The Heart of Social Change by Marshall B. Rosenberg

Author:Marshall B. Rosenberg
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PuddleDancer Press
Published: 2005-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Role Play: Dialogue with a “Gang Leader” #1

UF: The U.S. Government: It’s the President.

MBR: Let’s hear what you’re going to say. We’re going to practice Nonviolent Communication now. We’re going to use Nonviolent Communication to make the most out of this precious experience. What would you say to him? You got one all ready for us?

UM: I want you to know, Mr. President, that I’m feeling really upset that your need for oil is making life dangerous for everybody on the planet right now.

MBR: Well, now, you made life easy for him, because you started with an analysis and now he’s going to take up nineteen more minutes giving you an analysis to show that your analysis is wrong. In a precious time period you didn’t end on a clear present request. So, now you’re going to pay for it. The President is going to respond, “Thank you for your opinion. I think that a little bit of research and you will see that we have had very learned people studying this, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Sorry, thank you for coming in.”

UM: Couldn’t I start over?

MBR: No, you’re out now. You blew your twenty minutes. You said a feeling and an analysis. You didn’t say your needs, and you didn’t say a present request. You blew your opportunity. Do you want to say something to the President (indicates another audience member)?

UM: Mr. President, I’d like to really support you in being a hero. You have a great opportunity right now, you know, you’ve really got the people behind you and they’re all into doing in the bad guy, and what I’d like to do is support you in going down in history as the greatest president that ever lived. And to do that we’ll inform everybody that you tried to get the senate and the congress to repeal a law that we reap what we sow, but since you could not get the congress to repeal the law that we reap what we sow …

MBR: The President is now looking over his head and thinking about how to counter your analysis. If you use more than forty words before you get the other person to speak, forget about getting what you want.

UM: Oh, very good. Thank you.

MBR: Yeah. You lost him after about the first ten words you said. He was listening politely for as long as he could, but now he’s going to be looking at his watch, at the ceiling, anything he can to tell you that he hears your analysis, he doesn’t know where your going, doesn’t know what’s alive in you, and he doesn’t trust it. It looks like you’ve got a plan, but he doesn’t know where you are buddy, so, you just weakened your power with him.

UM: Very good, thank you. Because that’s the kind of thing that I do.

MBR: Now, if you have a person who is polite, you’ll never learn. They’ll pretend like what you say is very interesting. Thank you for coming in.

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