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Why we stick with things too long (Focus on the sunk cost fallacy)

 

I was watching the popular TV series Lego Masters, and something one of the contestants said really got my attention.

Welcome to Focus On, a focus on a specific topic, business or issue for the month.

So what did she say that captured my attention?

“I’m just terrified I have spent this time building something that now won’t be used. I don’t want that to be wasted building time”.

This is the “sunk cost fallacy” - the predicament we find ourselves in...

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Metrics can warp performance

Does labelling a hole par four or five change golfer performance?

I wrote this blog in 2019, and thought it was worth revisiting because many people are in the thick of performance reviews and planning for next year.

Through a quirk of United States Golf Administration's (USGA) decision making, holes at Pebble Beach and Oakmont Country Club have been assessed as par four for some US Open tournaments, and par five in others. 

Same hole, different par.

This created a fascinating...

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The perils of normalising behaviour

 

Social norms are commonly used in business to persuade customers to take action. But too often, they are used incorrectly and end up backfiring.


For my Just Do This members last month, I delved into the mistakes that are easily made when it comes to normalising behaviour and what we should do to get them right.

In this clip I cover:

  • The two norming mistakes, including using statistics in the wrong way
  • How to provoke a reconsideration of the status quo
  • How a letter to Aussie GPs reduced...
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The easy way to journal everyday

 

Lots of people want to keep a daily journal, but don’t know what to write or find it becomes a bit of a hassle.

In this video I’m going to share the format that will make your daily journaling session easy, fun and repeatable.

PLUS, the behavioural science that makes it work.

Let’s get started.

While I use my favourite bit of tech, my reMarkable tablet, pen and paper is perfectly fine.

Simply draw a quadrant, splitting your page into four. In reMarkable, I’m using the...

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Influencing people to give a "crap"

 

Who Gives a Crap is a fast growing, direct-to-consumer social enterprise in the toilet paper business.

For my Just Do This members last month, I did a deep dive into five techniques they use to influence customer behaviour.

So you can sample Just Do This content, I've decided to share this video with you.

In it I cover:

  • Onboarding email messages
  • How they build customer confidence
  • What sender address and subject lines they use
  • How...
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A load of BS

One of my favourite podcasts is A Load of BS, in which Daniel Ross talks with people within and adjacent to behavioural science community.

By adjacent, I mean Monty Python's John Cleese, for example, talking about creativity, and Dr Dimitri Xygalatas on rituals like body piercing and Nazi parades.

He's also interviewed advertising luminaries like Dave Trott and Sir Martin Sorrell, and behavioural science experts like Nir Eyal, Dilip Soman and Nina Mazar.

So I was rapt to be invited onto his...

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Using punishment to change behaviour

 

 

Imagine you have a shop on the high street that is opposite a pub.

When you get to work in the morning the distinctly unpleasant stench of urine is there to greet you and your customers. Yuck!

You decide enough is enough, creating a sign like you spotted in San Francisco.

Here you are using the fear of public shaming to stop people peeing — threatening to post footage to YouTube so the pee-perpetrator will be embarrassed. 

Your neighbour, Jill, is also sick of the pee and...

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Expecting customers to fail

Lifesum is a diet App in Sweden that allows users an occasional “cheat meal” — something like pizza or a burger — without disrupting their progress.

So popular was this product tweak that take-up almost doubled.

That’s what habit specialist Samuel Salzer shared in his talk “The Science Behind Habit-Forming Tech, explaining that designing for “failure states” can improve user and business outcomes. 

From streak to bleak

We know that ...

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Stakeholder Matrix

 

Ever find yourself dealing with a "squeaky wheel"?

You know, that person who soaks up an inordinate amount of your time because they need more attention, more information or more platitudes?

It's easy to get sucked into managing their demands even when doing so doesn't really help you deliver your project or proposal.

For that reason, it's a good idea to map out who your stakeholders are and how significant their support is to your success.


Stakeholder Matrix

In this video I explain a...

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Where use of behavioural economics goes wrong

 

There are three stages of using behavioural economics. In this video behavioural expert Bri Williams explains the one thing successful businesses do differently, how to move through each stage, and what to do at the critical juncture where you'll either succeed or fail.


We talk about different stages of grief and different stages of learning. Well in my experience, there are different stages of behavioural economics, too.

By the end of this video you’ll know the one thing...

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