This video presents an argument that what we think incentivises people at work is not really true. Very interesting and highly appealing way to present this argument too.

Watch it and let me know what you think.

by George Lee Sye

(Adapted from 2011 publication - People, Leadership, Growth - now available as an iBook)

Change Leaders …. here’s an idea for you to think about.

Space must exist before it can be filled.

Just for a moment imagine a person’s life as a box. This box has a divider down the middle to separate their personal (or home) life from their professional (or work) life.

We don’t have to be a rocket scientists to realise that everybody’s box is full. The challenge for us is this. You can’t add water to a cup that’s full, just like you can’t put petrol in the tank when the tank has no space in it.

One of the natural laws of life is that we tend to fill space.

People don’t have empty rooms in their house, no matter how big it is, because they have a strong overwhelming desire to fill empty spaces. We will go out and buy furniture and decorate an empty room ….. even if it never gets used.

So how does that relate to change in a business?

Think about this. We roll out some major company initiative. Let’s say that initiative is business improvement.

We do that in an organisation where everybody’s boxes are full.

You get hit with the “I don’t have time for this, I’m already busy!” or “How am I going to fit this in, I’m up to my neck in work?”

Of course the box is full, you’ve only got to ask them to find out this is true. Their perception is they have no space for this new thing. This is compounded by them not having any real understanding of why they need to change in the first place.

So what happens?

Well you push and you push …  you throw skills at people, you develop their capability, you tell them what you want to achieve, you tell them what they have to do …. but it seems they can’t fit it in their daily grind.

As long as we throw something at people that requires space and they perceive there is no space, it won’t be sustainable in the short to medium-term. You might think it is but let’s go full circle here ….. they just don’t not have the same perception as you.

They must create the space before you can fill it!

That’s your challenge  … being able to help an organisation create that space, being able to help people in your organisation cut back on what takes up their time now so they have room for improvement.

If you can achieve that, then and only then are you going to create a vacuum for your initiative.

One final thought.

If you truly want to succeed in your business improvement efforts, you must change first. You must know how to create the space for change yourself and to do that you must know how to lead yourself to new ways of thinking.

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Soarent Vision arguably provides the most advanced and business relevant Master Black Belt training in the world today, and the only one that addresses the issue of ‘space and capacity for change’.

With a unique focus on influence and persuasion concepts, this program integrates perfectly with technical Lean Six Sigma and prepares Master Black Belts to be the most influential and high performance leaders.

by George Lee Sye

When a company employs somebody, they usually do so for one reason … because that person is COMPETENT to do a job.

Here’s an idea – don’t employ people because they can do the job.

Resist it, even just once.

Instead …. employ people who are not scared of being incompetent and who have a track record of cycling continually through the incompetent – competent cycle.

When you employ that person, their job is not to do the job; no …. their job is to work out how to do the job better, not just once but over and over again.

When you employ people purely because of competency in doing a job, the inherent danger is that you employ people who will defend their competency and resist all form of change.

“This is the best way to do this, I should know.”

“This is how I was taught to do this.”

“If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.”

Change is uncomfortable because change means incompetence.

And incompetence brings with it the greatest risk of all … the risk of being criticized, being judged as incompetent, and heaven forbid .. failing.

Notice that the leaders of many of the current high growth companies are young and vibrant people from the younger generations. Why?

Well for one they have not developed competency to the point where they are unwilling to unlearn what it is they know.

No … they are competent in change, in innovation, in moving through a range of new and untested ideas and continually growing.

They are not scared of ‘failing’. The memory of falling over in order to learn to walk is still fresh enough in their minds that they remember.

This new order of competence is the most desirable trait in the modern business world.

If you are truly committed to being the best you can, be prepared to be incompetent frequently.

Now … how the hell do I upload this blog thingy?

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Soarent Vision arguably provides the most advanced and business relevant Master Black Belt training in the world today.

