Marwell & Schmitt's Influence Tactics

When I first read Marwell and Schmitt's tactics, my mind immediately went to a hot topic. Child vaccinations. As you can imagine, I found several speeches that used several of these tactics such as claims of punishments or protections offered if you follow the speakers admonitions. Before I got too far with this topic, my mind went to a commencement speech I had heard from an Admiral in the US Navy and how I have been doing something he suggested since I heard his speech the first time.

Admiral McRaven firmly believes that a single person can indeed change the world by the performance of some simple tasks. He offers his top 10 things he learned in basic seal training that he promised if followed would better one's own life and the lives of many others and possibly even CHANGE THE WORLD. He draws parallels from what he learned in training to how it can help you in your life. His first was very simple - Make your bed each morning. He stats that although simple, if you make your bed each morning, you will have already accomplished the first task of the day that will give you a small sense of pride and encourage you to do another task. This small task will lead to the completion of another task, then another, then another. He believes that if you can't even do a small task such as making your bed, you will never be able to accomplish bigger tasks. If nothing else, if you have had a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made.

He then continues with other admonitions tied to his experiences like find someone to help you, judge someone by the size of their heart, life isn't fair, adversity makes you stronger, confront challenges head on, etc... It was the first one that struck a cord with me. One, because we rarely  make our bed in the morning, and two, because it was so unique and not a piece of advice you often hear that could have a huge impact on your life. I have actually started to make our bed in the morning more often since I first heard the speech and I have to say, it has been nice. Whether or not it is changing the world, that remains to be seen.

It would seem that almost all of the tactics could be used when speaking of being under the direction of a drill Sargent such as aversive stimulation.The Admiral definitely uses the tactics of reward, punishment, positive expertise and positive self-feeling. He states what he believes are the rewards and punishments from following or not following both his and a drill Sargent's admonitions. Positive expertise because he has been through this training and knows what can come from doing or not doing certain things. Finally, you will have positive self-feeling if you do a simple task each day like make your bed.

For me, the third process premise of attitudes is at work here. He talked about challenges as he linked real-life situations to that of tough seal training. The way we confront our challenges and tackle them head on has everything to do with the outcome. Those with the wrong or bad attitude never made it through seal training. I would also contend that the fourth process of consistency is at work here.