Skill Building Exercises for Interpersonal Power

 

Here are a few exercises that might prove useful in discussion of power in interpersonal communication.

Principles of Power

The principles of power explain some of the ways power operates. For each of these principles identify one example of how that principle has impacted your life in some minor or major way:

Power Principle	Impact example, specific instance, illustration
1.  Some people are more powerful than others.
2.  Power can be shared.
3.  Power can be increased or decreased.
4.  Power follows the principle of less interest.
5.  Power generates privilege.
6.  Power is influenced by culture.

Recognizing Power

Being able to recognize power in others is a good first step in understanding what makes for power and how it’s exercised. What person—real or fictional, dead or alive—would you say best exemplifies the power relationship between you and this powerful person? Select people that others would know, so no “Uncle Charlie” or “my fourth-grade teacher.” Why did you select those you named?

 

Power Type	Person
Referent power
Legitimate
Expert
Information/persuasion:
Reward
Coercive

 

Managing Power Plays

Here are a few examples of power plays. For each, develop a three-part management strategy in which you:

·        state your feelings in I-messages

·        describe the other person’s behavior that you object to

·        state a cooperative response

1.     Pat continually interrupts you. When you say something Pat breaks in and finishes what Pat thinks you want to say. You need this stopped.

2.     One of your coworkers responds to all your ideas with the “yougottobekidding” comments: You can’t be serious. Do you really mean that? You are joking, aren’t you?

3.     Your close friend Pat helped you get your job and every time Pat wants you to do something, Pat reminds you of the help in getting your job. It’s like you’re indebted to Pat for the rest of your life.

4.     Your friend posts pictures of you on Facebook and Instagram that you would rather not have people see. When you object, your friend ignores your concern and says things like, “I think the photos are cute” or “People love to see these.”

 

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.

Exercises in Interpersonal Power 1 and 2

Here are two exercises that may prove useful in discussing power and interpersonal communication.  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. They cover "resisting power" and "types of power."

Power, ethics, and chairs

 

Here’s an interesting study I found in the current issue of the Harvard Business Review (November 2013). It should prove useful in nonverbal communication but really in any course in which ethics, power, or environment are considered. In brief, the study explored the relationship between the size of one’s chair (which allows for body expansion or encourages contraction) and the tendency to engage in unethical behavior. For example, random selected participants were placed in large or small chairs. All the participants were purposely overpaid but 78% of those in expansive postures kept the extra overpayment while only 38% of those in contractive postures did. Well, there is much more to the study which you can read at http://www.andyjyap.com/#!reserach/cm8a--the website of the lead author, Andy Yap. The HBR discussion, however, is also interesting because it’s a part of their feature, “Defend Your Research” and so there’s a brief 2-page interview with Yap in which he explains some of the implications and limitations of the study.

Power Strategies

Strategies for Power

Here is a discussion of the communication of power which I wrote for my 50 Communication Strategies book and that I thought might be of interest to a wide variety of readers.

 

Power is the ability of one person to influence what another person thinks or does. You have power over another person to the extent that you can influence what this person thinks or what this person does. And, conversely, another person has power over you to the extent that he or she can influence what you think or do. Perhaps the most important aspect of power to recognize is that power is asymmetrical: If one person has greater power, the other person must have less. If you are stronger than another person, then this person is weaker than you. If you are richer, then the other person must be poorer. In any one area—for example, strength or financial wealth—one person has more and, inevitably and by definition, the other person has less (is weaker or poorer).  The varied types of power are identified in the & Box, Types of Power.