The Jedi Mind Trick

A colleague taught me about Jedi Mind Tricks (JMT) the other day. So here's what it is:

When you're in a sticky situation at work and are being pressed with difficult questions you don't know how to answer, you can use the JMT as a last resort. The JMT consists of suddenly changing the topic by throwing a comment/question way out in left field, to surprise the other person into forgetting their train of thought.

I looked at my colleague in disbelief when he introduced me to this concept. "That's ridiculous, you can't just change the subject, who would fall for that?!" I said. But he insisted it worked. I was still skeptical, but ever since then, I've been noticing that people actually do use the JMT. And frequently.

Just last Friday I had to call one of the employees into my office to discuss a performance improvement plan.
"So," I said, "let's come up with some explicit objectives for a development plan."
"Sure," he said. "By the way, I hear you're off to London for Thanksgiving?"

The sly thing is not only when people change the topic, but when they know exactly what to say to make you forget what you were talking about.

Half an hour later, as he was leaving the office: "... well, that's why I'm going to London for Thanksgiving. Anyways, it's too bad we didn't get round to the improvement plan this time. NEXT time we absolutely MUST get it decided."
"Sure," he said with an impish grin and a jaunty wave.

Only as I returned to my work it occured to me, Damn, he used the Jedi Mind Trick.

So I'm throwing this to you as a general warning: beware, kids, there's a bunch of aspiring little yodas out there.

Not to be outdone, I decided to dapple in a bit of JMT of my own. Big Boss M called me into his office the other day, requesting a status update on particular arrangements for a meeting. This time, instead of panicking and prevaricating as would be my norm, I decided to pull a smooth yoda on him. "So isn't it a great day today?! Who would believe it's actually November!".

He narrowed his eyes at me. "You're not trying to change the subject, are you?" he questioned suspiciously.

Note to self: Don't experiment on new strategies with the Big Boss.