With a unique focus on influence and persuasion concepts, this program integrates perfectly with Soarent Vision’s AQF accredited Lean Six Sigma program for Green Belts and Black Belts, and prepares Master Black Belts to be the most influential and high performance leaders on the planet.

By George Lee Sye

The degree of success we experience in anything is determined by the level or quality of our thinking.

To shift to a new level of performance we must begin to think differently. You already know that don’t you?

A golfer who plays ‘C’ grade level golf thinks at a level relevant to his current capability … he thinks like a C grader. While he might want to play like one, he definitely does not think like a professional golfer.

The professional’s focus on the course is completely different; the thought patterns that underpin the pros golf swing are different, the pro sees shots the C grader doesn’t know exist, how the pro thinks in tough situations is nothing like the C grader in the same situation.

In order for the C grader to become a professional golfer, not only must he improve the technical aspects of his game (his swing and game skills), he must also shift the way he thinks.

How have we adopted this in our business?

Well for one I play games on iPad. I kid you not.

When somebody sees me playing Scrabble or Angry Birds or Tour de France or Red Bull X Riders; and they ask “what are you doing?” … I give the same response every time.

“I’m researching, what do ya think I’m doing?”

It never fails to get the reaction I want.

I buy apps that have a new or unique concept; apps like Agenda, iAnnotate PDF and even company marketing tools like Getinge HC.

I play with PlasmaGlobe, Planetary and GoSkyWatch … all of which just blow me away.

I’ve checked out iView and SyncSpace just so I understand what can be done today.

Talking Tom 2 is fun. I toyed with it until I finally worked out how they make money out of it.

Inquisitiveness is a trait you must have, and more importantly … must use.

The world is changing so fast, technology is moving so quickly ahead, problems are being resolved in unique ways so rapidly … that in a very short time those other people who resist their child like urges will be wondering what the hell happened.

This applies to every aspect of your work, including process improvement.

One who continues to look at a process or problem in the same way they always have cannot expect to get a new level of performance.

A business improvement practitioners who raises the same old issues around not getting support, not getting access to people, not getting time to do the work … and then approaches the project the same as before, is … well … nuts.

It’s time to change folks.

Time to develop those inquisitiveness muscles because it’s these muscles that will get you ahead of the pack.

Here’s an inquisitiveness workout to try

Think of something you laboriously do each week in paper form or on MS Word or Excel and find an app that does something similar. Buy the thing and try it.

It’s only a couple of bucks for heavens sake.

Read everything and anything … it it’s not that interesting then just scan it.

Stop saying “we can’t do that” and start doing things others can’t do. Start saying “they can’t do that.”

Ask someone who has already solved a problem you have, “How the hell did you solve that?” If you don’t know that person, find them and ask.

And then try it … you’ll never know if you don’t give it a go.

Be a kid and stop being so adult in your thinking.

Explore and try ideas for approaching your work differently. Change how you set the project up at the beginning before it starts. Change how you use your time and where you put your energies.

Your thinking will change.

So will the results you get.

Something from our friend George Carlin

MY NEXT LIFE

I want to live my next life backwards:

• You start out dead and get that out of the way.
• Then you wake up in a nursing home feeling better every day.
• Then you get kicked out for being too healthy, enjoy your
• retirement and collect your pension.
• Then when you start work, you get a gold watch on your first day.
• You work 40 years until you’re too young to work.
• You get ready for High School: drink alcohol, party, and you’re
• generally promiscuous.
• Then you go to primary school, you become a kid, you play, and
• you have no responsibilities.
• Then you become a baby, and then… you spend your last 9 months
• floating peacefully inspa-like conditions – central heating, room service
• on tap, and then… you finish off as an orgasm.

I rest my case.

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Soarent Vision arguably provides the most advanced and business relevant Master Black Belt training in the world today.

