Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion By George Thompson PhD

Verbal Judo is the martial art of the mind and mouth that can show you how to be better prepared in every verbal encounter Listen and speakeffectively engage people through empathy the most powerful word in the English language avoid the most common conversational disasters and use proven strategies that allow you to successfully communicate your point of view and take the upper hand in most disputesVerbal Judo offers a creative look at conflict that will help you defuse confrontations and generate cooperation from your spouse your boss and even your teenager As the author says when you react the event controls you When you respond youre in controlThis new edition features a fresh new cover and a foreword demonstrating the legacy of Verbal Judo founder and author George Thompson as well as a never before published final chapter presenting Thompsons Five Universal Truths of human interactionVerbal Judo is the martial art of the mind and mouth that can show you how to be better prepared in every verbal encounter. Listen and speak more effectively, engage people through empathy (the most powerful word in the English language), avoid the most common conversational disasters, and use proven strategies that allow you to successfully communicate your point of view and take the upper hand in most disputes.Verbal Judo offers a creative look at conflict that will help you defuse confrontations and generate cooperation from your spouse, your boss, and even your teenager. As the author says, "when you react, the event controls you. When you respond, you’re in control."This new edition features a fresh new cover and a foreword demonstrating the legacy of Verbal Judo founder and author George Thompson, as well as a never-before-published final chapter presenting Thompson’s "Five Universal Truths" of human interaction.Verbal Judo is the martial art of the mind and mouth that can show you how to be better prepared in every verbal encounter. Listen and speak more effectively, engage people through empathy (the most powerful word in the English language), avoid the most common conversational disasters, and use proven strategies that allow you to successfully communicate your point of view and take the upper hand in most disputes.Verbal Judo offers a creative look at conflict that will help you defuse confrontations and generate cooperation from your spouse, your boss, and even your teenager. As the author says, "when you react, the event controls you. When you respond, you’re in control."This new edition features a fresh new cover and a foreword demonstrating the legacy of Verbal Judo founder and author George Thompson, as well as a never-before-published final chapter presenting Thompson’s "Five Universal Truths" of human interaction. Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion

