2.05.2014

Exercises in Interpersonal Power 3 and 4


Here are two additional exercises that may prove useful in the discussion of power and interpersonal communication.  As I mentioned in the previous exercises in power post, these topics are covered in depth in Chapter 12 of The Interpersonal Communication Book, but are covered in different ways in other texts as well. So, they may be useful in just about any interpersonal communication or human communication course.



Credibility

Select a YouTube video of a person giving a talk, leading a meeting, advertising a product, or otherwise attempting to inform or persuade others and analyze the person’s credibility or believability by completing the following table.

Dimensions of Credibility
Verbal and Nonverbal Messages of Credibility
Does the person appear competent, knowledgeable, and expert?
(no) 1     2     3     4    5     6     7 (yes, very)
What specific verbal or nonverbal messages lead you to evaluate this person’s competence as you did?
1.
2.
3.
Does the person appear to have high moral character, good intentions, and enduring values?
(no) 1     2     3     4    5     6     7 (yes, very)

What specific verbal or nonverbal messages lead you to evaluate this person’s character as did?
1.
2.
3.
Does the person appear dynamic, pleasant, and friendly?
(no) 1     2     3     4    5     6     7 (yes, very)


What specific verbal or nonverbal messages lead you to evaluate this person’s charisma as you did?
1.
2.
3.

Power Plays

Power plays are patterns of behavior (not isolated instances) that are used repeatedly by one person to unfairly influence or take advantage of another person. For each of these five power plays develop a cooperative response in which you accomplish these three purposes:
1.       Express your feelings
2.       Describe the behavior to which you object
3.       State a cooperative response that you both can live with comfortably

Nobody Upstairs
A casual friend sends you e-mails just about every day—long ones with jokes and photos that you’re really not interested in and expects you to respond to these inane messages. You’ve asked your friend not to send these but they still keep coming. You need these to stop.
1.
2.
3.

You Owe Me
A work colleague repeatedly gives you little gifts and then later asks for a favor, casually and subtly reminding you of all these little gifts. You don’t want these gifts and you resent being put into the position of having to pay back.
1.
2.
3.

Yougottobekidding
A work colleague repeatedly attacks your ideas with phrases like “you got to be kidding,” “you can’t be serious,” and “you can’t possibly mean that.” Although you’ve voiced annoyance with this, these attacks continue.
1.
2.
3.

Thought Stoppers
Your supervisor constantly interrupts you and prevents you from completing your thoughts. Your ideas are good ones and would benefit the company and the workers but you never get a chance to voice your thoughts in sufficient detail. You need to stop this thought stopping.
1.
2.
3.

Metaphor
Your parents never like or approve of anyone you date—this one’s a dog, this other one’s a snake, and this other one’s a leech. You love your parents but you need them to stop doing this; it’s demoralizing and extremely uncomfortable.
1.
2.
3.



3 comments:

Unknown said...

Really good feeling after reading your article, many things learnt from this and now have to think about myself.
collaborative communication

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