Communicate what you want… March 26, 2006
Because it’s your fault if you don’t get what you want.
When I was much younger - sometime in primary school, around the age of 12 - I snuck some food into class. I don’t remember what it was, probably a lolly of some form.
I felt pretty good, eating a sweet in class. That was until the teacher saw me and said, “Do you have enough for the whole class?”
I thought for a moment how to answer, but in the end said, “No”.
She then told me to spit it into the bin. I felt pretty bad.
About a week later, I felt pretty good. I brought in a whole bag of lollies. I knew, if the teacher saw the lollies before class, they would be taken away (I had many experiences of my things being taken by teachers, but that’s another story…). I hid the bag in my desk, ready for use.
About halfway through class I popped a lolly into my mouth and began to suck loudly. This time it took the teacher a little while to notice. When she finally did, quite predictably she asked again, “Do you have enough for the whole class?”
Taking my que, I say “yes”, stood and start to hand them out happily. The teacher, much to my surprise, yells at me, takes my bag of lollies and has me sit in the hall for the rest of the class. I sit in the hall wondering what I did wrong. Obviously bringing enough for everyone was not the correct response.
When the teacher came out, she asked if I knew what I did wrong. I had to say no. She explained that it was against the rules to eat in class. I knew enough making the obvious statement of “But last time I had to bring enough for everyone”, or “Why didn’t you say that the first time” would just get me into more trouble.
This was not the only time in my life when I was punished for someone else’s poor communication.
I’ve experienced this happen over and over again. You might have experienced it too. You can tell when comments like these arrive:
Can you identify any more? Have you ever used these statements, and if so, what was the failure in your communication?
In case you have not picked up the thread yet - Failures in communication are the failure of the speaker, not the listener…
Technorati Tags: Business, Persuasion, Psychology
Social conditioning binding March 25, 2006
Steve Paulina has an interesting write-up about how you can get many benefits in your life by expanding your perspective.
You can read it here.
Interestingly, he does not talk about changing your perspective. Usually the most useful and powerful method to help you sell more, get you out of a depressed state, understand someone else’s motives, relieve stress, reduce performance anxiety, learn new skills and much much more.
I’m working on a nice write up of how to actually change your perspective in a useful and effective way. I’ll put a link up here once it’s finished…
Technorati Tags: Brain, Persuasion, Presenting, Psychology, Stress
Where do you sit? March 24, 2006
Seth Godin, once again cuts straight through the crap and exposes the soft underbelly of group thinking…
In this post Seth questions the stupidity of some decisions. Read it, and expand it into your own business. Where have you erected a sign, where you should have moved a chair? What are you doing now, that is difficult, time consuming, or just a chore when could be changed to get the same or better result?
Technorati Tags: Business, Change, Psychology
Are you guilty? March 22, 2006
Coerced confessions research shows some interesting results.
Under the right circumstances a front on video of a confession is twice as likely as a side view to be taken as voluntary. In other words, a change of perception can change your ideas of a situation.
Technorati Tags: Persuasion, Presenting, Psychology
Malcolm Gladwell on how people judge March 20, 2006
A short 5 minute video showing Malcolm Gladwell raising his eyebrows about making decisions.
Video: THE PR MACHINE™ BETA PROJECT (MEDIA 2.0).
I agree with his content. He does need some training in presentation skills however. He uses his eyebrows too much, and confuses his listeners.
If you don’t understand what I’m saying, try this experiment. Have a discussion with someone and to keep the conversation moving forward, ask them a question or two. Then, without actually asking a question or making any verbal noise, just raise your eyebrows and discover what happens…
Technorati Tags: Brain, Business, Psychology, Presenting, Training
Turn performance around… March 18, 2006
Do you know how CEO’s can change the morale of their company, turning around a poor performing company into an outstanding example of Change. On the flip side, do you know how a company that is doing great, can suddenly be hamstrung by plummeting employee morale?
Being able to observe these changes is one thing. Knowing what is causing them is a different. Knowing how to make it happen is another different thing entirely. And can be learnt.
Malcom Gladwell in The Tipping Point gives us a hint or two on how to do this. He discusses the very interesting topic of epidemics and contagiousness. Though he goes on to elaborate:
“If I say that word to you, you think of colds and the flu or perhaps something very dangerous like HIV or Ebola. We have, in our minds, a very specific, biological notion of what contagiousness means. But if there can be epidemics of crime or epidemics of fashion, there must be all kinds of things just as contagious as viruses. Have you ever thought about yawning, for instance? Yawning is a surprisingly powerful act. Just because you read the work ‘yawning’ in the previous two sentences - and the two additions ‘yawns’ in this sentence - a good number of you will probably yawn within the next few minutes. Even as I’m writing this, I’ve yawned twice. If you’re reading this in a public place, and you’ve just yawned, chances are good that a good proportion of everyone who say you yawn is now yawning too, and a good proportion of the people watching the people who watched you yawn are now yawning as well, and on and on, in an ever-widening, yawning circle.”
–Gladwell, Malcom. The Tipping Point. Little, Brown and Company (2000).
