How to Coach Yourself and Others How to Influence, Persuade and Motivate | Seite 265

speaker they were about to hear. Each student read from either one of the
following two lists:
1. Cold, industrious, critical, practical, and determined
2. Warm, industrious, critical, practical, and determined
Of course, the students who read 1 had less than positive feelings about
the speaker. The interesting thing, though, is that the lists are exactly the
same except for one word! It seemed that the differing word's placement
at the head of the list conditioned how the reader felt in reading through
the rest of the list. It didn't matter that none of the following words were
negative. Just reading the word "cold" tainted how the students read the
rest of the list.
The airline industry has mastered the power of words. They know word
choice is critical to getting their point across and to reducing panic. In one
situation, a flight attendant had run out of steak as an option for dinner
entre´e. Instead of telling the customers their only option was chicken, the
flight attendant said, "You can have a piece of marinated chicken breast,
saute´ed in mushrooms in a light cream sauce, or a piece of beef."
Consequently, people chose the chicken because it sounded better. Once,
as a plane I was on was about to take off, one of the engines caught on
fire. Smoke billowed and the runway was suddenly filled with fire trucks.
The pilot came on and called it "slight engine difficulties." I don't know
about you, but the situation seemed like a little more than "slight" to me.
When you listen to the flight attendants' instructions before take-off, you
also hear careful word choice. They tell you that in the event of a water
landing, your seat cushion can be used as a "flotation device." Hello!
What they're really saying is, "If we crash into water, grab your seat
cushion so you don't drown." Notice they don't say "life preserver," but
rather they call it a "flotation device." Also note that there is no "barf bag"
on board — it's a motion discomfort bag. Or "we are experiencing a
mechanical difficulty" instead of "the plane is broken." They don't clean
the plane; they refresh it. Planes aren't late; they're merely delayed. And,
my personal favorite, they never lose my luggage; they misplace it. Yes,
airlines know the power of word choice in affecting their customers' point
of view.
Sales professionals also use words carefully. They know that one wrong
word can send their prospect's mind somewhere else and lose them the
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