Results tagged “psychology” from stevenfeinberg.com
Happy Independence Day -
It's 1776 and the colonists are pondering the concept.
What a brave group of people to shift from subjects to citizens as Thomas Jefferson penned in the Declaration of Independence.
America was born out of a fundamental shift from monarchy to democracy.
The Founders and their family, friends and colonial colleagues were all part of a great shift.
While not accepted without a war for our independence, the mothers and fathers of our Independence
moved us from disadvantage to advantage. They prepared a platform for all future movements toward
freedom of thought and action.
We thank them and all who contributed to and continue to support the fundamental shift.
The real fireworks was in the consciousness of the leaders who took a stand in the face of the forces against progress and humanity's good will.
As we continue our journey, more and different shifts retain and expand our freedom of, by and for consciousness
This is real growth.
It's 2010 and America is appreciating the great shift
Shifting is America's birthright.
Each day the choice is ours. Advantage or Disadvantage.
Sometimes we are more fortunate and things go our way, as if the stars are aligned.
Other times we have to make it happen.
All you have to do to confirm this is watch the World Cup or Olympics
They prepare and are ready. But folks can get bad breaks not of their doing,
or good breaks that they capitalize on.
When you get bad breaks what do you do?
While complaining is normal, the important point is how quickly do you shift?
Are you prepared to shift?
You don't have to know what the answer is to know that its time to shift.
The first step is to recognize it is time to shift. Too many people take too long on this step.
To accelerate your performance, to get better results now, shift sooner.
You can look for solutions by sorting through the five shifts that create Advantage.
Shift the Question, instead of accepting the Givens. This will construct options
Shift Time, instead of being stuck. This will overcome the boundaries.
Shift Interactions, instead of doing more of the same. This will change the game.
Shift Perceptions, instead of a loser mindset. This will influence outcomes.
Shift Structures, instead of being controlled. This will shape new behavior.
We sometimes don't realize that if we are complaining we are not shifting fast enough to what will work.
Shift faster!
Obama's speech was not soaring rhetoric, rather it had a more profound, game changing message.
He said, "What cynics fail to understand is the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. It's not whether government is too big or too small, it's whether it works."
These are not just word tricks crafted to distract us, these reveal a fundamental observation and core message that encourages and requires all of us to shift to 'higher order functioning', instead of more of the same.
You will see Obama's decisions based upon this higher order functioning in the weeks, months and years to come. The tendency in times of stress is to go back to basics. While some of this is necessary, a defensive posture is not a strategic approach that will actually get us our next edge. Back to basics is not making a fundamental shift.
Translating higher order functioning for kitchen table issues is what matters.
This will not be left wing nor right wing, nor moderates for that matter. Higher order functioning is moving from horses to cars, from typewriters to word processors to computers. We will see the shift to green/alternative energy investments as an example.
Higher order functioning means employing the social psychology of influence, transforming a typical 3% response rate to become 33%, Higher order functioning means employing the psychology of shifting, that turned an airline from $84 million dollar in the red to $30 million dollar in the black by managing interactions. Higher order functioning requires thinking in dimensions that finds real leverage in small actions and decisions, for example, shifting the typical 3 year bank integration to only 9 months. Urgency overruled bureaucracy.
Our country's Declaration of Independence is itself is a form calling for higher order functioning. The U.S. experiment began with a new world, with a new philosophy of governing. We must again shift the game to higher order functioning, we must shift or the existing house of cards will collapse.
While the language of responsibility and accountability makes a difference on a practical level, in itself it doesn't achieve higher order functioning. It is the thought process that leaders must cultivate to change the game and provide us with the new responsibilities and accountabilities.
Creating this higher order of functioning is the first order of business.
Decision Triggers: My 2 Cents Worth
You brain makes lightning fast connections. And equally fast decision triggers. A single reliable piece of information that instantly makes judgments. For example, buy low sell high. Instant trigger. Knowing the triggers can influence people to say yes to your request.
Here is how it works.
