Several of our previous posts (eg Rules that Make the Inception,The Real Me) have outlined the importance of context in determining our behavior. The situation can bring out the devil even in the most normal of people. I wanted to explore context a bit more in this post, especially with respect to social roles and performances. As a change from our last rather serious post I have embedded a bit of comedy here, hope you enjoy!
Tropic Thunder
I recall on holiday last year reading Elliot Aronson’s sociology course text book, “The Social Animal”. Heavy reading perhaps for the beach in Bali, but I devoured it faster than any Stephen King pulp fiction. What amazed me at the time was how clearly it demonstrates the malleability of human beings to social influence. It left me feeling that we were all, well rather daft creatures, and that our sense of autonomy was probably often an illusion.
The need for engagement in all areas of business and marketing continues to grow in importance.
For employee motivation, Dan Pink, has recently highlighted the need for business to catch up with scientific understanding. Carrots and sticks, Pink argues, are so last century. Carrots and sticks actually distract us from all but the most mundane tasks. They make work feel like work, worse still they encourage dishonesty and short term thinking. The hold that traditional economics and behaviorism has had in management maybe waning.
If you have tried almost everything in your report and the client is still asking for more insight what do you do?
Take a trip. No need to leave your desk. You will be traveling to new states of consciousness. And yes its all perfectly legal. We will be going to the Hypnogogic. A space and time in the mind just as you fall asleep.
While the lessons of the two Dan’s (Pink and Ariely) are important for all our interpersonal relationships, they are arguably most important when we seek to change behaviour in an organisation. Change management often involves training programs and workshops which are used to influence and change behaviours (I have run many of these myself). The following lessons from behavioural economics are critical to success:
Did you know that in American culture
Clotaire Rapaille writes about his last 30 years of work spent unlocking various “culture codes” in his book The Culture Code. His book contains many insights about the various reference systems that are put in place for all of us at an early age. By discovering the subconscious emotional attachments we have to various concepts and brands, he’s been able to illuminate the frames that surround these concepts.
“Didn’t I seize the fire of ideas and make them leap, tear, fly, sing” - Tom Paulin
“A poet’s work is to name the unnameable, to point out frauds, to take sides; start arguments, shape the world and stop it from going to sleep.” - Salman Rushdie
I would like to propose Prometheus as the patron saint of insight. Prometheus has the perfect credentials, associated throughout history with creative thinking and courage, his destiny bound by his empathy with the human race, and with a name which literally means ‘forethought’ (he could see into the future).
We know that compelling presentations and insights which can create genuine business changes are based on new emotional connections. Why is this, and why is it that qualitative research so often has greater impact and acceptance than more rigorous quantitative validation? The answer lies in stories.
