Comparing Michael Pantalon's Instant Influence Conversation with Socratic Irony

98121314 Hannah Ho

Michael V. Pantalon, Ph.D. is a motivational coach, consultant, therapist, and award-winning faculty member at Yale University School of Medicine. Drawing on three decades of research, Dr. Pantalon's easy-to-learn method, Instant Influence, can create changes both great and small in 7 minutes or less in six simple steps.It works on people who know they want to change and are eager to get started, people who think they want to change but fear they can’t, and people who think they don’t want to change. It doesn’t really matter who uses it — Instant Influence just works. This method has proved scientifically effective in a number of places such as prisons, the emergency rooms. Nowadays, the American doctors need to learn it during their residency. 

Essentially, Instant Influence bases on a set of conversation which is well designed in six steps. 

     Step 1: Why might you change? (Or to influence yourself, why might I change?) 

     Step 2: How ready are you to change — on a scale from 1 to 10, where 1 means “not ready at all” and
                 10 means “totally ready”? 

     Step 3: Why didn’t you pick a lower number? (Or if the influencee* picked 1, either ask the 

                 second question again, this time about a smaller step toward, change, or ask, what would it 

                 take for that 1 to turn into a 2?) 

     Step 4: Imagine you’ve changed. What would the positive 

                 outcomes be? 

     Step 5: Why are those outcomes important to you? 

     Step 6: What’s the next step, if any?

Comprehending these steps, one can see that there are several comparable points between Pantalon’s Instant Influence Conversation and Socratic’s Irony.

First, at the beginning of the conversation, the influencer uses a technique of “denigrating the messenger” to reinforce an influencee’s autonomy. That is, acknowledging the influencee’s resistance, the influencer belittle himself so that the influencee feel comfortable, and will be more willing to talk. This technique is much like that used by Socrates. Socrates pretended knowing nothing at the beginning of the dialogues, so that the opposites were encouraged to say what they thought. 
  

Furthermore, asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas are the spirit of both Pantalon’s Instant Influence Conversation and Socratic irony. It seems that an influencer and his influencee should be opposite, but Pantalon’s influencer and influencee are more like comrades who work together to solve the issue. In Socratic Irony, the Socrates role seems to debate with his opposites, but he is much like a guider who is a member of an expedition. 

The function of Pantalon’s influencer is the same as that of Socratic guider who leads the opposite to the conclusion that he intends to lead to. On the other hand, Socratic guider is an influencer who successfully spreads seeds of new thought in the influencee’s mind. 

Thirdly, both the influencees in Pantalon’s Instant Influence Conversation and Socratic Irony personally participate in the conversation, motivated by their own desire.hey are not forced to join the conversation. Therefore, they are not convinced, they have found a way to convince themselves.  So the changes in belief or behaviors will last longer.

To sum up, these comparisons make clear that it is better to belittle oneself and avoid edifying when one try to persuade others to make a change. Learning to encourage the opposites to join in an effective conversation is a necessary lesson for every one, for there is always something that needs change daily.  
  

Reference

Pantalon, Michael V. Instant Influence--How to Get Anyone to Do Anything--Fast   

 http://www.michaelpantalon.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Instant_Influence_Intro_fm.pdf

《七分鐘 立即讓人改變壞習慣》。商業周刊 1269。pp. 148, 150, 152.