I call it ‘My 2 cents worth’ influence strategy. But it can be worth immediate cash to you as it has been worth millions when applied. A $15,000 luxury hot tub spa was producing slow sales. In determining what to do to move sales Dr. Cialdini, an influence strategist, asked the salesman, “What would an addition to a home cost in this neighborhood?”
“About $70,000.”
Next time a prospect asks begin your answer with, “What would an addition to your home run you?”
and immediately after they say $65 - $75,000, you add in this information, “Well this luxury spa is like an addition to your home, and its $15,000.” Sales skyrocketed.
I call it ‘My 2 cents worth’ influence strategy. But it can be worth immediate cash to you as it has been worth millions when applied. A $15,000 luxury hot tub spa was producing slow sales. In determining what to do to move sales Dr. Cialdini, an influence strategist, asked the salesman, “What would an addition to a home cost in this neighborhood?”
“About $70,000.”
Next time a prospect asks begin your answer with, “What would an addition to your home run you?”
and immediately after they say $65 - $75,000, you add in this information, “Well this luxury spa is like an addition to your home, and its $15,000.” Sales skyrocketed.
That simple, easy, quick contrast, established a psychological trigger inside the prospects brain that grabbed their attention. A comparison that made enormous sense to the move
them from prospects to buyers.
them from prospects to buyers.
When you put in your ‘2 cents worth’ make it worthwhile for the customer or your colleague. This is replicable. The masters of influence use it every day.
What they know is that whatever comes first establishes the context for the conversation. Let me repeat, whatever comes first establishes the anchor for the conversation. When you first walk outside from a movie theater your squint because your eyes need to adjust from dark to light. You’ll say it is so bright out. But it’s just where you’ve just come from.
By establishing the context - an addition to their home - so they could and would think of this purchase as a deal. Remember these were people who were looking for a spa. The contrast effect worked as a decision trigger.
Imagine 3 buckets. One with hot water, one with ice and one room temperature.
Place your hand in the hot water and then into the room temperature bucket, it will seem cold.
Place your hand in the ice water and then into the room temperature bucket, it will seem hot.
Bucket of Ice Bucket of Perception Bucket of Hot Water
Hot? Cold?
Depends on what came first
Whatever came first affected the ‘bucket of perception’. It was the contrast that determined the ‘bucket of perception’.
Ask yourself compared to what?
You always have to find what matters to your audience and create a contrast.
It’s not about positive thinking or negative thinking, but influence thinking.
The contrast principle is also the foundational thought process used when creating winning brands. Listerine compared to Scope. Bayer compared to Tylenol.
If you are not using the contrast principle I can assure you are bungling opportunity.
And this strategy only costs your “2 cents’ whether you use it with your customers, your peers or your boss.
Headwinds. That’s what you are up against. It stresses you and your people.
It would be great if in the midst of all this chaos you could find a tailwind.
Many motivational speakers encourage you to have a positive attitude, get rid of your negative attitude. Not a bad idea, but will attitude positive or negative change your business results or generate income?
I was at a Las Vegas craps table, you’ll understand why they call it craps in a second.
The guy rolling the dice was making lots of money. Whooping and hollering encouraging
his luck. Everyone was getting in the mood, the good feeling of being on a roll. Like having the wind at your back. Intoxicating in itself.
The gambler looks at everyone and says out loud, “Let’s have some good positive thinking here. Good positive thinking.” We all smile until…
The table croupier (the dealer working for the casino, running the craps table) says,
“Positive thinking?” Yeah these casinos are all built with that positive thinking!”
A nervous knowing laugh erupts at the table, and we keep encouraging the shooter.
Stay positive we whisper to ourselves. Some operate like this in every situation. Pathological optimism? Eventually everyone loses at the craps table if you stay too long. Crapping out is not something we can actually control. If you can heed the message you take your winnings and leave early.
Positive thinking is betting on a wish. Nothing wrong with having a good attitude.
It sure beats a negative attitude.
