Tasks for improving the social

perceptiveness skill

1) Happy Challenge! Let’s start easy: please watch this video:

https://www.ted.com/talks/tony_robbins_asks_why_we_do_what_we_do#t-708079. Once you’re
done, send us a message with “done”, written in a foreign language.

2) Today, you shall be good and make compliments. In this task, you shall make a compliment to
someone that is not very close to you. To confirm that you have completed the task, please
write in the WhatsApp group how did the person react and how did that make you feel.

3) How well do you know yourself? We have a test for you, so you can have a better overview on
what type of emotional intelligence you’re oriented to and maybe, find some secrets. Here you
have it: https://www.bema.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/2015-02-04-BD-
Mini_Emotional_Test-ONLY.pdf. When it’s done, please send your score on the Whatsapp
group and share with us if you learned something new about yourself and how will you apply
this new information.

4) For quick, in-the-moment opportunities to enhance your social perceptiveness, there are three
vital questions you can ask yourself:

Does this need to be said?

Does this need to be said by me?
Does this need to be said now?
For example, if you just noticed a colleague doing something great at work but remember that
they made a mistake a couple of weeks ago that you never addressed…“
No! Stop! Ask yourself:
Does this need to be said?
Does it need to be said by me?
Does it need to be said by me now?”

Now, please think of a conflict that occurred, in your personal life or at work. Remember how
you reacted and ask yourself the 3 above questions. Do you think that things could have gone
different?
And let’s experiment: today, observe the environment around you and the discussions people
are having and ask yourself these 3 questions. Write at the end of the day, the conclusions of
this experiment.
5) F is for Friday! This activity consists of 10 descriptions of vision-killing behaviors that a person
may engage in, and a scale upon which to rate your own engagement in each behavior from
‘very seldom’ to ‘very often.’
The vision-killing behaviors include:

-Treating people badly⁠—such as not showing people they care, forgetting to say thank you, not
respecting people, not making people feel valued;
-Living by the adage “Do as I say, not as I do,” and not setting good examples;
-Focusing on too many things at once;
-Pushing too hard on the task and forgetting the people;
-Not giving clear direction;
-Giving inconsistent direction;
-Not taking responsibility for failure;
-Focusing on the detail and forgetting to tell the “whys” or the big picture;
-Showing little or no personal commitment to the vision;
-Allowing people who aren’t performing the job to remain.

Pay close attention to the three behaviors you engage in the most often and commit to working
on reducing or removing those behaviors entirely.

Today, you shall write down the behavior you identified at the previous point, then, write it in
positive manner and improved action and write down 3 examples for each, in which you mention
an action that can help you forward improving that behavior. When you’re done, send on the
WhatsApp group a picture with what you wrote done and put a Thumbs-up emoji along.

For example: I am focusing on too many things at once. -> I am good at multi-tasking. Act: I will
limit doing more than 3 things at once.

6) Happy Weekend! We prepared this article with 8 valuable advices regarding how not take things
personally. Once you’re done, let us a know which advice you found most useful.
https://catalincucu.ro/cum-sa-nu-iei-lucrurile-personal/

7) Fight, Flight or Freeze? Make this test and tell us what do you think: which of the F’s are you?
https://www.playbuzz.com/laurawhite11/would-you-fight-or-flight Send in the WhatsApp Group a
message with your type of behavior: fight, fly or freeze.

8) Today, a new week starts! Another good assessment activity is the temperament analysis. It
was designed to help participants learn about temperament, understand their own
temperament, and learn how to work with it.

To get started, keep in mind that our temperament is made up of tendencies and feelings that
are influenced by four factors or parameters:
- Genetic Inheritance
- Physical Attributes
- Life Experiences
- Environmental Conditions
 To give this activity a try, get started with the temperament questionnaire:
a) Describe your temperament with three adjectives. Choose the ones that describe you best.
b) Suggest three adjectives that others use to describe your temperament – you can ask your
colleagues.
c) Go through each of the adjectives identified in the above two questions and see if each one is
because of (or how much each one is driven by) Genetic Inheritance, Physical Attributes, Life
Experiences, or Environmental Conditions.
d) How does each of the temperamental factors affect you on a personal level?
e) Which of these factors do you want to change and why?
f) Think about each of the questions in detail and try writing it down, to maximize the learning
opportunity.

Once you’re done, send us a Gif on the WhatsApp group in which you’ll make us understand
that you’re done, but also, reflecting how do you feel after doing this exercise.