Just think of that for a moment. A personal act that has no connection to anyone else can cause a profound change in someone else’s behaviour. That is, however, not the most surprising part. The most surprising is that you can cause someone whom you have never met or seen to yawn. And while making someone else yawn is probably low on the list of useful things to do, the mechanism inherent in that ability can profoundly change how you communicate and persuade.
What would your working life be like if, as a salesman, every time someone looked at your card they felt an urge to dial your number? Or what would your working life be like if, as a CEO, every time your employee talks about your company, they are filled with the same infectious passion you have. What would your life be like if you were able to, intentionally, have your (positive) reputation precede you?
A month or so ago, I started playing around with this idea. Have you ever had a song stick in your head? Of course you have. It might have been a song on the radio, or a TV add jingle but regardless of where it came from you might find yourself humming the tune at different times during the day. Firstly, I played around with how to implant a song into someone’s head. I also wanted to find out if it’s possible for that song to then infect someone else.
I had some success. Not as much as I’d like, but I’m still playing with it. I discovered there are a few rules for doing this:
1. The song or tune has to be known. Thought it is possible to teach the tune.
2. Installation of ‘patient zero’ has to be done at the right time. You need their attention, but not their full attention on the tune.
3. Once ‘patient zero’ is infected, you need to step away. Observing too closely will distract ‘patient zero’ and anyone around.
4. The tune needs to be installed in a specific way. Sing only 1/2 the tune. For example, if I type “Mary had a little lamb”, chances are you finish the sentence.
5. It is possible to inoculate others against transfer.
I played with transferring a tune, but it can be anything as the underlying method is the same. A joke, for example, uses the same method. And in fact, telling the right story makes it much easier to infect others than a singing a tune. Just look at the popularity of myspace and Robbie Williams.
So what does this mean? It means that if done right, your communication can infect the listeners, and they can propagate this message to others. Which can make your life much easier, or much harder, depending on what your infect your listeners with.
Technorati Tags: Brain, Business, Persuasion, Psychology, Change
So what does a CEO actually do? March 17, 2006
According to recent research some interesting aspects to being a C level executive have become apparent. The report discusses the various obvious aspects of being a CEO, developing and implementing corporate strategy for example. Interesting to me is the various communication aspects mentioned. The report details how analysts take into account the ability of a CEO to communicate and motivate employees when valuing a company.
How the analysts know a CEO is able to communicate and motivate employes or not, is not detailed unfortunately. That may seem like a strange question, but how the analysts view a CEO’s performance is going to be different than how the employees view it, and different again to how the shareholders view it. From my experience, it’s a rare company where all three groups share the same view of the CEO. This knowledge could be used to give the CEO another form of feedback to his or her performance and improve the overall business performance.
Technorati Tags: Business, Marketing
Cortext
The content is Cortex, brain food of your brain. An online journal examining the nervous system and behaviour.
Technorati Tags: Psychology, Brain
Authentic relationships? March 15, 2006
Seth Godin has a posted an idea of the difference between authenticity and factory. While I need to think more on this idea, as I think it varies between contexts. Ie, Our theoretical friend, Barry, likes to go to the authentic Japanese restaurant. He likes walking through the hanging cloth at the door, hearing all the staff yell a welcome, and sit in an environment that could easily be in Tokyo. The food is good, though more expensive than the take away sushi place down the road.
After a nice dinner, Barry wanders out of the restaurant, shaking his head at the idiots eating at the sushi place, wondering how they can eat there. He walks to a nearby cafe to get a coffee. He goes here because it is the cheapest take away coffee he can find. It’s bitter, weak and in a styrofoam cup.
Barry likes the authentic style of the restaurant and can’t understand how people would choose the sushi place instead. Yet at the same time, he likes cheap coffee and can’t understand why people are so fanatical about the coffee they drink.
And this brings me to my main point - How does this relate to business customers?
Knowing that your customers want authenticity, how do you grow larger? This question implies that being authentic is being small. Which may or may not be true - I’m unable to think of a large company that handles that authenticity well, but can think of many small companies that do.
And if you are a factory company, producing factory products, how do you begin to approach the ‘authentic market’?
Technorati Tags: Business, Marketing
Starting March 14, 2006
I find this very interesting. Blogging - something I have done for years, though you’ll never read them. Not unless you break into my house, find my stashes of past journals, and decipher the scribbling.
I’m not sure how this will work, most of the time I write in between times - in the train, walking, watching movies, reading books. Few of those times do I have my trusty powerbook fired up and ready to go. Having tried an electronic version, opening it up, and writing usually loses the effect; if not the thought totally. But we shall see, as I will focus on putting the things I read online - blogs, web sites - and the ideas that come from these.
Right now, after spending several hours with del.icio.us, flickr, and many more blogs, my mind is spinning with the potential of social media.
I’ve been a regular blog reader for some time now; Tom Peters, Seth Godin, Micro Persuasion, Mind Hacks and many others. I just didn’t have the time, or inclination, to put up one myself. I used to think that most were just personal diaries complaining about life. Even though I read many business and professional blogs I didn’t attribute them as any different. I still think most blogs are the inner thoughts of emotionally retarted and stupid people, there are a few standouts, however.
My hope and goal is that, when this site goes live, it adds value to your thoughts, your ideas and your life.
older posts »