Freely available? No thanks!
by Ruth Thompson on Apr.05, 2010, under Behaviour, Cause & Effect, Human Nature, Motivation
The scarcity principle boils down to this: we want what we’re afraid we can’t have. Fear of losing out on something can be an extremely powerful motivator. Someone or something that’s not available all the time is desirable.
Availability might be threatened by limited quantity, a time deadline, or by competition. Whatever the reason, the item in question becomes more attractive to us if we think we can’t have it. Whether it’s a potential mate, a used car, or an item on sale, once its availability is threatened we WANT it!
Even more interesting is the second way in which scarcity affects our thinking and ultimately our behaviour.
What colour is that swan?
by Ruth Thompson on Mar.08, 2010, under Business, Cause & Effect, Human Nature
What colour are swans? White? Black? Did you know that before the discovery of Australia everyone believed that all swans were white. How much of your knowledge is based on generalisations?
Learning from experience and observation is useful but not conclusive…drawing conclusions based on this can have severe limitations. One single observation can invalidate a general statement based on decades of research and trillions of observations.
Stop stopping and start starting…
by Ruth Thompson on Mar.03, 2010, under Behaviour, Cause & Effect, Motivation
Procrastinators are made not born. You need to first identify some of your causes of procrastination so you can begin to understand how to overcome it.
Procrastinators can change their behaviour—but doing so consumes a lot of psychic energy.
Knowing why procrastination happens can help us overcome it.
Why put it off until tomorrow?
by Ruth Thompson on Mar.01, 2010, under Behaviour, Cause & Effect, Motivation
Procrastination is not a problem of time management or of planning. Procrastinators are not different in their ability to estimate time, although they are more optimistic than others. “Telling someone who procrastinates to buy a weekly planner is like telling someone with chronic depression to just cheer up,” insists Dr. Ferrari, associate professor of psychology at De Paul University in Chicago.
People procrastinate for different reasons. Below is a brief description of Dr. Ferrari three basic types of procrastinators:
Are you a procrastinator?
by Ruth Thompson on Feb.24, 2010, under Behaviour, Cause & Effect, Motivation
Ever put something off until tomorrow? It is a fact that we tend to put off those things which have a negative emotion attached to them. Perhaps the task at hand is ‘too hard’, will ‘take too long’, is too ‘boring’ or requires ‘too much effort’. Twenty percent of people identify themselves as chronic procrastinators. And it’s a lifestyle.
Procrastinators tell themselves lies, such as, “I’ll feel more like doing this tomorrow.” Or “I work best under pressure.” In reality they do not get the urge the next day. In addition, they protect their sense of self by saying “this isn’t important.”
Read more about how to recognise a procrastinator after the jump…
The Black Dot and Procrastination
by Ruth Thompson on Feb.22, 2010, under Behaviour, Cause & Effect, Motivation
I was recently at a Customer Service workshop and during a conversation on what we expected as customers, action within reasonabletime frames was mentioned. One of the ladies in the group mentioned that she is forever procrastinating. She explained that she’ll read documents or emails any number of times before actually dealing with it or replying.
She reminded me of a suggestion I was once given which helps us measure how mad our procrastination of this type is and motivate us to postpone procrastination and act!
Can we observe an attitude?
by Ruth Thompson on Feb.15, 2010, under Behaviour, Business, Cause & Effect, Uncategorized
What happens when you provide someone with feedback? Do they welcome your comments? Does it depend on who it is you are providing the feedback to? What exactly do you feedback to them…their behaviour? their actions? their attitude?
Many would agree that a person’s attitude has a real and measurable impact on behaviour. Many managers think that it is the employee’s poor attitude that causes them to produce poor quality work or a good attitude makes a person a better worker.
How would you feel if I told you that it is impossible to observe attitude?
I am thinking, therefore I exist.
by Ruth Thompson on Feb.14, 2010, under Human Nature, Motivation, Philosophical
When trying to think of everything that was false Descarte it struck him that the fact that he was thinking proved that he was ’something’. A truth. Those who know a little about philosophy will understand that importance of the ‘truth’ debate. This thought produced the most famous andinfluential philosophical quotes in the history of Western Philosophy. The well known Latin form “Cognito ergo sum” or the traditional English translation “I think, therefore I am”.
Now, why am I talking about this? What on earth has this to do with anything that matters in our practical real life?
Easy to read? Must be easy to do…
by Ruth Thompson on Feb.08, 2010, under Behaviour, Cause & Effect
How much of an effect does the print font we use have on the reader? Does the ease or difficulty of reading text have an impact on our view of the information? How do we process information?
Recent experimental research shows that the print font we use can have a profound effect on our understanding of information. This happens because the print fonts influence how fluently we process the information, even though the font has no actually relationship with the information it is displaying. How much consideration do you give to the font that you use?
Foreman A or Foreman B – You decide…
by Ruth Thompson on Feb.04, 2010, under Behaviour, Business, Cause & Effect
I had a really interesting conversation with a man who is in the building trade the other evening. First of all he reckoned that his line of wouldn’t benefit from my type of skills. After he told me this story, he agreed that people are people no matter what industry they work in and that we actually think the same way.
He said that the way he manages his staff is based on his observations of two foremen that he worked with when he was learning his trade. His story was so simple yet so insightful…that I thought I would tell it again here…and let you decide which foreman you want to be…
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