With a unique focus on influence and persuasion concepts, this program integrates perfectly with Soarent Vision’s AQF accredited Lean Six Sigma program for Green Belts and Black Belts, and prepares Master Black Belts to be the most influential and high performance leaders on the planet.

By George Lee Sye

The moment you understand the invisible elements that underpin human behaviour, you position yourself to achieve performance results you never thought possible. Through a greatly effective and more universally accepted change leadership approach, you may never have to use command and control again to experience behaviour change.

Why Change Rarely Sticks

Whether you want to change your weight, change your relationship or change your company’s bottom line … it all comes down to human behaviour.

You have no chance at sustaining improvements or changes in your business environment without first changing the underlying behaviour and thinking patterns of the people involved.

If you don’t address the behaviour and thinking patters that created the existing situation in the first place, a time will come when you relax your regime of ‘change’ and everything will slip back to the way it was; back to the undesirable state.

See … the thinking and behaviour patterns of your people are attuned to the status quo right now.

Take the example of a rubber band.  If you want to change the shape of the rubber band you might pull it and stretch it to a new shape.  You could even hold it extended for a period of time in the shape you desire.  But as soon as you let go it just snaps back into place, back into it’s original state.

Your business is like this rubber band – it has an existing state that people are comfortable with.  You can force these people into a new pattern of behaviour but as soon as you relax your guard (which will happen sooner or later) they will begin to slip back into their old patterns.

It’s not your fault – suffice to say this is the greatest challenge business leaders face today; getting people to alter their behaviour willingly and permanently.

The Common Error in Leadership

The most common error in leadership is to focus on managing people’s actions and use the power of authority to get them to change.

This out-dated ‘Industrial Age’ approach is practiced widely. It is a model that involves managers using authoritarian based command and control methods to coerce staff into greater productivity and higher-level performance.

Granted, this method of leadership does have its place, it absolutely does. However, in today’s social and business environment, if this is the only style employed it will not work!

Without addressing the invisible elements of behaviour you will never successfully create lasting change

When an employee’s source of motivation is compliance or obedience, managers have to remain vigilant and continually monitor behaviour. If they don’t, the desired behaviour will not last.

Imagine your managers having to monitor employee work continually in an already busy environment.

They have less time; more stress; and (in my experience) they also suffer a decline in the quality of their personal life. The change only persists if the managers keep up the monitoring effort.

Today your employees have the power of CHOICE, so authoritarian based models of influence are not without risk. If that is the only style used, your best staff will simply move on to find a more positive working environment where they will be engaged and challenged, not commanded. All you’re left with is the dead wood.

One of the most important things I have learnt in the past three decades of work is this:

All shifts in business results are preceded by a permanent change in behaviour. All permanent behavioural changes are preceded by a step change in thinking … a PARADIGM SHIFT!

This understanding is what has set us apart from the majority of service providers in our industry. We don’t focus our business growth and improvement efforts on KPIs alone or just the technical aspects of behaviour. We positively shift those things that drive behaviour first.

And we do it this way!

The Invisible Elements of Performance

The strength and effectiveness of Soarent Vision lies in our intimate knowledge of the INVISIBLE ELEMENTS OF PERFORMANCE and how they can impact business at all levels.

Let me describe those elements (refer to the diagram above) in this way.

The quality of the RESULT or OUTCOME you experience is determined by the quality of the actions or behaviours you engage in. Undertake the right behaviours and you create the desired outcome; it’s fundamentally as simple as that.

What determines the quality of the ACTIONS or BEHAVIOURS you engage in?

Many people will think the answer is skill. I am here to tell you the quality of your actions and behaviours (within you potential performance range) is determined by the quality of your emotional state … yep, that’s right, determined by how you feel.

What determines whether or not your employee does or does not do something you want? Quite simply it’s determined by how they feel about it. Emotions drive all behaviour; emotional state determines the quality of every single action we engage in within a given range of performance potential.