Let’s talk about those negative attitudes everyone is trying to talk you out of, including
me. Some folks no matter what you say take on the devil’s advocate role, or Eyore in the
Whinny the Pooh storybooks. Nothing will every work out, they shoot down all suggestions. Woe is me. Woe is you. Woe is the world.
I call this kind of negative thinking ‘Swiss cheese thinking’ (my apologies to the Swiss). Swiss cheese thinkers only notice the holes in the cheese, not the cheese. A pretty empty experience.
Neither ‘pathological optimism, positive thinking’ nor ‘Swiss cheese, negative thinking’ will actually bring in more revenue, improve performance or do more with less. They probably will make you miss opportunity.
What will?
Strategic Influence.
Some people consistently know what to say, when to say it and how to say it to get people to say yes to their request. Their influence is unquestionable, I call them Advantage-Makers. They are masters at influencing perception. When you are up against a headwind and the disadvantages we are all facing, influence becomes a huge advantage if you know how. The ROI on influence is dramatic.
At one company a simple, easy, quick psychological contrast positioned the product inside the customers mind so vividly that it increased sales by 546% almost overnight. They compared the inexpensive cost of ownership of the product to a much larger potential purchase. This single move dramatically increased sales. In this case they didn’t have to lower price, change the spec’s on the product, switch out sales employees or do a major reorganization. But without an influence strategist showing them the specific words sales had been flat.
Imagine the time you needed to influence – your boss, employees, peers, vendors, customers or position your products and services for customers to reduce resistance and increase desirability. Strategic influence is the key to helping yourself with a tailwind.
Do you have the magic to get people to say yes to your requests, your point of view more often? The key is the decision triggers in the brain. For example, during times of uncertainty the power of the herd mentality in non-arguable. Do you employ it?
Or consider how powerful it is to tap the unconscious motivations of being consistent with the image you have of yourself. If you strongly value being a 'provider' for your family, you will do whatever it takes to make it happen. Knowing the psychology of Yes is worth millions.
Is it more important for your argument to be valid or vivid? Many engineers I work with argue that it must be valid. I ask them how their valid arguments are working for them.
Not well is the usual response. They fall on deaf ears. It actually isn’t deaf ears it’s a bungled influence moment. A more useful strategy you can use is to ‘to make your valid arguments vivid’ We then get to work on making their valid argument vivid, with a 75% improvement in their influence ability.
This isn’t some theory, this is based upon real results. Wouldn’t that make a difference in your bottom line. In fact, wouldn’t it make a difference in your top line. And it begins by saying 'No' to silly attitudes, like always having positive attitudes or always avoiding negative attitudes as the key to your success.
Do you know the magic? It’s actually not magic at all when you know the influence strategies. A set of 9 specific decision triggers in the brain that ethically gets people to say yes willingly.
How do you categorize experiences?
Do you notice what is there or what is missing?
First, why does it matter?
1) A technology manager accepted the vendors judgment that shutting down the data center was just like the time before. This time the system crashed and results were disastrous, millions of dollars lost. They missed the small but significant difference.
2) A sales V.P. viewed all challenges as the same old, same old. He almost lost his job because the CEO didn't think he could develop new strategies. Fortunately, we identified and changed his tendency to categorize experience with what he already knew.
Second, do you sort for sameness or difference?
Do you always notice how things are similar to what you already know and do? What's the relationship between this job and the last? Same or Different?
In other words do you look for matches for your current knowledge?
When a presenter is speaking do you find yourself agreeing with most of what they say? That's just like ...
or
In your thinking do you always find counter-examples. Ways in which what the speaker is saying isn't accurate.
Are you noticing the mismatches?
The sameness sorting pattern looks for commonalities.
The difference sorting pattern notices what stands out from the rest of the group.
Another way to say this is that there is a tendency to either match with, or mismatch what is already there.
Advantage-makers are fluent in both matching and mismatching.
If you want to spot opportunity and create advantages it is useful to mismatch, that is, sort for differences.
