Saturday, February 16, 2013

Influencing, Persuading, and Changing Behavior

Chapter 2 in Daniel Pink's book To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others is titled "Entrepreneurship, Elasticity, and Ed-Med."  As an educator, there are two quotes that make we stop and pause.  The first:

"We try to espouse the philosophy that everyone the customer touches is effectively a salesperson," says Cannon-Brookes.  At Atlassian, sales- in this case, traditional sales-isn't anyone's job.  It's everyone's job." (page 34, Loc 440, Kindle app for iPad)

This past summer district leaders, including principals and high school teachers, had several days of professional development called "Capturing Kids' Hearts" taught by the Flippen Group.  This professional development taught us techniques on getting closer to our students and showing how we care for them.  The quote above relates to this but also expands the idea of Capturing a Kid's Heart to the entire school staff including custodial staff, office staff, etc.  All of us in the schools are responsible for making a successful school climate.

The second quote is:

"Health care and education both revolve around non-sale selling: the ability to influence, to persuade,  and to change behavior while striking a balance between the others want and what you can provide them." (page 42, Loc 542, Kindle app for iPad)

Go into any school, locate an excellent teacher, and the trait of influencing, persuading, and changing behavior will be found in that teacher.  The teacher does not persuade his or her students with a stick or carrot, but is able to change behavior by learning about that student and making the curriculum relevant to that student.  One of the teachers mentioned in this chapter is Larry Ferlazzo.  His blog, "Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day", is one I read and follow when I get a chance, and I suggest all educators have his blog in your Reader account.  He also has a strong presence on Twitter @Larryferlazzo.

I am enjoying this book a lot and look forward to the next chapter.

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