• To change the potential, you change the skill.
• To change the behaviour, you must alter the emotional state.

Now … the final question. What determines the quality of one’s EMOTIONAL STATE?

I think we all know the answer to this one. The quality of one’s emotional state is determined by the quality of one’s THINKING and BELIEFS.

How does this impact an organisation?

Through understanding how these Invisible Elements of Performance can be shifted, we’ve been able to consistently experience exception results in two areas:

(1) PERFORMANCE GROWTH

Engaging people directly so they willingly shift their thinking and beliefs as a foundation to behaviour change.

We put a tonne of effort into this aspect of performance in our business execution workshops and leader development seminars. In fact each and every seminar we deliver is designed to give people a set of skills and tools, but more importantly to have the right frames of reference and the vital sense of motivation to actually use the skills we teach.

Always remember … the thinking and motivational aspects of a new skill set can never be left unaddressed if you want people to use those skills.

(2) LEADER DEVELOPMENT

Coaching and developing leaders who can utilise the power of influence and persuasion to create permanent change without the stress they are accustomed to.

It takes time to develop influence and persuasion skills to the point where they can be utilised without thinking in any situation, but it is well worth the effort.

Three Scenarios of Change Leadership

I’ve found there are 3 scenarios for which leaders must develop these change leadership skills.

1. Informally influencing others around you to engage in some new behaviour or respond to your requests. This can be at home or at work, and even upwards, downwards and sideways.
2. Leading a change initiative and guiding people through a roadmap of change that involves a specific sequence of steps from planning through to locking the change in.
3. Formally presenting to audiences in order to influence their behaviour and generate some specific response to a request. Audiences can be of any size and both known and unknown to the presenter. This scenario is often a precursor to scenario 2.

These three scenarios drive the three major elements of the leader development program we deliver through our Academy of Business Leadership.

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Soarent Vision arguably provides the most advanced and business relevant Master Black Belt training in the world today.

With a unique focus on influence and persuasion concepts, this program integrates perfectly with Soarent Vision’s AQF accredited Lean Six Sigma program for Green Belts and Black Belts, and prepares Master Black Belts to be the most influential and high performance leaders on the planet.

by George Lee Sye

How would you like to be able to achieve what most business leaders struggle with?

How would you like to be able to lead a change initiative in such a way that key stakeholders rapidly buy into the idea, it rolls out with widespread momentum, and it sticks over time?

Not for a day or a week, but sticks in such a way that you can turn your back and it remains and thrives!

Then read on.

The greatest challenge many business leaders are faced with is simply maintaining momentum for the change.

The reality is that many leaders continue to repeat the same mistakes, even though they desire a different outcome than that experienced by their predecessors.

Consider these carefully before you roll out your next big change.

1. Failing to establish a common understanding of why the change is important across the organisation.

The task of a change leader is to create a compelling reason for people to change. Knowing the reason why any change is necessary must come before knowing how the change will be achieved. When the reason to change is compelling enough, you have leverage over key stakeholders, and the transition to a new state can be accelerated.

2. Failing to establish a unified or commonly shared sense of direction.

Stakeholders do not know what the desired state looks like, the objective is unclear. The task of change leaders is to generate a broad understanding of the desired outcome, what the future looks like. A clear vision of where the organisation is headed, plays a significant part in aligning efforts and inspiring action by large numbers of people.

3. Failing to build a powerful coalition of key stakeholders with credibility and formal authority who can guide the change.

The task of the change leader is to build a powerful coalition of key players to guide the change. Not only must the leader of an organisation be visibly committed to the change, they must commit the right coalition of the key senior people to guide the change. The right combination of key players will help transcend ‘silos’ and ensure a consistent theme permeates the organisation.

4. Communicating the details and case for change in ways that do not motivate stakeholders.

As we know, everyone is different, and there are very few people like ourselves. An effective change leader recognizes this and communicates in ways that ensure that the the motivational strategies for every person are stimulated in some way.

