Science of Persuasion

6 factors to influence others:

  1. reciprocity – give and take
  2. scarcity – people want more of things which are less of
  3. authority – credibility, knowledgeable and expert
  4. consistency
  5. liking – similar to us, compliments and cooperative
  6. consensus – people will look to the actions of others to determine their own

By: Robert Cialdini & Steve Martin

How do we integrate the 6 factors and communication skills? A question to ponder.

Wu Zetian

I love watching historical dramas, either from Chinese, Korean or Turkish history. As I wrote earlier, watching Magnificent Century gave me the sadness feeling looking at how the ladies at that time were full of jealousy and hatred. The next drama will be Wu Zetian: The Only Female Emperor in Chinese History, with the hope that good lessons could be learnt from it.

Magnificent Century

Watching this drama made me feel distressed. But yet, there are so many lessons can be learnt from this drama. One thing for sure is, what goes around comes around. Hurem Sultan, who was vicious, cunning but intelligent, did everything she could to gain power. Her sons learnt from her and did the same thing, fighting and killing each other maliciously just because to stay in power. What they got in the end was just their own DESTRUCTION. There is a saying in Malay that explains this situation,

Menang sorak kampung tergadai

Magnificent Century

This is a television series featuring the golden years of the Ottoman empire. It is intriguing to learn how Sultan Suleiman managed to conquer the Europe with his strong faith in Islam. No doubt that he was a good ruler. BUT, he was not a good husband (based on this movie, not his real life). He failed to pay attention to the struggles between his wife and concubine. He practised favouritism and he was not being fair to his wife. And this was eventually the reason for the fall of his great empire.

One of the Best Motivational Speeches by Admiral McRaven

10 lessons from SEAL basic training. If you want to change the world:-

  1. Start the day with a task completed
  2. Find someone to help you through life
  3. Respect everyone
  4. The life is not always fair, move forward
  5. Don’t afraid to fail often
  6. Take risks
  7. Face down the bullies
  8. Step up when times are toughest
  9. Lift up the downtrodden
  10. Never give up

Options in life

There are always options in our life. But, sometimes the options are limited. We have TWO options in battling the COVID 19 pandemic. The options are

  1. Fight the COVID 19 until we win, OR
  2. Stabilise our economy

If we choose the first choice, then we have to act accordingly. Take all precautionary measures to ensure the COVID 19 virus is totally eliminated.

The question now is, can we choose the second option? Ironically, the first option is needed before we can get the second one. Therefore, WE DON’T HAVE ANY CHOICE.

Please combat the COVID 19 before dreaming to stabilise our economy. We can do one at a time.

Developing critical thinking.

While reading a student’s thesis on developing critical reading using a reader response strategy, I was asking myself what is critical thinking and how can we develop students’ critical thinking? This TedTalk by Erick Wilberding on the Socratic Method is really helpful. It explains how Socrates, who was the philosopher, developed his students’ critical thinking by asking a series of questions and most importantly, every answer leads to further problems. It is intriguing and a must watch video.

Constructive Gossiping is Good for an Organisation

I was listening to BBC and the topic discussed was gossiping. And it was said that constructive gossiping can be turned into feedback and in turn will help for the improvement of an organisation. Can you believe it, they are promoting office gossip? Personally, I don’t think so. Let’s take a look at the meaning of gossip by the Cambridge Dictionary:

Gossip is conversation or reports about other people’s private lives that might be unkinddisapproving, or not true

Apparently, gossiping is considered as bad habit and how can we have constructive gossip? This is totally unacceptable.

smiley face question mark - Cerca amb Google | This or that questions,  Funny emoji, Smiley