate an antivirus package, possibly one you believe you already have or one you have to purchase. The problem is that once you do this, you allow the trojan access to your pc where it can wreak havoc.  

What you may not be so familiar is that there is a linguistic (the L in NLP) trick that is used in influential communication to get people to do what you want them to. This is at the heart of the work of stage performers such as Derren Brown or Paul McKenna. In NLP it is called an embedded command. Here is how it works; the command is hidden or embedded in a longer sentence.

For instance:

“You may or may not decide to sign up to my blog site”

In this example, the embedded command is written in italics. The conscious mind hears the full sentence, but the subconscious mind replays the words and can be inclined to hear the embedded command. This is particularly true if you like the speaker (another of Cialdini’s Principles of Persuasion) and want to please them. This is a key basis of hypnosis.  Notice, all of this is happening at a sub-conscious level.  

Embedded commands are even more effective when they use ambiguous language, such as in the following example:

“You, like me, are probably a very reasonable person.

The embedded command is, again, in italics. The subconscious mind ignores the grammar and looks at the various possible meanings of the sentence. One interpretation, possibly the desired one, tells your subconscious mind that you like me. So you do.

The learning here is that by building up a stock of choice embedded commands you can develop as a more influential communicator. In this way you are more likely to get the outcomes you deserve.

You are probably now aware of the embedded commands you already use.

Share some of your examples below.

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Cialdini, Principles of Persuasion and April Fools’ pranks that are believed

April 1, 2011 1 Comment

As today is the first day of the fourth month, there is a lot of influential communication to be observed in the form of April Fools’ pranks. Clearly, the aim of a prank is to influence another person to believe an absurdity.

But what makes one of these pranks more likely to be believed than another?

Well, the Principles of Persuasion, devised by Robert Cialdini, can give us some clues. One principle is particularly effective; Authority.

Basically, people are more likely to be influenced in their behaviour from someone to whom they attribute relevant expertise or authority.  Think about the most famous pranks, reported or perpetrated by the BBC such as;

 1957: Hoax BBC Panorama reveals spaghetti harvest in Switzerland

1976: Patrick Moore tells BBC Radio 2 listeners that at 0947 a planetary event would lessen Earth’s gravity and if people jumped in the air at that moment, they would float.

What made these pranks so successful was the fact that authorities such as the BBC or Patrick Moore, a leading expert on Astronomy and well known TV personality, were involved.

Of course, fun as this is – or not depending on your perspective – many organisations make use of the Authority Principle in their promotion, as indeed am I.

What’s your experience of this?

Comments welcomed

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Influential communication – does body language matter?

March 31, 2011 7 Comments

The fundamental purpose of influential communication is to persuade others to behave the way you want them to. This has numerous applications in sales, marketing, leadership and management. A key question in trying to do this is “does body language matter?” The simple answer is “yes it does!”

The Social Styles model was developed over 40 years ago and has been refined and expanded since that time. Social Styles can be used to influence the behaviour of others, and at the heart of this model is the reading and adaptation of behaviour; first our own, then that of other people. But where does the evidence come from that adapting body language is important?

Back in the 1970s, a researcher at the University of California in Los Angeles identified the importance of body language to verbal communication. Now, the work of Professor Albert Mehrabian has often been misquoted and used to explain / justify much beyond his original work, but the gist of what he found is as follows: getting our message across to other people is about much more than just choosing the right words.

In fact, Mehrabian showed that words only contribute about 7% to the effectiveness of communication, with tone of voice (38%) and body language (55%) being much more important. In particular, it seems that we need more than just the words to decide whether we believe the speaker (or even to decide if they believe what they are saying ).

That is not to say that the words are unimportant. Change the words and you change the meaning. However, the words are not enough on their own.

Still not convinced? Well, just think about how the intent behind the words becomes more ambiguous as we move from face-to- face communication, to telephone, to e-mail and txt!

Notice that according to Mehrabian, over half of the message we take from verbal communication comes from reading body language. Now, most of this is going on at a subconscious level, but it does make sense. For instance, we are able to discern possible danger to ourselves by interpreting body language, and this has been a vital survival mechanism throughout human evolution. You disagree? Well, next time you see someone coming towards you with a bloody knife and a deranged expression on their face what will you do; take precautions, or wait to confirm your worst fears with a simple verbal, “do you intend me some harm?”

So, body language does matter and Social Styles allows us to maximise the 93% of communication that Mehrabian says is vital to understanding and influencing other people. Clearly this is key to successful sales, marketing, leadership and management.

Learn more about Albert Mehrabian

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