The Non Sequitur response

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LeeDarrow
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The Non Sequitur response

Post by LeeDarrow »

Last night, I was watching a standup comedian on Comedy Central. During his turn, he mentioned driving in Manhattan - something to be avoided at all costs.

50 cars ahead of him, not moving at all. The light changes green and the guy behind him starts leaning on his horn. Finally, the guy behind him gets out of his car, comes up to the comic's window and starts yelling "MOVE!!"

The comic decided that he was going to argue, but he was going to hav HIS argument - NOT the one the guy from the car behind him wanted to have.

The comic rolled down his window and started yelling back, "Well give me back my jacket, then! I said you could BORROW it - not KEEP IT! So give it back!! NOW!!"

The driver from behind him ran back to his car, rolled up his windows, locked his door and did his best to ignore the comic, who stayed in his car.

The point to this is that, sometimes, doing something completely unexpected and out of the framework of the confrontation is the best thing possible.

In NLP, this is called a "pattern interrupt."

When a completely unexpected response occurs, the normal thing that happens is that the person will go into an intense internal search for an appropriate response.

This is the classic "deer in the headlights" response.

Obviously, this can be exploited by either making the person confronting you think that you are Certifiable (and no one really wants to mix it up with a crazy person) or that you are just completely out of touch with reality or that, well, they can't come up with a response and leave.

Also, the deer in the headlights response is a great opening for a sucker punch. Image

Respectfully,

Lee Darrow, C.Ht.
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Van Canna
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The Non Sequitur response

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I love it. Image

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Van Canna
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chef
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The Non Sequitur response

Post by chef »

Another response that throws people is to go the opposite direction in voice tone in your response. I have found this effective in teaching situations with high school students and my own children.

They raise their voice and are extremely emotional. My response, soft voice and calm demeanor (definite eye contact made). Because of the extreme contrast, they are suddenly aware of how obnoxious they sound and stop...hopefully they often calm down and can be reasoned with.

Vicki
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