Advantage-Makers walk into situations with their ability to actively sort for differences. They note weaknesses, threats, and problems, as well as opportunities that others aren’t seeing. Instead of seeing what is expected, they notice what is unexpected. They are able to spot anomalies and then take advantage of them. The point is not to get caught in any rut.
Practice noticing what is different.
In a task or negotiation, ask yourself,
1) What appears obvious, along with what am I not seeing?
2) In the unlikely event that a problem occurs what will we do?
3) When you are stuck shift from sameness to mismatching, or from difference to matching.
You can spot opportunity but only if you notice difference.
Do you notice what is there or what is missing?
First, why does it matter?
1) A technology manager accepted the vendors judgment that shutting down the data center was just like the time before. This time the system crashed and results were disastrous, millions of dollars lost. They missed the small but significant difference.
2) A sales V.P. viewed all challenges as the same old, same old. He almost lost his job because the CEO didn't think he could develop new strategies. Fortunately, we identified and changed his tendency to categorize experience with what he already knew.
Second, do you sort for sameness or difference?
Do you always notice how things are similar to what you already know and do? What's the relationship between this job and the last? Same or Different?
In other words do you look for matches for your current knowledge?
When a presenter is speaking do you find yourself agreeing with most of what they say? That's just like ...
or
In your thinking do you always find counter-examples. Ways in which what the speaker is saying isn't accurate.
Are you noticing the mismatches?
The sameness sorting pattern looks for commonalities.
The difference sorting pattern notices what stands out from the rest of the group.
Another way to say this is that there is a tendency to either match with, or mismatch what is already there.
Advantage-makers are fluent in both matching and mismatching.
If you want to spot opportunity and create advantages it is useful to mismatch, that is, sort for differences.
Advantage-Makers walk into situations with their ability to actively sort for differences. They note weaknesses, threats, and problems, as well as opportunities that others aren’t seeing. Instead of seeing what is expected, they notice what is unexpected. They are able to spot anomalies and then take advantage of them. The point is not to get caught in any rut.
Practice noticing what is different.
In a task or negotiation, ask yourself,
1) What appears obvious, along with what am I not seeing?
2) In the unlikely event that a problem occurs what will we do?
3) When you are stuck shift from sameness to mismatching, or from difference to matching.
You can spot opportunity but only if you notice difference.
How
do you categorize experiences?
Do you notice what is there or what is missing?
First,
Why does it matter?
1) A competent technology manager accepted the vendors judgment that shutting down the data center was just like in the past. The system crashed and results were disastrous, millions of dollars lost. A small difference had a huge consequence.
2) A
sales V.P. viewed all challenges as the same old, same
old. He almost lost his job because the CEO didn't think he could develop new strategies. Fortunately, we identified and changed his tendency to categorize experience with what he already
knew.
Second, Do
you sort for sameness or difference?
Do you notice how things are similar to what you already know and do? In other words do you look for matches for your current knowledge.
When a presenter is speaking do you find yourself agreeing with most of what they say? That's just like ...
or
In
your thinking do you notice counter-examples. Ways in which what the
speaker is saying isn't accurate.
Are
you noticing the mismatches in the case.
The
sameness sorting pattern looks for commonalities.
The
difference sorting
pattern notices what stands out from the rest of the
group.
Another
way to say this is that there is a tendency to either match with, or
mismatch what is already there.
Advantage-makers
are fluent in both matching and mismatching.
If you want to spot opportunity and create advantages it is useful to mismatch, that is, sort for differences.
Advantage-Makers
walk into situations with their ability to actively sort for differences.
They note weaknesses, threats, and problems, as well as opportunities that
others aren’t seeing.
Instead of seeing what is expected, they notice what is unexpected. They are able to spot anomalies and then take advantage of them. The point is not to get caught in any rut.
Practice noticing what is
different.
In a task or negotiation,
ask yourself,
1) What appears obvious, along with what am I not seeing?
2) In the unlikely event that a problem occurs what will we do?
3)
You can spot opportunity
but only if you notice difference.
- Steven
When it comes to creating advantages it pays to know what you are after.