5. Failing to maintain focus on the initiative at the leadership level – lost momentum through shifting focus.

Continuous and highly visible ‘strategic conversation’ at the top and middle management level ensures that everyone knows it is important to the business and helps concentrate focus. Not only should the change be on the informal discussion agenda, it should be on the formal reporting agenda also.

6. Failing to anchor changes firmly in the way the organisation does business – allowing the old way of doing things to continue.

The transformation will only ‘stick’ when the old way of doing things can no longer exist. In essence it becomes ‘the way we do things around here’.

My advice ….. Don’t make the same mistakes if you want your change to be painless for you and to stick over time.

——————————————–

Soarent Vision arguably provides the most advanced and business relevant Master Black Belt training in the world today.

With a unique focus on influence and persuasion concepts, this program integrates perfectly with Soarent Vision’s AQF accredited Lean Six Sigma program for Green Belts and Black Belts, and prepares Master Black Belts to be the most influential and high performance leaders on the planet.

by George Lee Sye (Continued from Part 1)

Sell Dreams, Not Things

What makes Jobs so successful? Well for one thing he doesn’t sell computers. No, he sells the idea of a better world. In 2001 he said of the iPod, “we are going to make the world a better place”.

He believes in his heart that his products are vehicles for enriching peoples lives.

A passion and sense of purpose beyond the product or service you offer will clearly differentiate you from others. No doubt you’d agree that Jobs stands out.

When we decided that we were here for one purpose, that was ‘to enable people around the world to take responsibility for the creation of their own quality of life and financial freedom’, we built ourselves the foundations for being different.

Remember passion and enthusiasm mixed with authenticity will move people. Stand for something beyond your product or service, that will make you remarkable.

Be Consistent With An Obvious Theme

When Steve Jobs opened Macworld 2008, he said “there’s clearly something in the air today”. In doing so he set the theme for the event and hinted at the major announcement which was the release of the ultra thin Macbook Air.

Jobs sets the theme with a single headline statement like “today Apple is going to reinvent the phone”. Once the direction for the event is set, he remains consistent with it.

Be Highly visual

The majority of your audience will primarily process in pictures and images. Pictures stimulate thinking and can be embedded deeply into memory. Jobs knows this so his presentations are pictures and videos, not bullet points.

Used wisely, pictures and videos can help make your presentation simple and uncluttered, and yet highly memorable. As Jobs once said, “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”. The experience is far more memorable when a visual reference is linked to an auditory digital explanation.

When you create your presentation, develop a series of images and support this with a simple understandable dialogue.

Give Numbers Context

One technique effectively used by Jobs is to put big numbers into context and cause people to relate to them. He often uses an analogy.

When he unveiled the iPod in 2001, few people knew what 5 gigabytes of storage meant. He made sense of that number when he said the iPod could hold 1,000 songs, and you could carry those 1,000 songs in your pocket. When he said that, 5 gigabytes suddenly took on meaning for the audience. When he said Apple had sold 4 million iPhones to date, he placed that number in context when he said it equated to 20,000 units sold each and every day.

Do the same when you present numbers or statistics, tell a story or use a metaphor or analogy the audience can relate to.

Use Words That Excite the Audience

Jobs speaks to his audience in plain English and he has fun with the words he uses. He says things such as “amazingly zippy” and the audience responds … they love it!

It is highly unlikely that you will ever hear him saying ‘synergy’ or ‘moving forward’. He rarely uses the normal jargon associated with his industry and business in general. He knows those words create unnecessary complexity and they fail to impress customers.

Keep your language simple, connect with the audience in the way they speak, and avoid making complex that which can be explained in layman terms.

Simplicity impresses.

Hit Them With a ‘Holy Shit’ Moment

Jobs has refined the art of sticking a post it note fairly and squarely in your brain by delivering one emotionally charged event in every presentation he delivers.

