20 July 2021 #MAGAanalysis
Communication
Friendships evolve. As they grow, new depths are attained. I speak very specifically of @HelpStopHate 's David Sumrall. David is my friend. Our friendship has grown and deepened over some several years now.
Communication
Friendships evolve. As they grow, new depths are attained. I speak very specifically of @HelpStopHate 's David Sumrall. David is my friend. Our friendship has grown and deepened over some several years now.
2) The image you see above is from Claude Shannon's 1948 paper on the mathematical theory of communication. Go figure! I was reading Shannon's book again this morning, and work that David and I are doing came into mind.
3) Many years ago, I developed a method of study. I just call it "How to be a truly excellent student." Or, Excellent Studies. What hit me this morning is that it's all about communication. We have to turn to another source, Warren Weaver. He gives us the following definition.
4) Weaver teaches us this. When your thought effects my behavior, you have communicated. Don't worry about channels, symbols, or words. Did your intention convert into my action, and action that you wanted me to execute? Was my action satisfactory to you? If so...communication.
5) Although I've recently started using Twitter as a sales tool for my business, most of you reading my words right now follow me for political reasons. We'll stick with that for the moment. America has failed. Our government no longer listens to us. We don't communicate with it.
6) As an analyst, I figure stuff out. That's not enough. I must also lead. That's what today's analysis is about. How do we, how does America succeed again, following our complete failure? The first step, as you likely realize, is that we must admit we've failed.
7) Joe Biden is not the president. He is resident in the Oval Office, to be sure. But he lost the election, hugely. America has allowed this fiction to be put forward as if true. That is complete failure. If we do not have the power of the vote, we have no freedom.
8) What is freedom? It is successful communication. You tell me to respect your rights, and I do so. Do you see? By Weaver's definition, freedom requires successful communication. It is my behavior of respect for your rights. Mine, or anyone's of course. Right?
9) What we must do is force our government to hear us, successfully, again. It must hear us speak. We must teach it to respect our rights, again. Funny thing, in my line of work, I had to figure out how to do that in every single work encounter, without fail.
10) That's what David and I were recently working on, too. And that's why I was re-reading Weaver's and Shannon's work this morning. How do you ensure the closest thing to communication perfection possible? How do you do that?
11) The answer is shockingly simple. I think I should put my name on this one. The Scopelliti Method of Perfect Communication. Instead of "perfect," should I call it "effective?" At any rate, here it is, in just three steps...
12) These steps...
1) What did you hear?
2) What did you understand?
3) What will you do?
David won't know these steps already, but they'll reflect exactly what we've been working on!
1) What did you hear?
2) What did you understand?
3) What will you do?
David won't know these steps already, but they'll reflect exactly what we've been working on!
13) Here's the deal. Think it through. When do political candidates care about what you say? There is only one moment in time, no other. They ask, "How much will you contribute?" Then, before you make the payment on your card, they listen to you. Only then. No other time.
14) I found this out the hard way. I started volunteering to serve campaigns. I discovered that the candidates couldn't care less whether they win or lose. Why not? Because being a candidate is a GREAT JOB! It's so much fun. All money. No accountability. What's not to love?
15) There are candidates who specialize in losing. They are dependable to show up. They pretend they're trying to win. They know they will lose. No problem. And they do not put out any real effort to win. Only to raise money. It's great work.
16) Again, think about it. Winning would mean being an actual politician who is expected to get stuff done, somehow. Losing means that all the money that was raised has no expectation attached. The entire job of a loser is just asking for money. That's it. Nothing else.
17) But what about those with the bad fortune to win, and have to show up and vote on bills, legislate or govern or judge, etc.? In all three cases the path to wealth is as certain as Obama's house on Martha's Vineyard.
18) Legislators have votes to sell. Judges have judgments to sell. Executives have execution to sell. They all get rich. These are very valuable products. They all get rich. All of them. You don't have to be smart or good at anything, either. You just show up and accept offers.
19) This is the nightmare of America in 2021. The Swamp has engulfed our entire government, all three branches. Thus the America that we love, that our sons and daughters fight and die for, is gone. It is a ghost. A spirit from the past, no longer walking among the living.