9) Emotiile sunt transmise de multe ori prin limbajul corpului, expresiile fetei, dar si gesturile
noastre, uneori chiar si prin modul in care ne imbracam.
Un prim pas pentru a putea intelege oamenii din jur este sa ascultam activ intreg mesajul
transmis de ei, nu doar ceea ce vorbesc. Apoi, trebuie sa intelegem ca limbajul corpului nostru
si ceea ce simtim, ne modeleaza. Un mic exemplu in filmuletul de mai jos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqCl40nB3ew
Dupa ce ai vazut filmuletul, spune-ne daca si tu te-ai surprins facand aceleasi gesturi.

10) Try this technique when you feel that a situation is negative or helpless. Reframing will take any
negative situation and empower you by changing the meaning of the experience into something
positive.
For example, let’s say that you just lost the flight back home. That may seem awful on the
surface, but let’s reframe it. What are the possible benefits of staying at least, one extra day in a
foreign place? For example, you’re now open to experience even more the city life. You also
have the freedom to do what you want, when you want. And you’ve learned valuable lessons
from this experience that will allow you to have even better memories and trips in the future.
These are all examples of reframing a situation. By reframing the meaning of the missed flight,
you give yourself a different experience of the trip.
In expected situations, it’s natural to panic or focus on fear, but this just leads to more problems.
In contrast, shifting your focus in the way just described helps you to clear your head and make
responsible, even-handed decisions in future.

11) Because I’m happy, after Pharell! Happy Friday!

There are lots of ways to build rapport with another person. One of the quickest and effective
ways involves subtly mirroring another person’s body language, tone of voice, and words.
People like people who are like themselves. By subtly mirroring the other person, the brain fires
off “mirror neurons,” pleasure sensors in the brain, which make people feel a sense of liking for
anyone mirroring them.
 The task is simple: Choose a person with which you will have an interaction. Stand or sit the
way the other person is sitting. Tilt your head the same way. Smile when they smile. Mirror their
facial expression. Cross your legs when they cross theirs. Mirror their voice, etc.
The key to creating an unconscious rapport is subtlety. If you are too overt, the other person
may notice consciously, which would most likely break rapport. So keep your mirroring natural
and calm.
When you’re done, send on the Whatsapp group a GIF with a parrot.

12) Today, is your lucky day: we are really proud of you that you made it so far! 😊 To boost your
confidence that you will finish The Challenge and celebrate, make yourself a gift. To show that
you completed this hard task, share in the Whatsapp group, a picture with your reward and tell
yourself “Sunt mandru/mandra de mine”.

13) For today, we prepared a test with eyes. This test is to find out how well you can read the
emotions of others, just by looking at their eyes. When you’re done, please share on the
WhatsApp group, your score and an emoji with eyes.

14) Happy Monday! Act like a fog! Imagine you are a fog. When someone throws a stone at you,
you absorb that stone without throwing the stone back. This is a very easy and effective
technique to use against people who keep criticizing you repeatedly.”
For example, if someone tells you something like:
“You just don’t understand.”
“You are lazy.”
“You are always late.”
“You don’t feel responsible.”
Respond with:
“Yes, I just don’t understand, so maybe you can explain one more time.”
“Yes, I am lazy sometimes, because I feel I need breaks.”
“Yes, I was late, but this doesn’t affect my results.”
“Yes, I just don’t take responsibility because I am not ready to do it yet.”
When you accept the criticism that is thrown your way (without taking it to heart), you will find
that you disarm the person criticizing you. To practice, set a meeting with your group and with
Daniela in which you should criticize each other you at rapid speed, one after the other, and
employ the fogging technique to counter it.
Let us know how you feel after this exercise, by sending a short message on the Whatsapp
group.

15) It's useful to take a bit more time and reflect on what you've felt during the day in order to get to
know yourself better.
 So, in the evening, have an emotions journal and break each page into two columns: the left
one is for your emotions where you list them by the hour, the right one is for the context that
surrounded that emotion.
Once you've listed all emotions, start to compare and analyze them. What's the ratio of positive
vs negative emotions? Which emotions dominate and what causes them? What are their
triggers?
This will allow you to see where emotions come from exactly in order to work on changing their
triggers and reducing negative emotions by stopping them from arising.
Send a photo of your results in the WhatsApp group.
16) During the operational meeting, just observe your colleagues’ interactions, emotions and
moods, how they make eye contact, their facial expressions, their body language etc. Write a
message when you have completed the task
This will help you develop your empathy skills and how to read and understand people better.

17) We get stuck with our own worlds so much that we fail to notice what happens around us. And
we can actually learn so much from it.
So when you are at the office, observe the behaviour around you: when do people walk
around and go to speak to others and who do they talk to; what are their moods; how are their
desks arranged; what are individuals feeling; what is the group mood overall; what do you see
and hear? Do this for 15 minutes. Choose 3 colleagues. Note your observations down. Let us
know when you’re done by sending a selfie.
This is not stalking; this is learning about the people around you.

