Customer Reviews

Lifescripts: What to Say to Get What You Want in Life's Toughest Situations

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Pollan and Levine have done an outstanding job assembling a wide variety of human relations challenges and dilemmas. My first action in assessing the book was to go directly to those scenarios in which I have had considerable training and experience. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the verbiage and the decision charts were spot on. One of the book's strengths is that each scenario is properly framed. The reader is fully educated on strategy and key concerns for handling the situation. The accompanying decision chart then becomes the road map for the situation. The ideal reader of this book is the new college graduate entering into his or her first professional position. There is simply a tremendous quantity of practical wisdom on human relations and office politics that I wish I had at that stage in my career. Additionally, the book is an excellent resource for the seasoned professional. It will reinforce and fine-tune many approaches already in use. Because it is relatively thorough, it will provide juicy tidbits and insights on some situations that perhaps the reader simply never identified. I highly recommend this excellent book for anyone concerned with ongoing professional and personal success.

Everyone is faced with tough conversations at work and this book provides practical guides for dealing with bosses, peers, and subordinates. I see where these scripts can easily be adapted to personal conversations as well. The book is organized in a very readable format. Not only are the topics easy to find, but the twists and turns of a specific dialog are diagramed so you can follow the path to the desired outcome. It even gives tips on timing. I especially liked that several strategies were described to combat different types of emotional responses that may be encountered. Most books I've read give general advice on handling difficult verbal situations, but this book gives word for word scripts that can actually be used in the real world. It's like gaining the insight of someone else's experience.

Stephen Pollan believes that life's unpleasant discussions go better when you walk in with a plan. His experience coaching and advising his clients tells him these plans need to be both flexible and easy to remember. He has invented conversation outlines--"lifescripts"--to prep us for common confrontations and help us come out ahead.

The book contains 101 lifescripts, each presented with similar supporting information and in a common format. "Each lifescript begins with a general discussion of the overall strategy you should use...highlighting what your goal should be." Pollan also suggests what attitude you should adopt, the preparation you need, how to choose a time for the discussion, appropriate body language to use, in addition to the lifescript itself. The lifescripts are presented in flowchart form, each containing icebreakers, pitches, possible responses from the other person, counters to their responses, and so on. There are also suggestions for adapting the lifescript to slightly different situations and "crib notes" to aid memory of the key points.

The 101 lifescripts are drawn from areas of everyday life: Job Hunting, Dealing with Superiors and Subordinates, Office Politics, Job Terminations, Dealing with Customers, Lenders, Investors, Vendors and Partners, Sales, Consumer, Credit and Lending Issues, and Communicating with family Members. Just in case we cannot find or adapt an existing lifescript to our particular needs, Pollan teaches us the five organizing principles of lifescripts: 1) Take control of the situation; 2) Say what you want; 3) Show your power before you use it; 4) Absorb or deflect anger; and 5) Have the last word.

The lifescript approach seems useful to anyone who wants to think through their strategy and options before beginning a difficult conversation. It seems particularly useful for those who prefer--or must--rely on conscious tactics in social interactions rather than intuition. It can help those who are not socially skilled become less fearful and more effective in the conversations that count.

I gave this book to my husband, a manager who never knows how to say what he needs to. This book provides real situations and realistic responses to them. How do you deal with someone with BO? Read the book.

This book is meant to give you possible things to say when met with challenges such as asking your boss for a raise.

I think the advice is good with regard to bosses, but the advice given regarding how to handle co-workers that have to be the center of attention, or co-workers that are still mentally in high school and want to bully others in order to feel good about themselves- that advice was lame. The book encouraged sarcasm as a defense mechanism, which in the long run doesn't work, and sometimes can escalate a situation, which is NOT the desired response! The sarcasm wasn't even witty enough to make a person look intelligent no matter how they said it.

While there are a few golden nuggets to take with you from this book, look elsewhere for help with problematic co-workers.

This book is good to have and has a lot of great references to go by especially if you are in a supervisor or managers position..highly recommended.

This is an excellent tool for someone in their 20s/30s. I bought it years ago and loved it... I found the formatting and "prediction" of options comforting. Fast Forward 10 or 15 years, I find the book elementary.

After taking a seminar recently, I decided to order
this book. The instructor had the book at the seminar
for a much higher price so I wrote down the name of
the book and the publisher so I could see if Amazon's
price was better. Naturally, it was so I bought it.
There is really good information in here for dealing
with all types of business world situations. A very helpful
aid to have in the office.

Not sure if i purchased an outdated copy, but the scenerios in this book are not scenerios that would happen to anyone in this day of age...Maybe I purchased an outdated copy? Not happy at all!