Such a lot to write about Trump - and we have more of his tactics; how to adopt them, and how to combat them. 6. ‘Linguistic Kill Shots’.
Scott Adams of Dilbert fame has analysed Trump’s strategies and he sees a lot of deep techniques from the fields of hypnosis and persuasion. One example is the way he gives opponents insulting names - Crazy Bernie, Crooked Hillary, Little Marko, Sleepy Joe - names he calls his opponents which lead to a confirmation bias, where he skews our views of those people. Scott calls these Linguistic Kill Shots - words that can be used to influence or end an argument. But Trump is oh so more subtle than just insults. He uses words like 'low energy' or 'nice' that just sit in people's minds. They sell to people a quality that he wants to exaggerate. Lesson - If you're on the receiving end of an insult, then just consider yourself back in the playground, and rise above it; ‘sticks and stones may break my bones…’ and don’t adopt the same nomenclature. If it's used more subtly then try to use words that exaggerate the qualities you want to highlight. For instance, if you want to downsize the size of the strip of land in a dispute, keep calling it tiny, miniscule, not worth bothering about, words that try to pick up and strengthen in your opponent the lack of importance. 7. Visual Language. Adams says Trump uses phrases like ‘Build a Wall’ to put a physical picture in people’s minds: immigration or healthcare may only be concepts, but great visualisation leaves people with something they can see in their minds and start to properly interact with. Lesson - think hard before any negotiation about how you can bring the subject matter or issues to life for the other side by using visual language. For instance, with his own comic sense of visual language, Adams describes Trump’s negotiating tactics as akin to bringing a flamethrower to a stick fight! Coming back to our strip of land from the last example, if you want to downplay its importance keeping referring to it as a weed-ridden piece of over-grown grass - sell the visual idea that its worthless. Start to get the idea in your opponents mind 'who would bother arguing over that?' Think about the language before you start the negotiation. 8. Get Them Thinking About The ‘How’. Once Trump started talking about who will pay for the wall, then some accepted that a wall may well be built; he'd moved people from concept to logistics. Lesson - if the other party starts to get you talking about the logistics of an idea you’re opposed to, then keep bringing them back to why it’s not on the table. If you do accept a discussion over the practicalities then make sure that you’ve done your homework and know exactly how to demonstrate it would never work. To come - Part 4 - Repetition and throwing huge Anchors! Comments are closed.
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AuthorRichard Marshall is an Accredited Civil and Commercial Mediator with over 25 years experience as a Litigation Solicitor, as well as being a qualified Solicitor-Advocate. He is the founder of Striving to Settle, through which he works as a mediator and provides negotiation training. www.strivingtosettle.co.uk Archives
August 2022
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