2. Easier - Is it easier to use your product than the competitors? ie. Mac's vs. PC.
There are 4 major criteria that should guide your efforts.
1. Faster - Does your product/service accelerate the sale? Retailer use accelerators all the time.
Does your leadership accelerate the needed change?
2. Easier - Is it easier to use your product than the competitors? ie. Mac's vs. PC.
As a manager are you making your messages easy to take action on?
3. Simpler - Does your offer simplify the lives of users? It's been said that the future belongs to the simplifiers.
This does not mean simplistic. Google makes internet search simple, easy, fast.
4. Multipliers - this is the king of advantage-making, creating leverage and your edge. How can you leverage your existing resources? What is a 180 degree shift from the conventional approach that will fundamentally change the game?
Ipods bring more value to the users.
Do you want a cup of coffee or do you want Starbucks?
Barack Obama's Presidential campaign mobilizes millions of young people through Facebook. One supporter can make multiple contacts in seconds, and its rallying and engaging the youth of America.
Recessions put most at a disadvantage.
Accept the disadvantage or become an Advantage-Maker.
Take advantage of the recession and leverage your resources. Think about tactics that can multiply and make customers and followers lives easier, faster and simpler.
Remember MEFS (multiplier, easier, faster, simplifier).
The 'R' word.
'Recession' is on the back of most of our minds. Everything was going along just fine and then boom the worry machine starts.
A rule of thumb is that a recession is two consecutive quarters of shrinking GDP. Are we in one now? We won't technically know for another few months. But listen to your TV news reporters patrolling the stock exchanges, see the worldwide tumbling of stock markets, and feel the effects of your stock portfolio shrink and it's no longer academic.
You are on the roller coaster and you didn't even know you bought a ticket. Today the market plummeted 300 points and closed plus 300. A 600 point swing. That's volatility.
How did the sky begin to fall (if it did at all)?
Is a recession a structural problem or a psychological problem?
Certainly, when fear takes hold, perception drives behavior and we head for the exits. But underneath that there is the structural issue.
Structure drives behavior. Just as a river has an underlining riverbed that shapes the behavior of river the underlying structure shapes the behavior of the US economy and your business.
Structural forces can strengthen and weaken the economy. Growth, productivity, value creation, fiscal and monetary policy must contend with the housing market slowdown, the subprime mortgage debacle, oil prices skyrocketing, the weak dollar, rising food prices, overextended credit card delinquencies and job losses that are immediately felt. These forces are driving the behavior of the markets and your decisions. They effect our time horizon and what we think is possible.
I asked my stock broker if the sky was falling and he said this is the cycle, history will repeat itself, things will get better, but it will be rocky for awhile. But I didn't want the history lesson. I wanted the structural forces lesson. What and how were the structural forces at play so I could make an informed decision now, instead of a reactive emotional issue to my stock portfolio dropping.
A recession is both structural and psychological.
To take advantage of the situation
Advantage-Makers shift perceptions and work with the structural forces at play to form their judgments, or use their influence to change the structural dynamics.
The stimulus package of fiscal and monetary policy, by the President, Congress and those proposed by the Presidential candidates must address the underlying structure. Short term and long term solutions must reduce structural impediments and structure us to be competitive to be able to win. Otherwise, a 75 basis point rate reduction by the Fed generates fear and uncertainty instead of stability.
We look to our leader for structural solutions. Specifically, their ability to spot the structural forces and influence them for the common good.
Think as an advantage-maker.
I've been asked, "How do you define leadership?" a thousand times.
While my answer has refined over the years, from my vantage point:
leaders create advantages that encourage followers.
And followers can be customers, employees, stakeholders or the voters.
Your leadership becomes obvious and irresistible when you shift the odds in their favor by producing leverage for followers.
Just because you are in charge or have a title doesn't mean people will follow you willingly.
When you create or endorse advantages that encourage followers you know you have a winner.
The ipod and iphone engaged a community of users.
If you are a supervisor, do your strategies and tactics create advantage for your employees?