18) Read the following article: https://www.liveyourtruestory.com/6-strategies-to-respond-to-

someone-who-is-angry-communication/. When you’re done, write in the WhatsApp group if you
used these stragies and if you didn’t, think of a situation where you could have used it.

19) Dilema prizonierului

Doi prizonieri sunt bănuiți că au săvârșit o infracțiune. Pedeapsa maximă pentru această
infracțiune este de cinci ani. Celor doi prizonieri li se face o propunere pe care cei doi o cunosc.
Dacă unul dintre ei mărturisește și astfel își împovărează partenerul, atunci scapă nepedepsit –
celălalt trebuie să ispășească o pedeapsă de cinci ani. Dacă cei doi decid să nu mărturisească,
rămân doar dovezi prezumptive care le vor aduce o pedeapsă de doi ani. Dacă amândoi
mărturisesc, pe fiecare îl așteaptă o pedeapsă de patru ani. Prizonierii sunt chestionați separat
unul de celălalt, astfel încât nici unul dintre ei nu va cunoaște nici înainte și nici după
chestionare intenția celuilalt.
Această dilemă poate fi numită paradox, deoarece decizia prizonierilor luată individual și
conștient (aceea de a mărturisi) și decizia colectivă (aceea de a tăinui) sunt divergente.
Matricea recompenselor arată în felul următor:
B tăinuiește B mărturisește
A tăinuiește A:−2 / B:−2 A:−5 / B:0
A mărturisește A:0 / B:−5 A:−4 / B:−4
 Ce ai alege sa faci: sa marturisesti sau nu? De ce? Cum ai face alegerea, si cum te-ar
influenta parerea celuilalt? Trimite raspunsurile la aceste intrebari pe whatsapp.
Semnificația rezultatelor:
0...„temptation” – Recompensă pentru trădare unilaterală (libertate)
−2...„reward” – Recompensă pentru cooperarea lui A cu B (doar pedeapsă de doi ani)
−4...„punishment” – Pedeapsă pentru trădare bilaterală (patru ani de pedeapsă)
−5...„sucker's payoff” – Pedeapsă pentru înșelarea încrederii
Cele patru modalități de combinare existente nu depind numai de propria decizie, ci și de
deciziile complicilor (interdependență comportamentală).
În mod individual, pare să fie pentru fiecare avantajos să coopereze. Prizonierul se gândește
astfel: Dacă celălalt cooperează, îmi pot reduce pedeapsa la patru ani, dacă cooperez și eu;
însă dacă celălalt tăinuiește faptele săvârșite: pot să-mi reduc pedeapsa de la doi ani la zero
prin declarația mea! Deci trebuie să mărturisesc faptele orice s-ar întâmpla!. Decizia de a
mărturisi faptele săvârșite nu depinde de comportamentul celuilalt și pare să fie întotdeauna
avantajos să mărturisească. O astfel de strategie care este aleasă fără a ține cont de decizia
oponentului este denumită strategie dominantă.
Cum arată și matricea, cei doi prizonieri ar fi totuși mai avantajați dacă amândoi s-ar decide să
tăinuiască faptele. Atunci ar primi fiecare doar câte doi ani de detenție. Locul de desfășurare a
jocului împiedică înțelegerea dintre cei doi prizonieri și provoacă astfel o trădare unilaterală prin
care trădătorul speră să obțină pentru sine cel mai bun rezultat achitarea (dacă celălalt prizonier
tăinuiește faptele) sau să primească o pedeapsă de patru ani în loc de cinci (dacă celălalt
prizonier mărturisește). Dacă amândoi fac acest lucru, își înrăutățesc astfel și individual situația,
deoarece acum fiecare primește câte patru ani în loc de câte doi ani.

20) It may seem obvious that lack of self-belief will hold you back but how much time have you
actually spent examining your own limiting beliefs?

“Even one such limiting belief can have a huge undesired effect on ourselves, our wellbeing and
our performance in business.”

Learning to identify them is the first step to overcoming them. Any thoughts or beliefs you have
about yourself that are unsupportive can be deconstructed. For example, instead of holding on
to the belief that you are not “good enough” instead spend time going over all your
accomplishments that suggest you are.

“I’m not good enough” is one of the main limiting beliefs that stand between women and their
most extraordinary success. Once you change this belief and acknowledge that you are more
than good enough, you’ll start to feel more comfortable taking bigger risks and aiming for more
meaningful goals.”

Almost the last task: today, write down 10 times, in your preferred language: “I am enough, and
I love myself.” Send a WhatsApp message in which you write how this exercise made you feel.
21) Reflect on The Challenge and write down the conclusions of these tasks. Send a selfie with you
and your favorite conclusion, written on a piece of paper. This is the final task. You made it and
we are all very proud of you!