Tuesday, April 22, 2014

job fair/ influence/ no consequences



Apr. 3 Job fair: Yesterday I went to a job fair.  I was like 20 min. early and there was a huge line up.  I was #31.  There were a lot of people applying for several positions.  I waited for about an hour before I got to talk to someone for 5 min.  I learned more about the job.  There was a job fair like this a couple of months ago, but I missed it because I had to go to work. 

I learned that the training takes months.  It would also be good if you drive, because they made need you at different locations.
Apr. 14 Influence: I was reading a Job Boom article “How to Change Minds at Work without Manipulation.”

“In his new book How to Change Minds: The Art of Influence without Manipulation (published by Berrett-Koehler), Rob says influence without manipulation is a process that is “repeatable, predictable, and measurable.” It is also highly practical and can be adapted by anyone, at any time, to any situation.

The worst opener: “I need to talk with you.” (Think about how those six words make you feel. Not great, right?)

The best openers include softer words and phrases, such as ask you, listen to you, or need your help.

Establish trust.

Create urgency.

Overcome objections.

Gain commitment.

Most people don’t just show up ready to commit to change—to, say, simply end a destructive addiction or leave a detrimental relationship or work environment. There needs to be a moment of truth, a moment of commitment.

Ask the most important question never asked: “Are you committed to making a change?”

Finally, the line between influence and manipulation often comes down to intent. So ask yourself if you believe. That is, do you truly believe that the idea or solution you seek to push someone toward is in that person’s best interest?

If your answer is yes, you have the very foundation of influencing—not manipulating.”

My opinion: It was a good article.  As usual, TV influences my life and I thought: “Whatever happened to that TV show Mind Games?”  It was about manipulative problem solvers.  The below article talks about how it got cancelled and how Christian Slater has been on 4 TV shows in the past 6 yrs and how they got cancelled.

http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/03/27/abc-cancels-mind-games/


No consequences: If you want to get people to do what you want to do, you have to give some sort of reward or punishment to get results.

Remember this email about Lizzie on 16 and Pregnant?  Here it is:

“2. No consequences: My main problem with her is in the “Where are they now?” special where she did say (paraphrase): “A lot of people think teen moms can’t succeed, but I’m going to prove them all wrong.”  I definitely remember the “prove them all wrong” part.

I think she did get pregnant on purpose so she could have a family, and also it seemed like she knew that there were little to no consequences.  She knew she wasn’t going to get kicked out of her house, she was going to get married, she was still going to graduate out of high school, and still going to be able to go to college, and have her family financially and emotionally support her.  What she didn’t predict was that her boyfriend cheated on her.”


Real- life examples:

There are people out there who can eat a lot of fast food, and they don’t gain weight.  No consequence.  Unless, you count spending $6 on a meal expensive.

There are people who don’t work hard or study in school, and they get good grades.  No consequence, because they’re smart or good in this subject.

Those above examples have no effect on anyone else except that one person.

Job: I mentioned this before in the Soup place, there was Co-worker #1 who kept missing work on Mon. and Tues., and she never calls.  The managers have talked to her before, but she keeps doing it.  No consequence.  It has an effect on all of us because we all have to work a bit harder when she’s not around.

She never got fired, because when she was here, she’s a good worker and the bosses are nice. 

School: In school, if you talk back to the teacher, the consequence is you go to the office or get detention.

Apr. 17: I want to add to that.  Remember I wrote about my math teacher Mr. Stabile yelling at this girl for sleeping in class?  He was yelling at her to stay awake and pay attention in an angry and mean tone of voice.  This girl Lindsay then said this: “Yeah, well you’re a jerk.”

The entire class says “Ohhhhhh.”
Mr. S and Lindsay then talked a bit, where she is basically telling him that he was being a jerk.  She didn’t get sent to the office.  There wasn’t really a consequence for her.

Mr. S was being a jerk, and Lindsay told him he was so there was his consequence.

Apr. 20 Stonewall: I was thinking about this term and I looked it up:

Informal
a. To engage in delaying tactics; stall: "stonewalling for time in order to close the missile gap" (James Reston).
b. To refuse to answer or cooperate.


I was also thinking about how there are two people who want two different things and then it stops right in the middle.  There is no big win or lose.  Here are some examples:

Friends: Remember that email where I said I invited my friend Angela to Capital Ex in 2006?  She said I had to pick her up from work, but I didn’t know how to use Google Maps and the ETS to figure out a way to get to her work.  Now in hindsight, I could ask if we could meet in downtown and then take the LRT to go to Capital Ex. 

Or did I and she couldn’t?  I can’t quite remember.   So we didn’t go.  There’s no big win or loss for me, because I still went there on my own.  There’s no big or win or loss for her, because she didn’t go, but she did save money by not going.  It just is.

Same goes with asking my friends to go to movies with me.  If they’re not interested in seeing the movie, then I’ll go by myself.

Call Centre #3: The same goes with the time I worked at Call Centre #3 in 2009.  For the first two weeks I got full-time hours.  Then the project ended and I was working part-time hours.  Then I got my shifts cancelled due to lack of work.

I talked to my boss and said that if he didn’t give me more shifts by the end of Jan., I was going to start looking for another job and possibly quit.  He told me he expected and hoped work was going to come in Jan.  Jan. came and I didn’t get any shifts after.  I called every Mon. morning to get my schedule, but there wasn’t any work.

I never quit.  There was no major win or lose for me, I did start looking for another job and kept working at the Soup place.  There was no major win or lose for my boss, because there really isn’t any work.

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