Just finished reading Richard Byrne's article in the new SHP. Fascinating stuff and well written article but I can't ever see myself using it. Richard does acknowledge that these things are never black & white but I think I'd really struggle with the underlying manipulation it's founded on. I know we all get into a bit of manipulation when things get fraught around a key bit of action you need doing but I sometimes prefer to lose the argument without resorting to that and save myself a little integrity for a second round further down the road. Yes, on the whole I prefer to present a consistent personality and play the long game. Your thoughts?

I haven't read the article, but I use TA quite a bit and teach others to use it (or at least be aware of it) as part of stress management. Years ago I had a manager who used to go into "Critical Parent" mode to get her own way and inevitably her staff used to revert to "adaptive child" as a response which made her bullying behaviour stronger. The department was notorious for absenteeism and continual petty squabbles. The manager never went far enough to warrant being disciplined so I had informal chats with the staff individually and pointed them towards TA websites. The result was startling. The staff stopped reacting badly to her methods and (generally) stayed in adult mode during her critical behaviour. She then reacted better to them and relationships improved massively. Absenteeism rates fell and productivity rose. Happy Days!