‘YES! 50 SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN WAYS TO BE PERSUASIVE‘, June 10th 2008, here is the new book from Dr.Cialdini about influence.

Based on over sixty years of research and many fascinating new studies, several of which were conducted by them, the authors introduce simple but remarkably powerful techniques for moving people in your direction. In addition to introducing a variety of effective persuasion strategies, they also discuss the types of things to watch out for to help you resist both subtle and overt influences on your decision making

It’s already available for pre-order on Amazon.

If you don’t know Cialdini, I suggest his well known book Influence - The Psychology of Persuasion (available also in Italian in a good translation).

PierG

I’m not entitled (well, I probably might be but …) to talk about effective presentation techniques: for this I let you go to one of my favorite sites Presentation Zen.

My contribution here, is that in my corporate experience I daily find (at least) two kind of presentations:

1. Real Presentations
2. Political Presentations

In Real Presentations, as I wrote, you can surely improve reading Garr Reynolds site (and practicing!)

Political Presentations are a different form of communication. They are those presentations … that will be never presented. They are reports written, usually between big bosses, using Power Point to send three messages:

1. If YOU had time, I’d present it;
2. even I am very busy;
3. … take a look at it and tell me what you think!

No comments about this habit, I just want to suggest to use a more ‘verbose’ way of writing if you need to prepare (for your boss ) one of them

PierG

And now Google ‘officially’ enters also in the field of Security:

Google Web Security for Enterprise service, powered by Postini, stops web-borne spyware and viruses before they infiltrate your network and compromise or disable your computers. All web requests are scanned in real-time, rather than solely relying on static URL lists, providing you with dynamic, real-time and multi-layered protection.

This will do:

• web virus and spyware protection

• web filtering and content control

• protection for roaming and remote users

More to come …

PierG

Thanks to Alfonso Fuggetta (and this post), I had the chance to listen to this great presentation:

[...] Randy Pausch, who is dying from pancreatic cancer, gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving talk, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams,” Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals.

PierG

Go to my Flicker stream for more pictures.

PierG

Infinito, originally uploaded by PierG -.

Have you ever had a boss with which, every time that you talk, you feel like being interrogated?

Those kind of managers that perceive every meeting as a lawsuit?

I call this technique: Management by Inquisition … a typical behavior that lead to dead work places. The exact contrary of empowering the team and seeding a sense of trust.

PierG

The first time you do something is science,
the second time is engineering,
the third time is being a technician,
… once I do something, I want to do something else

Clifford Stoll on YouTube - TED Talks

PierG

Some times ago I was looking for ski boots. I went to a very good shop here around and, after an exhausting long sequence of ‘try this, try that’ I was in front of the dilemma:

1. a pair of great, performing, a bit uncomfortable race ski boots
2. a pair of great, comfortable, stable ‘all purpose ski boots

And then the power of persuasion: the clerk did his job to close the sale saying ‘well, it depends if you consider yourself a sports guy or just an amateur‘. I felt pain and bought immediately the (more expensive) race ski boots.

As Tony Robbins says, is the state of pain that often drives your choices: it’s what you WANT to do to avoid it.

PierG

It’s something I’ve been used for a long time but I didn’t know it’s also used in software engineering: Hollywood Principle .

By the way, I use it while talking about interviews:

The Hollywood principle is a software design methodology that takes its name from the cliché response given to amateurs auditioning in Hollywood: “Don’t call us, we’ll call you”. It is a useful paradigm that assists in the development of code with high cohesion and low coupling that is easier to debug, maintain and test.

PierG