When he unveiled the Macbook Air, he simply showed a photo of it in a Manila envelope. The worlds thinnest notebooks was born. During Macworld 2007, Jobs created the drama by stating that today they were introducing three revolutionary devices, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a phone and an Internet communications device. The audience went wild when they realized it was one device … the iPhone!

We create a ‘holy shit’ moment that sticks like glue when we get people to describe a specific thing in one of our self leadership seminars, and then cause them to realise they’ve described their own future.

Okay, how do you bring this all together?

The answer is practice. Amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they cannot get it wrong. Jobs obviously practices … a lot!

It is nothing more than practice that gives you the confidence to do what others don’t do ….. the confidence to describe your product or service in short sharp zippy words, the confidence to use only images in your presentation and talk freely to them, the confidence to sell a dream in a practical way that moves people, the confidence to tell a story that captures the hearts and minds of an audience …. the confidence to inform with simplicity.

Go ahead and be remarkable, listeners give you permission to do that.

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Soarent Vision arguably provides the most advanced and business relevant Master Black Belt training in the world today.

With a unique focus on influence and persuasion concepts, this program integrates perfectly with Soarent Vision’s AQF accredited Lean Six Sigma program for Green Belts and Black Belts, and prepares Master Black Belts to be the most influential and high performance leaders on the planet.

by George Lee Sye

No matter what you might think of Apple products or Steve Jobs himself, there’s no doubt that we can learn much from the way he presents Apple products to the world. Jobs is remarkable, he is the master of creating and delivering a memorable event. In the process of persuading his customers to buy his products, he entertains, informs and educates the audience. Can we learn from Steve Jobs? You bet we can.

In his book, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience, Carmine Gallo reveals a number of principles that every presenter can learn from and apply. My desire with this blog is to share with you the principles that we’ve modeled on Jobs and strive to apply consistently in our own company presentations. Should you also apply these in your own work, there is no doubt in my mind that you will better influence audiences through the way you present your ideas.

Design in Analogue, Present in Digital

While Steve Jobs is a leader in the world of technology, his presentations are planned the old fashioned way … with pen and paper. The delivery has all the trimmings of a major movie production, and just like the movie equivalent, it is planned using storyboards.

You must remember you are actually presenting a story, and it’s your ability to capture people’s attention and imagination that will separate you from other speakers.

Before going digital, clearly identify what your end result or outcome is and then spend time brainstorming, sketching and story boarding a presentation that will capture the hearts and minds of the audience.

Deliver a Social Media Friendly Description

It’s been said to me that If you can’t describe what your product is in one simple statement, you might not really know much about it.

LinkedIn users are aware of the 140 character limit for updating status, as are Twitter users. That philosophy of brevity and compactness can and should be applied to your product and idea descriptions.

Jobs described the Macbook Air as ‘the worlds in thinnest notebook’ He referred to the iPad as ‘a magical product more capable than a smartphone and more intimate than a laptop’. Those sentences speak volumes and any gaps in description are simply filled during the presentation.

We were very careful to apply this concept when we decided to describe our Academy of Business Leadership as ‘innovative education for the modern leader who wants to lead change and get extraordinary business results with ease’. It captures the essence of what the academy achieves and does so in a way that the reader might actually read it.

Do the character test on the way you describe your product or service before you deliver it.

Rally Around a Common Enemy

In 1984 Steve Jobs introduced a villain. Yes, he introduced IBM as the enemy of the audience. The crowd went crazy with the drama presented by Jobs when he said ‘big blue’ [as IBM was known] wanted it all and Apple would be the only company to stand in it’s way. Branding experts agree that all great brands are perceived as heroes that take on a common enemy.

The enemy or villain does not have to be a competitor. It can simply be a problem shared by the audience that’s in need of a solution. In January 2007 Jobs introduced the iPhone as the solution to the many problems being experienced by phone users. In February 2010 he positioned the iPad in the same way. It was the technology that would solve problems being experienced by small PC like device users.

