The Behaviour Effect

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.  As opportunities become less available, we lose freedom and boy do we loathe to lose freedoms we already have. Psychologist Jack Brehm has been researching this to explain the human response to diminishing personal control – Reactance Theory.

According to the theory, whenever free choice is limited or threatened, the need to retain our freedoms makes us desire them (as well as the goods and services associated with them) significantly more than previously. So when increasing scarcity – or anything else – interferes with our prior access to some item, we will react against the interference by wanting and trying to possess the item more than before.

Along the same lines as scarcity, telling someone that they can’t have something plays even deeper into their greed. You see this all the time at a shop when a child throws a tantrum over something he can’t have.

So how do we use this interesting piece of information about the human psyche?  The first is when providing bonuses to employees or indeed anyone in order to increase their motivation to behave in a desirable way.   We need to be cautious of making the bonus too frequent or too consistently.  If we do use this technique too often then the receiver may well get used to having it…they might even begin to EXPECT it.  And what if they expect it?  Well, if they expect it, then it is no longer working as a motivator.  In fact, if for some reason the bonus does not come, then it will become a huge de-motivator.   Those who were expecting what did not come will feel aggrieved, hard-done-by and angry.  They will spend significant time moaning about what they have not been given..about what they were ‘due’.  It will not cross their minds that they did not receive it because their results were below target.

Advertising companies use the psychology of scarcity all the time: “Limited supply, limited time offer… only 3 left at this price!” If there aren’t many left, you better get yourself one right now or someone else is going to snap it up and you’ll be jealous! We all know how this one works….certainly I’ve fallen to this selling ploy.

Ever heard yourself say about sending a prospective date a text message…”I’ll leave it a few hours, wouldn’t want them to think I’m too keen”…hmmm? or “I mustn’t tell them I’m free at this notice for the weekend, mustn’t make myself too available.”

So what other ways does this principle persuade us to behave or not behave in certain ways?

How can we use this information to change our results?

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.

For example, procrastination comes when we think a lot about what we need to do and how difficult is, we start thinking of multiple other thinks we can do or have to do before starting the work. Focusing on a limited number of activities at once can improve your completion success rate.

Therefore, just focus on accomplishing your goals.  Anytime you think of something else you should ask yourself “Is this going to help me accomplish my goal now?”  If not then don’t get sidetracked with that thing and continue with your work.  Seems simple, but focus takes practice and this takes proper engaged focus.

Playing to what we know about human beings may aid our avoidance of procrastination.

As human beings we will always do much more to avoid pain than we will do to gain pleasure.  So, how can we make the procrastination more painful than the task?  If we can focus on the negative consequences of not doing a task then the potential pain may actually motivate us to complete the task.

If being more knowledgeable about the origin of your procrastination, increased self-awareness and focusing on limited goals doesn’t work…then you need some more hints on how to tackle procrastination?

1. Make a list of everything you have to do.

2. Write a statement of intention.

3. Set realistic goals.

4. Break it down into specific tasks.

5. Make your task meaningful.

6. Promise yourself a reward.

7. Eliminate tasks you never plan to do. Be honest!

8. Estimate the amount of time you think it will take you to complete a task. Then increase the amount by 100%.

Once you complete one task, keep that as motivation going. Before you know it, you will have overcome the challenge of procrastination!

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:

1. Arousal types, or thrill-seekers, who wait to the last minute for the euphoric rush.
2. Avoiders, who may be avoiding fear of failure or even fear of success, but in either case are very concerned with what others think of them; they would rather have others think they lack effort than ability.
3. Decisional procrastinators, who cannot make a decision.

These types highlight some of the common causes as to why people procrastinate.  Though first we need to ask ourselves if we have properly considered the time required to complete a task successfully.  It is procrastination of time management?

Also, there are so many distractions today, not least the social networking sites, that we can easily get sidetracked in to something that we didn’t intend to do or spend considerable time upon

The most common cause of procrastination stem from three key concerns.

What if I do it wrong?

This is a reasonable concern. When we do things wrong, will it be fixable, expensive? But if this is your fear you have a few choices – you can hire someone else to do it for you, you can learn how to do it or you can let it go. Try to see this objectively – without the guilt about what you should do. What makes the most sense? No more procrastination.

What if I make the wrong decision?

Do you realise that in life there is rarely a right or wrong decision? It’s usually more about what is right for the people involved in the situation. With that in mind, we can learn from it when we make the wrong choice and then try again. What feels like the right choice for you? Again, no more procrastination.

What if I fail?

