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8th out of 16 books
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16 voters
Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion
Improve communication, resolve conflicts, and avoid the most common conversational disasters through simple, easily remembered strategies that deflect and redirect negative behavior.
Verbal Judo is the martial art of the mind and mouth that can show you how to be better prepared in every verbal encounter. Listen and speak more effectively, engage people through empathy (the...more
Verbal Judo is the martial art of the mind and mouth that can show you how to be better prepared in every verbal encounter. Listen and speak more effectively, engage people through empathy (the...more
Paperback, Revised edition, 222 pages
Published
2004
by Harper
(first published May 1983)
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I picked this book up at work one night while rotating through what seemed like endless constant observation of patients, one after the other, through the night. In my job working with psychiatric patients, words are important and can mean the difference between calming a volatile situation or blowing it up into something violent, unpredictable and dangerous. So I was intrigued by a number of articles I read in Psychiatric Times that all pointed to this book and the concepts it teaches in order...more
After reading some reviews I really wanted to love this book. In fact, I immediatly marched out and purchased it as soon as I heard of it. As a professional working in the behavioral health field I was excited to get a text that utilized a practical rather than soley theoretical viewpoint. I found neither a practical "street smart" or empirically based material in this book. Perhaps 10 out of over 200 pages actually covers any real skills or techniques. The rest is bravado, some honest self refl...more
This is material I need to recommend; I just can't recommend this book. At least not to my friends, not to the people I hang out with or care about. Read Nonviolent Communication instead. Please.
Verbal Judo is... disturbing. It's about communication, but the undertone is about lying and pretending to empathize in order to get people to do what you want:
Halfway through the book, I a...more
Verbal Judo is... disturbing. It's about communication, but the undertone is about lying and pretending to empathize in order to get people to do what you want:
"The other person will believe you're trying to understand. Whether you really are interested is irrelevant." (p.81)
Halfway through the book, I a...more
3 likes · like · see review
The author was a former police officer and a PhD in English. At a high level, the concept is expressed in the title, if you know that judo is supposed to be about blending with your opponent's negative energy instead of responding to it head on. Many of the examples are given from the perspective of how a police officer should act when interacting with people on the street.
The message is to use empathy to manage a verbal encounter and try not to let your ego get the better of you. It's not a boo...more
The message is to use empathy to manage a verbal encounter and try not to let your ego get the better of you. It's not a boo...more
This was a life changing book for me. I always considered myself an excellent verbal communicator but I knew that there were people who did a better job at tactically persuasion. I relied heavily on my physical stature and sales training before using the techniques Dr. Thompson teaches.
This is a great book for anyone who isn't a total hermit. If you have to speak to anyone for any reason you will benefit from the wisdom and insight this book offers. It contains instructions that parents, teacher...more
This is a great book for anyone who isn't a total hermit. If you have to speak to anyone for any reason you will benefit from the wisdom and insight this book offers. It contains instructions that parents, teacher...more
Kind of a repetitive book, but definitely helpful in laying out strategies for dealing with difficult people -- I wish I'd read it earlier; it's already been useful in dealing with difficult library patrons.
Another recommendation from a fellow scholar of violence and, more importantly, avoiding violence.
Verbal Judo is an excellent book that presents techniques that anyone can use to help defuse tense situations with language. It also helps you understand how to be a better communicator with people in general. I like the stories and examples the authors use to demonstrate the technique, because it shows how it can work and what to do to make it work. The book is broken into small chapters which makes for easy reading, but I recommend taking your time and trying out the techniques. It is a little...more
I guess I was expecting more. The whole book felt like a big promotion to take the guy's seminar. By page sixty, the author was still going on and on about how helpful the book was going to be without having given any helpful information. The actual helpful bits are scattered around and have to be gleaned while plowing through a lot of bragging and peacocking behavior. A lot of what the guy tells you is common sense. Maybe if you are a very angry male who has no idea why his wife wants to divorc...more
The book taught so classic tricks of persuading the person you are talking to, to do what you want them to do. To me it pretty much read as make the person think they are winning even though they are doing what you want them to do.
Sections of the book seems to emphasize on his classes and his life instead of teaching you. I love the real examples but I skimmed through parts that were to me at least repeating what he just said. I still highly recomend this nover to security and Police personal.
Sections of the book seems to emphasize on his classes and his life instead of teaching you. I love the real examples but I skimmed through parts that were to me at least repeating what he just said. I still highly recomend this nover to security and Police personal.
Very interesting self-help/personal growth book. Difficult to put into practice without some persistence and re-reading. A few good quotes.
Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion by George J. Thompson and Jerry B. Jenkins is an outstanding little book that everyone should read. Why do I say everyone? Because everyone communicates with others, and this book will help you become a more effective communicator. It really is that good. The advice is simple, but profound and will enable the person w...more
Verbal Judo: The Gentle Art of Persuasion by George J. Thompson and Jerry B. Jenkins is an outstanding little book that everyone should read. Why do I say everyone? Because everyone communicates with others, and this book will help you become a more effective communicator. It really is that good. The advice is simple, but profound and will enable the person w...more
This book is about the art of persuasion. Appealing to reason works sometimes, but there aren't very many people out there who think they're being unreasonable, even when they're being unreasonable. This is where the art of persuasion and verbal judo come into play. The central idea behind the book is that the key to communicating with people is through empathetic speech. While I liked some of the ideas in the book, I thought it was repetitive and some of the stories were dull.
Sep 11, 2008
Jay
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
anyone who needs to get a point across
Recommended to Jay by:
UCLA
Dr. Thompson has worked as an English teacher, a police officer and a consultant. Communication is a major key in his life. As a cop he had to figure out how to get people to comply with lawful directions without resorting to physically making them follow instructions. For example, "I stopped you for speeding sir. Please give me your driver's license, vehicle registration and proof of insurance."
"No."
Now what?
This book discusses things not to say, dead end arguments, talking yourself into a cor...more
"No."
Now what?
This book discusses things not to say, dead end arguments, talking yourself into a cor...more
I have read many mixed reviews on this book. I enjoyed it for what I believe it is. A skill set on how to deal with people when you don't want to deal with them. How to avoid the conflict that would arise if a person went with their first reaction by responding in an empathic manner. It will take a good deal of willpower and practice to implement his strategies, but I will attempt it. It was a good read.
The concepts are relevant at their core. This book has a lot of filler and reads like a self help book. It's a pet peeve of mine when authors break down the etymology of words for effect. The concepts of verbal persuasion seem more applicable to communicating with my wife and kids and perhaps the corporate world more than it does law enforcement, which is the opposite of what I expected.
Great book that offers a solid approach to handling potentially volatile verbal communication. The organization of the book is not great; it jumps around a lot and there's a lack of cohesion between the concepts because of it. Overall though, a great read that will get you thinking and may improve your verbal skills.
Amazingly, the information and practices in this book work. I have managed to get myself into ...uh...not so awesome situations with my choice of words, and thanks to what I got from this book, get back out of those situations with words... a good book for anyone that has to work in the public arena.
one of the most useful books i have ever read. im a police officer and it really helped but it helped even more in my personal life. using this book me and my girlfriend actually had our five year old tell us he deserved to punished. if that isnt worth the few hours it took to read this 200 page book i dont know what is.
Oct 02, 2012
Eve Jones
added it
Excellent read, filled with varying techniques for one to improve their verbal and social abilities, thus providing them with the skill-set needed to be highly effective in the personal and professional arena.
This book had some good tips and ideas in it. The drawbacks are that it was not well organized and their was too much "selling" and not enough substance. Still, I'm really glad I read it and it is helping in my constant contact with the public. There doesn't seem to be anything else quite like it out there, but I'm open to recommendations.
The central theme of the book, empathy, is spot on. The problem with this book is that a disturbingly large portion of the text is just the author congratulating himself for having learned something on his own, or for how he teaches his method to others.
The book summarized in a few short points:
1) The key to knowing what to say to a person is to try to understand what they know, what they are thinking, and what they are saying
2) Everything goes more smoothly when the person you are communicating...more
The book summarized in a few short points:
1) The key to knowing what to say to a person is to try to understand what they know, what they are thinking, and what they are saying
2) Everything goes more smoothly when the person you are communicating...more
I read this because it was recommended by a friend because it had some good points.
It does, however the good points could have been summed up in about 7 pages.
It does, however the good points could have been summed up in about 7 pages.
If you have the ability to speak this book will make you better at it. There is much truth in the statement it's not what you say, it's how you say it.
Heavily geared toward law enforcement, but it still has good information for developing effective communication and persuasion skills.
A should-read book on office politics which will happen to you and around you whether you participate in politics or not.
Jan 06, 2013
Kateri Peterson
added it
Saved me from many situations that could have escalated....EXCELLENT
Highly recommend for those looking to communicate effectively.
This book was written by a cop and it's very noticeable.
psychology,communication
I got some helpful tips in how to use empathy when dealing with difficult people.
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Dr. Thompson ("Doc Rhino") is the Founder of the Verbal Judo Institute. Since 1983 and until he died in 2011, he personally trained more than 700,000 individuals in Tactical Communications -- a program he developed in 1983 for defusing conflict and redirecting behavior with words.
Doc had a B.A. from Colgate University (1963), a Masters and Doctorate in English from the University of Connecticut (1...more
More about George J. Thompson...
Doc had a B.A. from Colgate University (1963), a Masters and Doctorate in English from the University of Connecticut (1...more
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