As they say in the military, nothing rallies the troops quite like a common enemy. Take the time to describe the common enemy when you begin your presentation.

Make Their Life Better

Why should you buy an iPhone 3G? Well for one it’s “twice as fast at half the price” says Jobs. What about a time capsule, why would you want one of those? “All of your irreplaceable photos, videos and documents are automatically protected and easy to retrieve if they are ever lost” says Jobs. Checkout the Apple website and you’ll see the top ten reasons why you will love a Mac.

At the end of the day, nobody really cares about your product or service, all they care about is how it will make their lives better. So tell them about how it does that.

Provide Mental Milestones the Audience Can Follow

Steve Jobs takes his audience through a series of steps. He will says such things as ‘the first thing I want to talk about today is the iPhone, ‘the second thing I will talk about now is iTunes’. He provides simple linguistic guideposts that cause the audience to know where they are in the presentation. What’s even more important is he limits the number of points he makes to around three or four.

One of the major errors presenters make is to tell the audience everything they can about their product or service. Do you have to tell them everything? No you don’t, you are going to be far better off if the audience remembers a few key points. They will not remember any more than about four.

If the audience wants more information, do what Jobs does, he simply sends them to the Apple website.

(contd.)

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Soarent Vision arguably provides the most advanced and business relevant Master Black Belt training in the world today.

With a unique focus on influence and persuasion concepts, this program integrates perfectly with Soarent Vision’s AQF accredited Lean Six Sigma program for Green Belts and Black Belts, and prepares Master Black Belts to be the most influential and high performance leaders on the planet.

by George Lee Sye

Here is a hypothetical scenario to consider.

There has been an outbreak of disease that will kill 600 people who live on an island. Two proposals have been put forward.

• Proposal A will result in 200 people being saved
• Proposal B provides a 33 percent chance of saving 600 and a 66 percent chance of killing 600

Which proposal do you choose?

When this scenario was presented by Nobel Lauriette and Princeton University Psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, he observed that 72 percent of those surveyed chose option A.

He presented a second scenario where the two proposals to solve that problem were framed in a different way.

• Proposal C will result in 400 people dying
• Proposal D provides a 33 percent chance 0 will die and a 66 percent chance of 0 people being saved

Which proposal do you choose this time?

Under these circumstances Kahneman observed 78 percent of respondents chose option D.

You may have noticed that proposals A and C are identical, and proposals B and D are also identical, yet when presented differently the proposal chosen by respondents was switched.

People respond to choice according to the way in which is presented!

In this scenario, they respond to choice associated with loss differently than they respond to choice associated gain.

Ways of describing choice may be LOGICALLY EQUIVALENT, but not PSYCHOLOGICALLY EQUIVALENT!

Our greatest challenge as leaders today is this.

To create situations of willing and permanent behaviour change in others. We are continually challenged to present information in such a way that an audience is motivated to willingly behave in a certain way.

Of course you can tell somebody to comply with an instruction, an approach often used in the area of workplace safety compliance. However, the reality is this ….. you cannot tell somebody to be committed. That is something they do for themselves.

In the absence of the ability to get people to willingly participate or engage in behaviour, the only fallback we have is formal authority, something not always available us.

Its been said that leadership is the ability to influence what followers actually WANT to do.

It’s not the act of enforcing compliance using punishment or rewards.

In order to achieve that let us then recognize that the two most important skills of leadership today are going to be these.

1. The ability to elicit an emotional state in another person; and
2. The ability to link that state to a behaviour.

How do you do that ….. that’s the million dollar question.

Let me leave you with this tip.

Framing an idea in terms of loss if the audience does not do it is one of the most powerful ways to get people to say yes to a request to engage in a new behaviour. However, any behaviour driven by pain avoidance will only be temporary. Pleasure must always be linked to the new behaviour for it to last over time.

