Questions for Ch. 8

In chapter 8 of Persuasion and Influence in American Life, Woodward and Denton state that “Some people are naturally resistant to any persuasive effort. Those who are highly ego involved in an issue or those who possess an extreme conviction or position on an issue will not be open to opposing views… Persuasion is also difficult when listeners have been rewarded for their positions in the past and are unfamiliar with the speaker’s background and opinions” (p. 200). I completely agree with this statement, especially with the author’s account of which types of people are the hardest to persuade. In my own personal experiences I have been both non-persuadable and unable to persuade and in each situation I have found myself frustrated. I feel that most people have found themselves in similar situations where they have not been convinced by an argument or have been unsuccessful in convincing others. Can you recall a time when you have been the most frustrated that you could not sway someone to see your side? Who were you trying to convince and why?

As William Wilmot and Joyce Hocker suggest “Dialogue involves actively listening to understand the other view point and having a deep respect for the other person” (p. 201) they then list 6 communication strategies that help create trust. These strategies are: speak your mind and your heart, listen well, summarize and ask questions, express strong feelings appropriately, avoid harmful statements, and finally, give and take. Each of these is incredibly valuable and I should probably use more of them all in my personal life. For me, this is especially true for the first strategy. I have a strong tendency to try to make everyone happy regardless of what my heart or mind may be telling me. Even though I may have only the best intentions in mind, I often find myself in precarious positions due to my need to pacify situations. I am sure, if I worked on these simple communication skills, I would 1) be able to better execute the other strategies and 2) be an overall, better communicator. Out of these 5 strategies, which do you feel you need to work on, if any at all? How do you think your communication skills would change as a result?

In chapter 8, Woodward and Denton offer a few different types of sales, interviewing being one of them. “In many ways the interviewing process is also a type of sale. When you interview for a job, you are both the product and the salesperson” (p. 221). After I read this section, I began to ponder if there were any other “sales” positions that a person could be in where they are both the product and the salesperson. After a significant amount of brainstorming, I could only come up with one situation where a person would be both and that is if they were running for office in some type of political campaign. When people enter into a political campaign, they are trying to sell their credentials and capabilities to their audiences. Therefore they are the product (what they will/can do for the people) that they are trying to sell. Can you think of any other instances where a person could be a product and a salesperson at the same time?