The fear of failure is one common cause of avoiding doing a task. We think of the different problems and weakness we have and how complex the work is. As we think in our mind the complexity of the project, we start thinking of the different reasons why we can’t accomplish it and the many other things that you need to do it.  What if you do fail? Think it through. What will happen if you fail? Often when we procrastinate, the things we tell ourselves reflect epic failure, huge mistakes and earth shattering damages.  Thankfully, most of the time we are wrong in our imaginings.

The next time you see yourself putting something off, take a moment to determine why. Try to address the fear and you may no longer feel the need to procrastinate.

Procrastinators are made and not born. This is good news as because it’s a learned response, and what’s learned can be unlearned.

So, in the next post – how to overcome procrastination….

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.

The essence of procrastination is very well reflected in this quote by Bernard Meltzer:

“Hard work is often the easy work you did not do at the proper time.”

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.”

Procrastinators actively look for distractions, particularly ones that don’t take a lot of commitment on their part. Checking e-mail is almost perfect for this purpose or reading the news online.

Maybe you tell yourself you perform better under pressure. Or that you have to be in the right mood at the right time. Or you think that you can’t do anything well unless you’re feeling at the top of your form.  Even though you might not feel like doing a work you still need to make efforts to start. No matter in what mood you are, the more involved you get into your work, the less you are going to think in other problems.

There are many ways to avoid success in life, but the most sure-fire just might be procrastination.  Procrastinators sabotage themselves. They put obstacles in their own path.

So, are you a procrastinator? According to Joseph Ferrari, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at De Paul University in Chicago, real procrastinators tell themselves five lies.  Answer these questions honestly and see how you measure up.

• Do you overestimate the time they have left to perform tasks.

• Do you underestimate the time it takes to complete tasks.

• Do you overestimate how motivated they will feel the next day, the next week, the next month — whenever they are putting things off to.

• Do you think that succeeding at a task requires that they feel like doing it.

• Do you believe that working when not in the mood is suboptimal.

How did you score?  Next time…why we do or in fact, ‘don’t', do it?

I was recently at a Customer Service workshop and during a conversation on what we expected as customers,  action within reasonable time 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 them 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!

“Draw a black dot on a document or email each time you handle it”.

Simple.  Easy.  Effective?

Well, it certainly surprised me how many black dots appeared on my documents.  It was a visual demonstration of ineffective working. And its surprising the effect that mild shame will have on motivation

Procrastination can cause us anxiety, sleepless night…or put us in a perpetual state of catching up.  There is even evidence to suggest that it damages our immune system.  So my interest is pricked and I will be developing this topic over the next few posts.  First I will ask whether you are indeed a procrastinator, next we will examine why we procrastinate and then we will look at ways we can avoid it.

The reasons why we procrastinate are pushing for attention inside my head at the moment but considering the importance of time management on this very topic….I need to complete a more urgent task….so watch this space for the next post…

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 and influential 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”.

I was reading about how Descarte came upon this thought when I noticed that the English translation is not in fact how Descarte meant it to be understood.  Being french, he unsurprisingly would have written in french…with the first work that mentions this thought being Discourse on the Method (1637).  The quote – “je pence, donc je suis”, in English “I am thinking, therefore I exist”.

My french is appallingly poor but I read that the quote in french utilises the continuous present tense.  And it is only in this tense that the force of his argument is brought out.

Now, why am I talking about this?  What on earth has this to do with anything that matters in our practical real life?

Descartes was saying that when we are in the process of doing something that we truly exist because in order to do that something, we must ‘be’.   It made me think about how we perceive ourselves and how we describe our behaviour.  To use the tense of the first quote, we have no urgency, no movement…no action.  Whereas in the continuous present tense we are actively progressing towards our goals, involved in life or living in the moment.

It struck me that the latter provides more opportunity for satisfaction and if we concentrated on doing and thinking we would glean benefits.  How many of us when asked what we like to do in our spare time tell others something that we used to do….perhaps still desire to do…maybe even still believe we do….but in actual fact, it’s been a very long time since we did.  Read? Cooked from scratch? Me, I used to paint…and really want to be able to say, ‘In my spare time I am painting a picture’.  I recently bought an easel, some canvas and paints with the intention to become fully absorbed but have not yet gotten around to doing anything.  I could say ” I paint” because I have painted but I cannot say “I am painting” because I have not done so in years and have no half finished painting upstairs… and for the  nit-pickers amongst you…yes I am currently (and in the present tense) writing this post.

