Obama Persuasion the Science and Art of Effective Influence

Click for syllabus

Course description

Persuasion lies at the centre of our personal and professional lives. Whether the goal is to convince one person in a face-to-face meet, influence a grouping in a meeting, sway an entire arrangement, or win over the public, the capacity to persuade is key to effective leadership. This course extracts from our knowledge of human behavior proven principles and techniques of constructive persuasion. These powerful tools use not merely to public speaking and written communications, simply also to i-on-one and small group interactions where most persuasion takes place every twenty-four hour period. Students will hone their applied skills in persuasion through example studies, video examples, exercises, and function-plays. Students likewise will assess their personal strengths and weaknesses in persuasion, informed by the confidential assessments of others who accept observed them closely in persuasion situations.

Related presentations by Gary Orren, accessed 29 Dec 2015.

• Introduction to MLD342 at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?5=8XUx056sdhg.
• Excellence in Communications lecture (67 minutes) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyixiKjctdI, accessed 29 December 2015.
• PowerPoint presentation in 2005 to the Mortgage Bankers Association at events.mortgagebankers.org/presidents2005/…/Orren_presentation.ppt, uploaded to the Atlas at Persuasion: The Science and Art of Effective Influence.

Instructor

Gary Orren, Spring 2015

Source

http://www.hks.harvard.edu/degrees/education-courses/grade-listing/mld-342, accessed 28 December 2015.

Link to syllabus uploaded to the Atlas

http://www.atlas101.ca/pm/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/MLD342.pdf

Additional material from the syllabus

"What is distinctively homo at the about fundamental level is the capacity to persuade and exist persuaded." Philosopher Bertrand Russell'south lofty claim for persuasion may or may not be true. But what is certainly true is that the capacity to persuade is a key to effective leadership. Information technology is challenging enough to lead those who agree with us. But inducing others to willingly follow us when they are initially skeptical or opposed to our goals – persuading them – is the greatest challenge facing aspiring leaders.

This course investigates persuasion – how we can convince others to voluntarily change their attitudes or behavior in order to attain our cherished goals – by extracting from our cognition of human being beliefs proven principles of constructive influence. The grade also explores ii philosophical, yet utterly applied questions: what constitutes unsavory, unethical persuasion and whether persuasiveness (and leadership ability generally) can be learned or whether information technology is really an innate, natural built-in talent.

This is not a course in public speaking. The principles of persuasion certainly utilise to public speaking, and the form examines that application closely. But the principles also apply to written communications and to one-on-one and pocket-sized group interactions where most persuasion takes identify everyday.

The course uses a variety of pedagogical methods to develop students' practical skills in persuasion, including lecture/discussions, narrative case studies, videos, part-play simulations, and daily classroom exercises.

The course is designed to help students become:

• Amend persuaders—better at recognizing and weighing opportunities for influence, and better at employing effective strategies for building support.
• More constructive at persuading superiors, peers, or subordinates within an organization, too as people outside an organization.
• More effective at using a wide variety of communication channels: written memos and reports, confront-to-face conversation, speeches before groups, messages through the media, not-exact expressions, and communications using statistics.
• Improve at determining–prospectively in the trenches–when a persuasive bulletin is ethically adequate and when information technology is ethically unacceptable.
• Better able to reply the critical question of whether nosotros tin can realistically hope to go amend persuaders. Merely put, is persuasiveness (and leadership ability by and large) mostly an innate, natural born talent?

Students often ask how this course compares with courses in negotiation. Negotiation and persuasion are ii key skills for influencing people. They are not the aforementioned. Indeed, a fundamental topic in MLD342 involves contrasting the ii skills, identifying their relative strengths and weaknesses, and determining when one approach is more than appropriate than the other. For grade selection purposes, the bottom line is that scores of students who have taken both Persuasion and Negotiation report that the two courses are not redundant, and are in fact extremely complementary.

Students also enquire how MLD342 compares with other communication courses at the Kennedy Schoolhouse. Naturally, it is difficult to predict the specific content of other courses. In previous years, MLD342 has focused more than other advice courses on the underlying principles and techniques of persuasion. The accent in MLD342 is on gaining a deep understanding and facility with these principles that then can be applied in all kinds of contexts using virtually every type of communication tool. As well, while MLD342 applies the principles of persuasion to public speaking, it emphasizes public speechmaking less than some other communication courses do. Far more attending is given to i-on-one face-to-face encounters, personal conversations, and small-scale group interactions where most persuasion occurs day-to-twenty-four hours. Finally, since persuasion takes place not simply through words but likewise through deeds, MLD342, unlike these other courses, highlights the key role of actions and non-verbal behavior in influencing other people.

Topic-by-topic listing of topics and assigned readings

Annotation: This course is in compressed format, delivered in several sessions per mean solar day. The major topics are noted below.

Topic 1: Introduction – The Scientific discipline and Art of Persuasion

Aristotle, Rhetoric and Poetics, translated past West. Rhys Roberts (Modern Library, 1954), pp 24-25.

Gary Orren, "Gore vs. Bush: Why It's All Greek to Me," Kennedy School Message, Fall 2000, pp.36-39.

Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011), pp.19-thirty.