20) Funny thing. We may revive America. We may resuscitate Her. We can start over again, and yes, we can Make America Great Again. We can. The answer is as simple as a politician's open hand stretched toward us. That's the moment. Before we contribute money.
21) Here's an example. "Make me believe you'll win." No, it's not formally a question. Rather, it is formally a command. Let's expand it. "Before I contribute any money to your campaign, please make me believe you intend to win, actually."
22) I brag. Sometimes I'm a quick student. I have actually asked that question and observed candidates buckle before my very eyes. I kid you not. Be it live, or even over the phone, you can still look into a candidate's eyes and ask. Intent perfect, you'll get a real answer.
23) Sure, some candidates are seasoned professionals, able to lie without so much as a hesitation or thought. The thing is, most of their auditors aren't really paying careful attention. They're used to just sloppy hearing, and that's what they adapt to.
24) Here are the corrective steps, again. They remain three, but there is a direct command that empowers them. With careful people you must request the right to express your command. I love that. Try it with me. I will require you make the request. Ha!
25) "Give it back to me." That's the command. The way to do that as a request is very simple, too. "May I request that you explain back to me what I just told you, please?" There's no trick or game involved. It's just straight forward. You need feedback. Got that?
26) The first step - what did you hear? - is best understood as a parrot or a tape recorder. If you're the listener, you want to imitate or even mimic (in a good way!) your speaker's words, tone, and most of all, intent. Literally...give it back.
27) I often explain, "Pretend I'm a six year old, and have no idea at all of what I just told you. Make it that simple for me." You can imagine that at first this can be pretty confusing to people. Most people do not employ such precision or care over what is said or heard.
28) The second step can be called "beginning to understand." In the first step, just hearing and regurgitating the exact words and tone is plenty. No real comprehension is required. Just hearing. This changes in step two.
29) The temptation in step two is to make the idea, the lesson or whatnot, completely your own. Human minds do NOT actually work that fast, believe it or not. We need time with a new thought, with someone else's thinking, before we actually get it.
30) It is here, in step two, that the true negotiation shows itself for what it is. It looks something like this: "If I actually understand what you've said, you're trying to explain that..." And then you give it back a second time.
31) I created this method something like 20 years ago, or so. I am still shocked and amazed at how often I, myself, get step two wrong. I thought I heard. I tried to hear. I gave it back once, correctly. Yet, here at step two I still mess it up. I heard wrong.
32) The key to the negotiation is this question: "Did I hear you right?" Truth is, you, the listener, can NEVER know if you heard right or wrong until the speaker authorizes your full understanding, your complete comprehension. "Yes," he says, "you got it right."
33) Ownership is a critical factor in all this. In step one, the speaker is still 100% the owner of the point. In step two the listener BEGINS to own some small portion of the point, but it's almost that the smaller the portion of ownership the better. Almost, mind you.
34) As a listener, I love to be a thought thief. I take over the other person's thoughts as though they were my own, completely. That is what happens in step three. The speaker has now SENT his message, and the receiver - the listener - has received it.
35) The way to demonstrate complete ownership is to invent a new application, or a new explanation of the thought that the speaker has never imagined before. While I do love doing this, what really blows my mind is when others do it to me. Like David always does.
36) That's it. That is how we remake America. We make our politicians persuade us they intend to win. Then, we tell them what we demand they do with their victory. We squint our eyes and become completely cynical. We force them to hear us. And then...
37) And then, if we give any cash at all, we MUST remember what we told them. I honestly suggest writing it down. "Why did I just give this cash to this candidate? What do I demand be done after victory?" You have to understand the following.
38) No matter how good a job you do, the candidate will be extremely unlikely to either win or to remember what he or she told you. I swear, if I like a candidate it's almost like the kiss of death. My people lose, a lot, and they break my heart. It really does happen.
39) How do we win, then? You really do have to remember. Some of your people will win, sometimes. When they do, you have to remember what you told them when you gave them your first support. They'll need support again. And that's the moment!
40) Remember, politicians' ears and thoughts are only available to you when their hands are outstretched. That's the moment of truth. If you can remember what you said, and demand they hear again, the second time, we can win America back. I really mean it.
P.S. Today is the 27th, not the 20th, which is the last time I posted an analysis. Someday I'll get this method right. As a detail man, I have to do better. And I shall.
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