What makes the Anzai Protocol different?
This–
The Anzai Protocol is not about persuasion, but indoctrination.
Persuasion, indoctrination… what’s the difference?
There are a few.
For one, persuasion is occasion-specific. It rarely lasts beyond the occasion you persuaded your mark.
Indoctrination is one-off. Indoctrinate your mark once and he obeys you–possibly forever.
To borrow a business term, persuasion is not scalable. You must persuade your mark one-by-one, again and again, ad infinitum.
For mass control, indoctrination is the way.
The ARC Towards Indoctrination
As an Anzaian, you’re not a persuader. You’re an indoctrinator.
As an Anzaian, you think different. After all, you’re eyeing something bigger. Influence is what you want and indoctrination is the endgame.
You’re smart, and so you have probably realized that indoctrination might require more thought than persuasion. And you’re right.
Because unlike persuasion, indoctrination has no magic tricks, no silver bullets. It a process that spans across multiple stages, forming a sequence. We’ll get to the details in a moment, so keep reading.
Even before you indoctrinate your mark, you must first prime him up as a target. There are three prerequisite conditions necessary for indoctrination:
Prerequisite #1: Attention
You must have your mark’s attention. The capture of his focus gives you the privilege of directing it to anything you want.
Prerequisite #2: Rapport
The second prerequisite is rapport. Beyond capturing attention, your mark must like you enough to play along.
Prerequisite #3: Compliance
Or, the mark’s willingness to fulfil simple requests when you make them.
You may remember these three prerequisites with this abbreviation–
ARC = Attention + Rapport + Compliance
We’ll come back to this later. For now, let’s look at another important concept in social influence: submission.
The Submission Scale
When someone asks you “What do you do?” at a party, it’s merely a polite way of asking, “Are you worth talking to?”
Similarly, in your first encounter with your mark, in his mind, he is sizing you up.
“Is this person worth talking to?”
“Is he stronger than I am?”
“Do I need to respect him?”
Ultimately–
“Does this person have authority over me?”
In the Anzai Protocol, we define indoctrination as the submission to authority–the mark’s submission to your authority.
And because submission lies on a spectrum, it’s useful to have a tool to measure it. The Submission Scale is this tool in the Anzaian’s indoctrination arsenal.
The Submission Scale measures the degree of your mark’s submission to you. As the indoctrinator, you want to move him to the top end of the scale (ten).
Take note–
You rarely start at the bottom (zero). In fact, in most circumstances, you won’t.
Why?
Because a strong first impression will give you a head start, placing your starting point higher than zero on the Submission Scale. This depends on three factors:
- Social signals: titles, reputation
- Physical contrasts: height, size
- Intangible factors: charm, charisma
No matter where you start, however, it’s where you end up on the Submission Scale that counts. And that brings us to the ARCI Sequence.
The ARCI Sequence
The ARCI (pronounced as ark-eye) Sequence is the bedrock of the Anzai Protocol. It maps the four stages to increasing your mark’s submission to your authority, leading to his indoctrination.
The ARCI Sequence comprises of four stages:
- Stage 1 (the A stage): Capture Attention
- Stage 2 (the R stage): Develop Rapport
- Stage 3 (the C stage): Build Compliance
- Stage 4 (the I stage): Perform Indoctrination
Remember the three prerequisites for Indoctrination, ARC? Befittingly, they form the first three stages in the ARCI Sequence. And together, they prime the mark for Indoctrination (or, the I stage).
Now, here’s what’s crucial about the ARCI Sequence–the Indoctrinator must complete one stage before moving to the next.
- The first step is to capture your mark’s attention (stage 1).
- Directing your mark’s focus to you, you’ll develop deep rapport with him (stage 2).
- With rapport, you’ll build up his compliance levels with a series of simple requests (stage 3).
- When his compliance solidifies into habit, complete the protocol by indoctrinating him (stage 4).
Skipping any of the stages in the ARCI Sequence leads to failure–
- Skipping the A stage by attempting rapport without attention capture? The mark loses interest, gets distracted and disengages from you.
- Skipping the R stage by attempting compliance without rapport? The mark doesn’t know or like you enough to comply with your requests.
- Skipping the C stage by attempting indoctrination without compliance? The mark would probably be alarmed by your behavior that he could (rightly) see as psychopathic.
The sequential nature of the ARCI process has another benefit–
You only need to take one step at a time.
Like many students of persuasion, you are probably overwhelmed by the barrage of theories and tactics from your research. The ARCI Sequence solves the problem of information overload. With its linear, do-this-one-thing-before-the-next structure, all you need is to–
- One, know the ARCI stage where your mark is, and,
- Two, use the tactics relevant only to that ARCI stage to move your mark to the next.
That’s it. You can ignore everything else.
Why Mainstream Persuasion Fails
You now know how the Anzai Protocol differs from mainstream persuasion.
We Anzaians are not persuaders. We are indoctrinators.
And as indoctrinators, we appreciate the importance of strategy and context. As we have clearly seen with Joe the Coffee Salesman, context is everything. A persuasion tactic may work in a certain context only to fail in another.
Mainstream persuasion literature ignores context. Because of this, they are more like recipe books. Grab a handful of the tactics, put them in the mix, and voila! You’ll apparently get the results you want, right?
Of course not.
Because context matters. Strategy matters. And strategy must come first, ahead of everything else.
And with the ARCI Sequence as your guide, you can be strategic. The ARCI stage is the context. You can then use a tactic only if it’s appropriate to your mark’s ARCI stage. And that’s smart.
Recall a time when you wanted to build rapport with someone. No matter how hard you tried to be friendly, your mark couldn’t seem to warm up to you. Ever experienced this? Yes?
Why does that happen?
Here’s the answer–
Likeability is a Rapport stage tactic.
Attention comes first before Rapport in the ARCI Sequence. And so, if you can’t seem to establish rapport with your mark, there’s only one reason.
You do not have his attention.
So, until you do, piling on Rapport tactics (like likeability) is futile. He’s distracted; you’re not interesting enough for him to invest his attention in you. No point working on likeability at the Attention stage; you should build intrigue instead.
Make sense?
Now, this doesn’t mean that the persuasion tactics you already know are useless. Far from it.
Instead, think of tactics as arrows in your quiver, weapons in your indoctrination arsenal. And the ARCI Sequence as the container of tactics, the provider of context, the blueprint.
It’s the roadmap that guides you towards your goal–the indoctrination of your mark. Tactics are the chess pieces that move you to that endgame–essential and yet disposable.
As Pyrrhus wil testify–
Tactics may win you battles, sometimes. A superior strategy wins you the war, always.
And the ARCI Sequence is that strategy.
Flaws of the Anzai Protocol
Icarus had wings made from feather and wax. He flew too close to the sun. His wings melted, and he crashed into the sea where he drowned.
The mighty Achilles capitulated when they touched his heels.
Kryptonite turns Superman into jelly.
Nothing is infallible. Everyone has a weak point. Even the ARCI Sequence.
What are the flaws of the Anzai Protocol?
There are three.