How important then is it for us to think in the present tense, the continuous present tense…so we motivate ourselves to be doing things now and in the future.  I wonder what tense we typically use and if it impacts on our accomplishments??

Today is ‘National Sickie Day’, a day in which it is estimated that 350,000 workers will take a sickie.  This will cost businesses more than £30 million in lost business opportunities, reduced productivity and salary/overtime payments.

A survey by Employment Law Advisory Services (ELAS), shows that of the 1,500 bosses interviewed for the nationwide survey,  half said they did not believe staff who complained of being ill.  So why do they phone in sick and feel comfortable claiming illness not to go into work?

It could be any number of reasons and managers need to find out what those reasons are if they are to actually  ‘manage’ their staff.  All too often managers feel that their staff should not take advantage simply because they pay them a wage but there’s much more to it than that.  If you are a manager, when was the last time you pulled a sickie?  Why did you?

Staff pull sickies, not just because they are taking advantage and want an extra day off but also because they are either unhappy in their workplace or something has happened at home that needs dealt with.

We need to be making the most out of our staff, especially now when the economic situation in still on a knife edge and we may well have had to cut costs by cutting the number of people we employ.  If business is to grow again we need to ensure our staff our productive and going the extra mile…not just doing enough or working to rule.

So what do we do to lower the number of staff who pull a sickie?

Employee engagement is vital if we are to make the most of our staff.  Engagement means that staff are committed to your organisation and they are aligned.  In other words, do they care about their work and do they know what their responsibilties are and how they fit with the wider organisation.  So how do we engage our staff?

First of all, in order to understand the behaviour of others you need to understand their motives, needs and desires.  The only way of finding out this information is to ask them, on a regular and consistent basis. Appraisals and regular update meetings can be the perfect opportunity to discover what makes your staff tick.  How many of you are getting the benefits ofappraisal though…and how many of you dread them coming?

Do your staff know what is expected of them?  Have you provided detail about what their responsibilities are and the impact of them not completing their jobs correctly is?  Do they have job description?  Do you keep them informed of company performance?

Are staff trusted?  Think of the last time someone gave you work and then watched over your shoulder as you completed it…feel like they trusted you to do a good job?  Ok so, their capability will affect how much support you give them, but do you consider how capable they are and behave accordingly?

Do you communicate openly and with transparancy?  It’s important to keep everyone in the loop or you will be dealing with gossip and rumour.  Neither helpful and certainly not easy to correct once rife.

What’s the atmosphere like in your teams.  If there are personality clashes or unhealthy competition, this could be a reason staff take a sickie.  Maybe they just can’t deal with the relationships prevalent in the office anymore.

Are you flexible about work hours?  If one of your staff has a burst pipe, would they ring and explain what has happened and know that you understand it needs sorted or would they ring in a sickie because you would insist on them coming into work?

Have you built loyalty in your staff by supporting them, providing them with development opportunities and career progression?  If you haven’t then why would your staff go the extra mile for you?  The last time you went out of your way for someone…why did you do that?  Your staff have the same motivation needs as you.

Finally, the biggest influence on whether your staff will pull a sickie is their relationship with you.  If you care about your staff and build rapport with them, they are more likely to go the extra for you, and less likely to take advantage.

If you are the type to crawl into work no matter what state you are in…why do you do that?  If you have built  engagement into your organisations culture then you won’t be wondering where your staff are today.

What is employee well-being?  What does it actually means for organisations?

We are all aware of how current economic conditions have affected our workplaces.  We also realise that as a result of our changing surroundings…employees and management are behaving differently.  Feeling good about the work we complete has a massive impact on quality and performance.  We know this due to the research that has been completed but more significantly we know this from personal experience.  Ever been unhappy in a role?  Ever felt not appreciated by your peers or manager?  What effect did your emotions have on your work?  Did you give it your best all the time?  I think you get the idea!

So, how in practical times can we use this experience to ensure our own employees do not feel like this and enjoy a healthy environment?  Peter Warr, in his book ‘Psychology at Work’ outlines 9 main groups to examine.

1.  Opportunity for personal control

Do employees have autonomy?  This does not have to be total but could be a small amount for a particular work activity.  How much discretion have employees?  What role do they have in decision making?

2.  Opportunity for skills use

Are employees skills actually being used?  Are they valued for the skills they have?

3.  Externally generated goals

Do employees understand the demands of the job, the task?  Are there measures in place for workloads? What responsibility do they have?  Have targets been set?

4.  Variety

Is there a possible means of varying role?  How repetitive are the tasks completed?  Is there variety of location?