A classic body of workand no wonder why historical-mystery I read this a couple of years ago and have gone back to it again The principles are even important now in our tense society and now that phone cameras are everywhereUseful for every type of social interaction I love how the emotions and failures described are real and honest You can learn a huge amount from this book The late George J Thompson PhD 1941 2011 aka Doc Rhino carried out post doctoral work in Rhetoric a first class application of ‘other awareness’ ‘ie “empathy empathy empathy”; and above all developing super refined social skills of ‘other regulation’ By way of coincidental example immediately after reading this book the movie Operation Finale 2018 describes the Israeli abduction of Adolf Eichmann in Argentina The story largely pins down the success of the Mossad operation to the empathetic persuasive skills of one of the agents who convinced the Nazi war criminal to sign voluntarily a legal document making it technically possible to spirit him out of the country For me this example highlights the invisible line in Verbal Judo between tactical communication and master manipulation since its philosophy is about becoming a chameleon playing for the moment and having greater awareness than one’s adversary particularly it would seem in grasping the significance of personal egoThis last point neatly dovetails into another of Doc’s observations that somewhat resembles the techniue of Johari’s Window used in management training “when two people are talking 6 identities are involved” The real hidden self; the inside private self with a ‘facade’ so it is not known to others; and the self which contains aspects others see but are unaware of ‘blind spot’ Tactical communication offers face saving maneuvers to the private self; and skillfully appeals to a person’s blind spot by adhering to the maxims “people don’t think they are irrational especially when they really are” and “I can deal with only how you see it even if I am right”NLP has been proselytizing to this perspective since the mid 1970s and in watching the online videos of George Thompson’s enigmatic and arresting oratory style I did wonder if Dr Bandler had a twin Both would no doubt subscribe to the presupposition of “never putting a person down because you are putting down the opinion they hold about themselves however irrational” Verbal Judo tends to concentrate on the empathy laden tool of ‘paraphrasing’ in contrast to ‘metaphrasing’ or metasplaining or meta insighting which can be labelled a self reflexive critical thinking tool of accurately reporting the truth in any given situation; while ‘pacing and leading’ is an NLP techniue used in gaining rapport and affirms the inner mindset of the person who is being influenced Therefore NLP and Verbal Judo share in common the starting point in handling a conflictual situation is not necessarily the pursuance of dialectical truth but rather dialogical harmonising a truism adopted by many therapeutic practices Personally I have fallen foul of this distinction numerous times and it was somewhat reassuring to hear stories from G Thompson’s personal past and the recognition of his many doomed attempts at “the greatest speech you’ll ever live to regret”Neuro scientific research into the Autonomic Nervous System is proving the importance of a Social Engagement System SES in the brain to regulate fightflight and numbfreeze responses which are triggered by conflict Porges has highlighted the role of the smart vagus nerve as a vagal brake in the SES which operates to move the body towards optimal arousal without fear or anger based thinking feeling This biological mechanism I believe is harnessed during The Five Step Appeal which effectively amounts to neuro linguistic co regulation What is most interesting is that George Thompson openly acknowledges he modeled the protocol by observing exemplar police officers in the field and by codifying the process it has now been replicated across the world in helping those reuiring ‘tactical civility’ in the “hot arena of public services”I would further add the steps in the protocol fall into three Aristotlean persuasion domains of ethos logos and pathos which Thompson rebadges as the three arts of ‘representation’ professional credibility ‘translation’ putting precise meaning in other’s minds and ‘mediation’ getting others to see experience in a way that would alter their behaviour through cost benefit analysis Therefore the real inspiration for the 5 Step Appeal is probably as old as the rhetorical hills 1 SE Simple Ethical Appeal of charactershared values Ethos establishing professional presence or disinterested contact through believable representation2 L Set context Logical Appeal to reasons policies and procedures Logos by telling why3 P Present Options Personal Appeal to self interest Pathos4 P Confirm Practical Appeal “offbeat strategies like humor redirection and refocusing” eg 'is there anything i can say or do at this time to get you to cooperate or work with me5 A Act Determination of Appropriate Action only after all other choices have been exhausted effectively building the case for ‘other accountability’Other protocols are covered including the LEAPS model which describes the “five great tools of communication” and is certainly worth memorising My sense is unless you stumble across Verbal Judo possibly in a workplace setting it is unlikely to be on anyone’s list of self help books However its message delivered on the gentle art of persuasion is surely a timeless one and with such panache too that today it would surely make a great great great TED talk Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion I had high hopes for this book but was rather disappointed There are a couple of poor reviews about it which I wish I had listened to never mind All throughout the book the author says things which are akin to selling the book which is weird because the book is already in your hands The start of every chapter can be summarised to if you have ever needed this book then you should keep reading this book and the end of every chapter is hopefully you'll be able to master Verbal Judo by using these simple principlesI have given the book 2 stars because it does start to conclude the teachings towards the end and there are some very good principles in the book it's just written horribly which is such a shame Lot's of this is just opinion as I am not American and it seems to be written in a friendly story telling way which might be lost on me Also some of the cop stories in the book really aren't that applicable to other industries and the only examples used are from the authors career as a police officer which is uite tiresomeAny way that's just my opinion take it or leave it I was really hoping for a factual tangible almost scientific approach and was given an informal sales pitch with some acronyms Maybe a police officer or a bouncer could benefit from some of the suggestions he offers whatever they are So much of it just went right over my head I didn't find it particularly helpful The cop stories grab your attention but I wouldn't say they help a great deal in the way you go about communicating with others Other than them I found it uite boring and bottom line unrelatable Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion

Definitely learned some new things Didn't blow my mind or change my life but was still good Maybe if someone is socially retarded already it would help Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion Great amount of practical information Easy to read Really applicable advice for many situations Would recommend to anyone looking to improve their communication skills when under pressure MP3 CD George Thompson is a great author and speaker I have not only read his material but also seen his seminars He presents well and you can truly gain numerous pieces of information that will serve as invaluable tools in life when dealing verbal conflict I work with the public on a daily basis and given my lines of work my audience is usually difficult to deal with self seeking hostile under the influence of you name it I have already started to use some of the tools presented in the book and so far they are working well In some cases I am left thinking Well sh#t that actually worked Buy this book read it read it again take notes use it like a weaponThe one criticism I have with this book is the way it is written There seems to be chapters than need be The author could have condensed some chapters because they are ever so relevant to one another It some cases it seems to jump back and forth and a couple of times I was wondering if what I was reading was contradictory to what I have read previously having to go back to clarify itI highly recommend the study and implementation of this material historical-mystery Even if you think that you are a good communicator then please read this book I don't know much but I know that One of the best books written to introduce the reader into what communication style works to defuse a potentially confrontational or aggressive situation