Hi Michelle,
Here's an exercise that might work as your first "ice-breaker" introduction to influence. I do this to illustrate the use and effectiveness of Gary Yukl's eight influence tactics (rational persuasion, ingratiation, inspirational appeals, consultation, upward appeals, pressure, exchange, coalitions). It is very simple and effective:
I ask for a volunteer to come sit down on a stool in front of the entire class. The object for the class is to get the person off the stool. Usually up to a minute goes by before someone works up the courage to come down and sit in front, but that is because I teach a lecture of 300 people. Once a volunteer comes down, I explain to them to get comfortable on the stool and to stay on the stool as long as they like. I then tell the class that their purpose is to get the person off the stool, and that they could do anything they wanted to get the person off the stool, except that they could not physically touch the person or the stool. Then I say, "Go." And I sit down.
After first, the class just sits there quiet, not knowing what to do or say to get the person off the stool. Some will ask the person to just get off the stool, but don't offer any reason why. Some will say, "I'll give you $1 if you get off the stool," or some will offer even more money, but never have I seen anyone actually give the money. After a short time the class starts to get a little more agitated, and they begin threatening the person on the stool. They'll shout "Get off the stool!" or even, "I'm going to take your stuff," or even "I'm going over to your open laptop and pulling up Facebook and I'm going to start posting stuff on your feed." The exercise usually concludes when someone finally explains rationally and kindly that the lecture will move on and everyone will get out of class sooner once the person gets off the stool. Then then person ends up getting off the stool. The exercise effectively illustrates that softer tactics-persuasion, consultation, kindness, encouragement, inspirational appeals-tend to be more effective than hard tactics-exchange, pressure, coalitions, upward appeals-for influencing others to do what you want them to do. It also illustrates that no one tactic is sufficient on its own, and that multiple tactics are necessary (and need to be repeated) to have influence.
I have done this exercise for 10 semesters. Depending on the volunteer, the person has gotten off the stool anywhere from 2 minutes to 15 minutes. I'd say most get off between 5-10 minutes. I had one student who had the misfortune of the class never coming around to any of the soft tactics. Instead they just got more demanding, coercive, and threatening. The student showed amazing determination to just sit there and take the heat, even though I could tell he was sweating bullets. After 15 minutes, I finally stepped in and called it off. And let me tell you, after that it was really easy to make my point that the soft tactics are more influential than the hard tactics. The class looked a little sheepish for not even trying any of the soft tactics.
Hope that helps,
Eean
_______________________________________
Assistant Professor, Dept. of Management & Organizations Tippie College of Business W376 John Pappajohn Business Bldg. Iowa City, IA 52242-1994 Ph: (319) 335-2884
Fx: (319) 335-1956
On May 17, 2016, at 12:58 PM, Barton, Michelle A wrote:
I'm looking for some good classroom exercises (30-90 minutes) and/or self-assessments on the topic of influence and persuasion.
In particular, I'm looking for two kinds of exercises. First, I'd like to find an ice-breaker type group exercise (like desert survival) that could be both an ice-breaker for students and provide the basis of a more general discussion about the nature of influence and persuasion. Second, I'm looking for more targeted exercises that would require using Cialdini's 6 principles of persuasion. Finally, I'm looking for some kind of self-assessment tool on persuasion. I would be very grateful for any suggestions. Thanks!