Persuasive+Activity

Influencing Exercise
This is a good exercise for practicing influencing and negotiating. Participants will also get an insight into their influencing style. Participants work in pairs and take turns to be the ‘influencer’. You also need an audio recorder for each pair.

The influencers should choose something that they believe the other person should do. It could be an activity such as: or buying a product such as: or agreeing with a strong opinion such as: The influencers try to influence the other person in a manner that they would normally use. The other person should be moderately resistant to persuasion. Record the exercise.
 * taking up some form of exercise
 * giving up smoking
 * joining a club or society
 * a DVD recorder
 * a swimming pool
 * an iPod
 * politics
 * education
 * environmental issues

After 5 minutes, the exercise should stop and the participants should reverse roles. Again, record the exercise for 5 minutes.

After exercise the participants should listen to the recordings and note how many times the influencer made a statement (gave information) and how many times they asked a question (sought information).

If the influencer gave information more than 5 times as seeking information, the influencer has a strong ‘push’ style. A ratio of between 3–5 to 1 indicates a moderate push style, and a ratio of between 1–3 to 1 is an average level.

If the influencer sought information more times than giving information, then the influencer is said to have a ‘pull’ style.