You know what's hard to do? It's hard to get people to do what YOU want them to do, rather than what THEY want to do.
I'm trying to recruit people to volunteer at a super duper fun race next weekend. The only people that have said yes, so far, are those that I bribed with the ability to kiss some strategically placed butts that could lead to a possible job opportunity. Pie in the sky, but they don't know that....
I need to take some lessons from others that know how to get people to do unsavory things.
I'm breaking down the skill set needed for this ability and so far I've realized that the most important attribute to have when getting people to do things they don't want to do is FEAR. Or being fearsome, but 'fearsome' didn't sound right in the first sentence, even though fearsome is an attribute and fear is what happens when you are fearsome, but you get the point.
Seriously. Think about the reasons you have done things that you don't want to do... Stay up late to get the paper done = you will get a decent grade, thus avoiding a butt chewing by the parents. Stop smoking = fear of your lungs looking like the specimen that the scientist brought to your class in 10th grade. ...on a side note, they should have brought the blackened lungs to my class in 5th grade, might have made a difference. And the best example of persuasion via fear tactics is the military. Really. A big guy send an order and a bigger guy tells you to go into a battle where there is a good chance you will return missing a part of your body and you do it without question! = the bigger guy won't stomp you into bits and feed you to your brothers and sisters in the unit, who will in turn eat your bits in fear of the bigger guy doing the same to them. All of these accomplishments brought to us by the word FEAR. I have to get a handle on being scary.
I looked up 'the art of persuasion', and there were a lot of points about how to be persuasive without being scary, but I think that's bogus. I get it if you can schmooze your way into getting your coworker to make the copies for you, but that's in a face to face situation. I'm doing this as a call for help to the people of my little world. The facebook people really. And I am one of those facebookers that delete contacts at a whim, so my contact list has dwindled. For my part, those that I have deleted would never help at a race anyway, so maybe I should clear out the rest. But then I'd have two friends left, and that would hurt my self esteem, and I don't like being pouty.
So I started looking up other ways to get people to do things that I want them to do. Then I checked craigslist, because that is filled with things that others want you to do, namely, buy their leftover crap. And I got sucked into the vortex that is Craigslist. Now I still have no idea how to get people to help out at this race, and it appears that I may have bought a boat. It's a nice boat, with a cabin in the front end that is like the little closet you make into forts when you are kids. The engine on the back runs good, or so the add says. I was taken aback slightly at the mention of it running 'good' because my mom and all the other women in that side of the family were English teachers, and it runs WELL. Batman does good, we do well. (I stole that batman line from somewhere else,not sure where the else is, but it's brilliant, so there) I let the language slide, because the boat is beautiful. Now I have to think of a name for him. I say Him, because everyone always thinks a boat is a girl, and that's dumb. The ocean is the girl. It creates life, and it is always warm and wet. The boat is the hard piece of wood that split the calm water in two and pushes through. Is your mind blown?
Now, if I can only get Craig to ask people to volunteer for the race.
Maybe he can make another list.
I'm trying to recruit people to volunteer at a super duper fun race next weekend. The only people that have said yes, so far, are those that I bribed with the ability to kiss some strategically placed butts that could lead to a possible job opportunity. Pie in the sky, but they don't know that....
I need to take some lessons from others that know how to get people to do unsavory things.
I'm breaking down the skill set needed for this ability and so far I've realized that the most important attribute to have when getting people to do things they don't want to do is FEAR. Or being fearsome, but 'fearsome' didn't sound right in the first sentence, even though fearsome is an attribute and fear is what happens when you are fearsome, but you get the point.
Seriously. Think about the reasons you have done things that you don't want to do... Stay up late to get the paper done = you will get a decent grade, thus avoiding a butt chewing by the parents. Stop smoking = fear of your lungs looking like the specimen that the scientist brought to your class in 10th grade. ...on a side note, they should have brought the blackened lungs to my class in 5th grade, might have made a difference. And the best example of persuasion via fear tactics is the military. Really. A big guy send an order and a bigger guy tells you to go into a battle where there is a good chance you will return missing a part of your body and you do it without question! = the bigger guy won't stomp you into bits and feed you to your brothers and sisters in the unit, who will in turn eat your bits in fear of the bigger guy doing the same to them. All of these accomplishments brought to us by the word FEAR. I have to get a handle on being scary.
I looked up 'the art of persuasion', and there were a lot of points about how to be persuasive without being scary, but I think that's bogus. I get it if you can schmooze your way into getting your coworker to make the copies for you, but that's in a face to face situation. I'm doing this as a call for help to the people of my little world. The facebook people really. And I am one of those facebookers that delete contacts at a whim, so my contact list has dwindled. For my part, those that I have deleted would never help at a race anyway, so maybe I should clear out the rest. But then I'd have two friends left, and that would hurt my self esteem, and I don't like being pouty.
So I started looking up other ways to get people to do things that I want them to do. Then I checked craigslist, because that is filled with things that others want you to do, namely, buy their leftover crap. And I got sucked into the vortex that is Craigslist. Now I still have no idea how to get people to help out at this race, and it appears that I may have bought a boat. It's a nice boat, with a cabin in the front end that is like the little closet you make into forts when you are kids. The engine on the back runs good, or so the add says. I was taken aback slightly at the mention of it running 'good' because my mom and all the other women in that side of the family were English teachers, and it runs WELL. Batman does good, we do well. (I stole that batman line from somewhere else,not sure where the else is, but it's brilliant, so there) I let the language slide, because the boat is beautiful. Now I have to think of a name for him. I say Him, because everyone always thinks a boat is a girl, and that's dumb. The ocean is the girl. It creates life, and it is always warm and wet. The boat is the hard piece of wood that split the calm water in two and pushes through. Is your mind blown?
Now, if I can only get Craig to ask people to volunteer for the race.
Maybe he can make another list.
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