Viewing the film "12 Angry Men". Instructions will be sent by email. The flick is 90 minutes long.

Topic 2: Key Methods of Influence – The Three P's Framework; Persuasion and Negotiation

Robert B. Cialdini, Influence: Science and Do, entire book.

Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Tedious, entire book.

Read i of the post-obit three options:

Robert B. Cialdini, "The Scientific discipline of Persuasion," Scientific American, February 2001 pp. 76-81, OR

Robert B. Cialdini, "Compliance Principles of Compliance Professionals," in Mark P. Zanna, James M. Olson, and C. Peter Herman, Social Influence: The Ontario Symposium, vol. v (Laurence Erlbaum, 1987), pp. 165-184 (posted on Canvas), OR

Robert B. Cialdini, Influence: Science and Practice (Allyn and Bacon/Pearson Education Inc., 2009)

NOTE from Atlas Editors: Cialdini's Influence at Work eye has published the post-obit 6-minute video to YouTube on 26 Nov 2012, entitled Science of Persuasion, https://world wide web.youtube.com/watch?5=cFdCzN7RYbw, accessed 29 December 2015.

Recommended: Excerpts from Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince (posted on Canvass)

Topic 3: The Principles of Persuasion – Simplicity and Clarity; Knowing the Audience, Developing Empathy Skills

Topic four: The Principles of Persuasion – Salience, Analogies/Metaphors, Storytelling

Topic 5: The Principles of Persuasion – Counter-intuitive, Reciprocity/Concession

Topic six: The Principles of Persuasion – Authority, Conformity

Stanley Milgram, "Behavioral Study of Obedience," Periodical of Abnormal and Social Psychology, vol. 67, 1963, pp. 371-78; Adam Cohen, "Four Decades After Milgram, We're Withal Willing to Inflict Hurting," New York Times, Dec 28, 2008

Jerry Yard. Burger, "Replicating Milgram: Would People Still Obey Today?," American Psychologist, vol. 64, January, 2009, pp. i-11

Topic vii: The Principles of Persuasion – Similarity, Dissimilarity, Specificity, Scarcity

Owen Harries, "Primer for Polemicists," Commentary, September 1984, pp. 57-60

Recommended: James Traub, "Harvard Radical," The New York Times Magazine, August 24, 2003

James M. McPhearson, "Team of Rivals: Friends of Abe," The New York Times Book Review, November half-dozen, 2005, pp. i, x-eleven; excerpts from Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals (posted on Canvas)

Topic 8: The Principles of Persuasion: Reciprocity, Liking; Assertiveness and Empathy: "Steel and Velvet"; Emotional Intelligence

David Brooks, "The Arduous Customs," The New York Times, December 21, 2010, p. A31;

Malcolm Gladwell, "The Talent Myth: Are Smart People Overrated?," The New Yorker, July 22, 2002, pp. 28-33;

Daniel Goleman, "What Makes a Leader?," Harvard Business Review, November-December, 1998, pp.93-102;

Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee, "Primal Leadership: The Hidden Driver of Great Operation," Harvard Business Review, December 2001, pp. 43-51

Topic 9: Are Intimidating Leaders More than Effective?

Roderick M. Kramer, "The Great Intimidators," Harvard Business Review, February 2006, pp. one-9

Thomas 50. Friedman, "Why Mandela Was Unique," The New York Times, December ten, 2013, pp.ane-2

Topic x: Gender and Persuasion

Ken Auletta, "A Woman's Place," The New Yorker, July 11 and 18, 2011, pp. 55-63

Brad Stone, "Why Facebook Needs Sheryl Sandberg," Bloomberg Businessweek, May 12, 2011, pp. 1-six

Sheryl Sandberg, Lean In: Women, Piece of work, and the Will to Atomic number 82 (Knopf, 2013), pp. 3-11, 39-51

Anne-Marie Slaughter, "Yes, You Can," The New York Times Volume Review, March eighteen, 2013, pp. 1, 12-13

Sheryl Sandberg at Facebook – View video of Sheryl Sandberg: "Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders"

Malcolm Gladwell, "The Naked Face," The New Yorker," August 5, 2002, pp. 38-fifty

Malcolm Gladwell, "The New-Boy Network," The New Yorker, May 29, 2000, pp. lxx-72

"Donna Dubinsky and Apple Figurer, Inc. (A)," pp. 1-xiv

Topic 11: Strategic Communication

Gary Orren, "Background Memo on the Nixon Checkers Speech," p.1-2

Gary Orren, "The Conclusion to Launch the Space Shuttle Challenger;"

"Group Process in the Challenger Launch Decision (A)," pp. 1-13

"Vision and Strategy: Paul O'Neill at OMB and Alcoa" Abridged, pp. 1-16

Topic 12: The Principles of Persuasion – Delivery, Active vs. Passive, Repetition

"Found for Healthcare Improvement: The Campaign to Save 100,000 Lives," pp. 1-36

Erin McKean, "I Detest to Tell Y'all," The Boston World, Nov xiv, 2010, pp. i-2

Page created by: Ian Clark, last updated 31 December 2015

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Source: http://www.atlas101.ca/pm/courses/harvard-mld342-persuasion-the-science-and-art-of-effective-influence/

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