by Dr. Rick Kirschner on July 26, 2010
I have a story to tell today. But first, I have an unusual question for you.
What if there was a way to actually increase your influence when someone tells you you’re wrong!?
Opinions about who is right and who is wrong serve as the foundation for most verbal conflict specifically, and most of what’s difficult in relationships in general. That’s why I often say that if you have to be right, you’re doing it wrong!
So here’s the idea. The next time someone tells you you’re wrong, if you want to gain influence, the shortest and simplest course of action is to simply agree with them! Say, “You’re right, I’m wrong.” And then define how they are right in a way that serves your desired result.
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by Dr. Rick Kirschner on July 19, 2010
To be effective as a consumer watchdog, you have to be credible. Indeed, credibility is the currency of trust with consumers, so any outfit that represents itself this way must hold itself to a very high standard of remaining factual and accountable. The success of their persuasive efforts depend on this.
Consumer Reports had already squandered some credibility with thinking people before their neg review of the iPhone 4. They’ve been wrong on a number of consumer issues, from car seats and auto ratings to investments to supplements and diets, and each time they lose a few more discerning consumers as a result.
Now they’ve really lost it. First, they call it the best smartphone ever. (SO does just about everyone that has one!) Then they say they can’t recommend it unless Apple offers a free fix for a problem that every other cell phone has. Apple has done exactly what they said Apple needed to do. CR says they still cannot recommend it. Never mind all the dropped calls and signals on other phones, never mind the problems associated with cell phones and smart phones in general.
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by Dr. Rick Kirschner on July 12, 2010
As we celebrate our freedom for yet another year, I marvel at the system that has preserved that freedom for so many amazing and productive years.
It is obvious, if you read the editorial page and political commentary of your local paper, listen to talk radio, or read one of the myriad political blogs on the internet, that someone is always unhappy about the state of the union. Some of the unhappy people get together and have a (tea) party. Some have coffee instead. And they ought to be unhappy, really, because our system of governance is seriously flawed. Politicians are owned by special interests. Leaders are bound by agreements they never made. And no matter who wins on an issue, someone always loses. My father in law used to say “This is the worst system in the world. Except all the other ones.”
I remember reading, as a student in history class, that the founding fathers envisioned the possibility that our Republic would be hijacked by special interests quite easily. Thomas Jefferson wrote that “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” The founders thought it possible that, because of the nature of power and politics, a violent overthrow of the government might be required every twenty years or so in order to maintain the freedoms for which they so gallantly fought.
And yet, it hasn’t happened.
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by Dr. Rick Kirschner on July 11, 2010