5.  Environmental clarity

Have the consequences of certain behaviours been provided?  Is there job security?  Is there information about the required behaviours and their role within the organisation or team?

6.  Availability of money

Have you benchmarked pay?  What competition is there?  What level of income does pay place employees on?

7.  Physical Security

Have you Health and Safety procedures in place?  Is there good working conditions?  What temperature is the office?  How much noise is present?  Do employees have adequate equipment?

8.  Opportunity for interpersonal contact

How much interaction do employees have each day?  Is there adequate provision for privacy if required?  Do employees have good relationships?  Is there social support?  Good communications?

9.  Valued social position

What status do employees have?  How much emphasis is placed on job importance?  Are the jobs that employees do meaningful?  Do employee have self-respect?

When talking about employee well-being it is important to distinguish between job-related feelings and non-job but there is so much that managers can take into consideration in order to ensure employee satisfaction and well-being.  The associations between employee well-being and performance are incredibly significant.  Enthusiasm, alertness, attention, interest, determination and inspiration are all impacted.  We simply cannot ignore them, we must take note and apply this knowledge to the environment we create for our employees.

In Julius Caesar , when the surpreme commander Caesar moves thrugh the city of Rome, the people throw notes at him, which Caesar’s aides pick up.  This was a way of informing their leader what they needed fixing in the republic.

How often do you provide an opportunity for your employees to talk to you?  To let you know what they are thinking?  Worried about?

In this uncertain times, little is more important than communication.  And here’s the clinker, the bit that makes communication actually work….it must be two-way! It is all to easy to be isolated from your employees, to be so wrapped up in running the business and making strategic decisions that chatting to those at the ‘coal-face’ comes very low on your list of priorities.  Yet, being seen by your employees, being visible is incredibly important.

If you are likley to appear at any time, your employees are likely to make an effort and be productive the majority of the time.  And you are less likely to create a deathly silence when you actually do walk into a room!  So regular visits at varying times are important.

Also, the more regulary your visits, the easier it will be for them to open up to you, share information with you.  Yes, you may have an open door policy, but are employees using it?  It’s a great thing to be promoting but you need to make yourself approachable as well as accessible.  Have you considered that employees may find it very difficult to come to speak to you, to leave the comfort of their work station?  Taking yourself out of your office and allowing yourself to bump into employees can create a more casual opportunity for them to tell you things.  Things they may not have wanted to bother you about previously or wanted to be seen bothering you with.

So, do you want to learn about your business, know what actually happens on the floor….step down from your throne and into the Warehouse…the benefits are insurmountable!

One of the best ways of gaining confidence is to make things happen.  Feeling effective is a huge boost to self-esteem.  Once we have started achieving then we are encouraged to continue.  This I discovered when I wanted to lose weight.  For years I talked about it, moaned about it….paid lip service to the ‘diet’.  Nothing happened.  Sound familiar?    But when I actually lost a few pounds I felt elated, and not eating that chocolate chip cookie (or 10!) was so much easier because I could see and feel the benefit.  I went on to lose over 4 stone in four months.

All very well but how do we ‘get started’?  How do we initiate the motivation?

Psychologists normally agree that there are two types of motivation, ‘Outer’ and ‘Inner’.  ‘Outer’ motivation are the elements that bring us public recognition such as someone else noticing my slimmed down physical appearance.  ‘Inner’ motivation are those needs and drives that proivde us with personal satisfaction such as being able to fit into that pair of jeans.  It is widely accepted that ‘Inner’ is the stronger motivator.  Yet this tells us ‘what’ motivated us…not ‘how’ we motivate ourselves.

Goal setting helps us satisfy our needs and thus are a mechanism to motivation.  Great! But why then, when I had a goal of losing 4 stone did it not work for such a long period of time.  The problem was my goal was too big, not specific enough and didn’t have enough direction.  It was only when I created smaller ‘mini‘ goals that I was ultimately successful.  Having a goal of getting through 1 week without eating those high-calorie snacks was not going to have me drop 4 stone but it was a start.  When I succeeded with that smaller goal, dropped those first few pounds…and I felt effective…I felt good about myself and my ability to continue towards my end goal.  It was those first few pounds that were the hardest.  Getting started was the key to my ultimate success.  A ‘kick start’ so to speak.

If you are having problems getting started, have you thought about what you are actually trying to achieve?  Have you given yourself the opportunity to gain a quick win and thus provide that vital encouragement to continue?

Next time you find yourself procrastinating about getting started, set yourself a smaller goal and reap the benefits!