fandomhigh | How to Make Friends & Influence People | 4th Period

Once again, there was only one teacher at the front of the room. This time, it was the 'Influence People' half of the class, however. So there weren't cookies.

Fjord had made a few pit-stops on the way in, though. There was a platter of sashimi - he'd made an educated guess based on Sidon's fishing, yes - and there were donuts for everyone else.

"Looks like it's just me this week," he drawled, shrugging as he spoke. "Pastor Carter's under the weather or something, I imagine, so it's going to be just us, talking about techniques in handling people."

Because he had to take advantage of a week where he wouldn't be getting disapproving looks in order to jump right into the meaty stuff, here.

"There are three things to keep in mind when you want to turn another person around to your way of thinking. First, don't criticise them, don't condemn them, don't complain about what they're doing. People in general are inherently more emotional creatures than logical ones, though, granted, there are a few exceptions. Nothing turns a person against suggestion faster than feeling as though those suggestions are a personal attack. There are gentler ways to break it to a person that they need to change. They'll come after the second point, the part where you take a moment to appreciate, first. Instead of going, 'make that better,' you might try going, 'I see you put a lot of work into that,' or even just 'thank you for doing this.' And then you can try to turn them around to wanting to change things to suit your wants and needs a little better."

He grinned faintly.

"This part is my favorite," he admitted. "The third part is to give the other person something to want. Make what you want appealing to them. Ideally they're already inclined to like you - you aren't being an ass, you're listening to what they have to say, you're even saying supportive things in kind - now you take that and use it to your advantage. Find a reason for them to want to do things your way. Figure out what they'll get out of it too. If there isn't some obvious benefit to it, you might even be able to win them over enough for them to simply want to do it to make you happy, but don't bank on that one until you've gotten a little more experience with this one."

He crossed his arms - he'd really missed having arms - over his chest and grinned.

"It's going to be another pair off and talk week," he said. "Team up. One of you, think of something you'd like for the other person to do. Then, using what I just told you, talk them into it. You'll have your work a little more cut out for you than you might in the wild, of course, since your classmates know that's exactly what you're doing. Hopefully what you're trying to talk them into is something you'll both get something out of, in the end."

Fjord, there were so many ways that sentence could be taken, you most certainly weren't taking them all into consideration right now, were you?

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Like you've been an animal for nearly a week.

We were bound to come back around to 'influence people' in this class eventually.

Pair off, come up with something you'd like your partner to do, and try to talk them into doing it!

Come on, you know you want them to steal that spaceship.