How to Coach Yourself and Others How to Influence, Persuade and Motivate | Seite 315

such little consequence compared to everything else there was to worry
about, but Gunn was insistent. In his own words:
The graffiti was symbolic of the collapse of the system. When you looked
at the process of rebuilding the organization and morale, you had to win
the battle against graffiti. Without winning that battle, all the management
reforms and physical changes just weren't going to happen. We were
about to put out new trains that were worth about ten million bucks
apiece, and unless we did something to protect them, we knew just what
would happen. They would last one day and then they would be
vandalized.[15]
Gunn set up specific goals, timetables, and even cleaning stations. If any
train came back with graffiti, it had to be cleaned immediately before it
could go out again. For the vandals who had spent their nights, toiling into
the wee morning hours painting their murals, it sent a strong message.
Seeing their masterpieces already painted over again by the cracking of
the next morning's light told them they were wasting their time. The entire
anti-graffiti campaign took years, but finally, the incidence of graffiti
subsided.
The hope and expectations you can create in your persuasive environment
will forecast your ability to persuade. One experiment was conducted on
the influence of light. Lab rats were placed in jars of water to see how
long they would keep trying to swim before giving up. Some of the jars
were placed in complete darkness, while others had light shining into
them. The results were dramatic! The rats in the dark swam for about
three minutes before succumbing. The rats with the light swam up to
thirty-six hours — more than 700 times longer than the rats in the
dark![16]
In another study, volunteers were asked to participate in an experiment on
prison environments. Half of the volunteers posed as prison workers,
while the other half posed as prison inmates. The results were astounding.
Previously tested to be psychologically sound people, the participants
rapidly became more and more hostile, crude, rebellious, and abusive —
both thos R7F