——————————————–

Soarent Vision arguably provides the most advanced and business relevant Master Black Belt training in the world today.

With a unique focus on influence and persuasion concepts, this program integrates perfectly with Soarent Vision’s AQF accredited Lean Six Sigma program for Green Belts and Black Belts, and prepares Master Black Belts to be the most influential and high performance leaders on the planet.

by Whitespace (AIM)

Neuromarketing: Why it’s a Gamechanger

Marketing communication has long been considered more of an art than a science. Traditionally it’s been based on gut feelings, speculation and a good dose of luck rather than irrefutable proof that a tactic does or does not work. But new developments in the field of neuromarketing look set to challenge the status quo with a more science approach taking a lead role in the marketing communication process. From gender differences to media consumption, messages for teens to point-of-purchase decisions, this month’s Whitespace looks at four key insights being served up by neuromarketing, many of which are challenging marketing communication as most practitioners know it.

Brain waves in action

Put simply, neuromarketing describes the process of using various forms of equipment to study human brain waves, facial codes or biometrics in a bid to understand responses to advertising, online information consumption and point-of-purchase communication.

Where traditional market research concentrates on psychology, neuromarketing is focused in brain processing. And, as a result, the field is offering some big insights, such as revealing that lung cancer prevention ads featuring people smoking encourages viewers grab a cigarette rather than avoid one.

Packaging is another area of interest for neuromarketers. A US food products manufacturer recently used brain-imaging technology to understand that its shiny potato chip packaging triggered activity in the section of the brain that handles guilt while beige matt packaging did not.

Examples like these sit at the top of the proverbial iceberg; the following four neuromarketing trends suggest larger, wider movements in marketing practice.

Insight one: A TV advertising revival

At a time when many companies are moving away from TV, British researchers have used neuromarketing to prove the medium is far from dead. In fact, they claim TV is far more engaging and emotive than online advertising.

But rather than suggesting a one-or-the-other approach, brain-imaging research indicates viewers are 20 per cent more likely to engage with an online advertisement if they have first seen the same ad on TV; a cross-platform approach to message frequency based on scientific rather than anecdotal evidence.

Insight two: Women are open complex messaging

Neuromarketing proves what marketers have always known: men and women think differently. But just how they think differently can be traced to the size of the hippocampus, a section of the brain that’s responsible for memory and emotion.

The New York Times says researchers believe women have a larger hippocampus, which means they are able to absorb more complex messages and are predisposed to respond to imagery or stories they can empathise with.

Insight three: Be optimistic for the oldies, emotional for teens

Differences in how the brain works can also be identified between people of varying ages. Neuromarketing researchers have found people in the over-60s age group tune-out when exposed to negative messages but respond well to positive advertisements.

And there’s no prize for guessing the teen brain has its quirks. Neuroimaging reveals that messages based on reason are less likely to work than emotion-focused communication as the part of the brain responsible for rational thought develops slower than the section responsible for feelings.

Insight four: Emotion rules at the cash register

Advances in brain mapping equipment allow for greater research mobility. As a result, highly portable neuroimaging tools that sit on the heads of willing participants are capable of offering real-time data on in-situ purchasing decisions.

With research indicating the majority of purchases are based on emotional decisions and that half of all buying decisions are made at the register, it may well pay to ensure sales staff and point-of-purchase advertising messaging focus on emotions rather than rational stimuli.

Too much information?

The insights offered by neuromarketing take companies deeper into psyche of consumers than ever before. But how deep is too deep? When does understanding turn into manipulation?

In many ways neuromarketing is simply improving on processes that have come before it. Advertising has always sought to persuade; by adding a little scientific mind reading into the mix neuromarketing isn’t seeking to control or direct thoughts but merely to measure which approaches work and which dont.

Further Reading

The Buying Brain by A. K. Pradeep

Buyology by Martin Lindstrom

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