Aaron, I agree that there's an aspect of people skills that is probably innate, and that generally there isn't time to consciously plan how we're going to act in the heat of an interaction. However, I think that it is useful to have an understanding of what Keith calls social scripts, and to be able to plan strategically beforehand which ones to create. Also, I think that we probably do have the ability to cultivate our innate ability to perceive and react to situations.

I had a few thoughts about rough guidelines for dealing with different types of opposition during our class discussion of Cerriere's Answer today:

1) We seem to be circling around this concept of a persona, or mask, or simply being invisible. Maybe we could boil this down to being able to accurately pick up on how others are seeing you. Knowing what role you are supposed to be playing is like knowing the rules of the game - it establishes what you can do in a situation. Tharaud realizes that she's invisible during negotiations.

I suppose we could look at this on multiple levels. What role are we supposed to play as 1ls (overworked, cynical, loosing our souls)? Columbia Law graduates (corporate lawyers)? People interested in Public Interest work (idealists, saints)? People in this class (crazy, makers of bongs, disciples, delusional)?

2) Once we know the lay of the land, we need to decide what is the best practical means for achieving our goal. Tharaud remains invisible because she can be more dangerous that way. This sounds like Aaron and Eben's image of the poker player. Sometimes we shouldn't do anything, rather sit back and watch how the scene unfolds. Or we should try to subtly inflect the discussion without straying too far from our role.

3) However, I agree with Keith that the real skill is probably knowing when to come out of our role and become visible. Now that I think about it, this willingness to become visible was what flashed through my mind when Eben said that lawyers need courage. In order to do this successfully, we will need to understand our audience (as Lauren points out) and have a plan for getting them to do what we want them to do. Eben's speech at the elective assembly was effective for me because he seemed to know part of his audience cold. The speech wasn't directed to everyone everyone in the room, but it was strongly targeted to a particular type of student, and it was disarmingly provocative in saying what was felt but not spoken. This is analogous to Robinson's ability to disarm the powers that be (Justice White or the Prosecutor and Judge) by saying what is understood but taboo. I also seems analogous to Arnold's political debates that are really just rallying cries for each party.

It also seems that in order to make what you want to happen happen in a collective situation, you need above all to be able to maintain your cool and your situational awareness. What else though? Maybe as Caroline suggests, everyone develops a persona or a repetoire of techniques that they use to make things happen in collective situations. Eben seems to work by alternating provocation and the evocation of our potential to have a meaninful career. "You're going to go pawn your license. You don't remember Vietnam. But if you wanted to you could improve 10 million lives. You have amazing brains." I wonder what we could learn from each other's classroom personas.

-- PatrickCronin - 10 Mar 2009