Posts Tagged ‘behaviour’

Freely available? No thanks!

April 5th, 2010

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?

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Posted in Behaviour, Cause & Effect, Human Nature, Motivation

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Stop stopping and start starting…

March 3rd, 2010

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!

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Posted in Behaviour, Cause & Effect, Motivation

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Why put it off until tomorrow?

March 1st, 2010

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….

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Posted in Behaviour, Cause & Effect, Motivation

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Can we observe an attitude?

February 15th, 2010

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?

To demonstrate what I mean, lets start with the dictionary definition of  ‘observe’.

Ob-serve

  1. to see, watch, perceive, or notice.  “He observed the passerby in the street.”
  2. to regard with attention, esp. so as to see or learn something.  “I want to observe her reaction to the judge’s question.”
  3. to watch, view, or note for a scientific. official, or other special purpose.  ” To observe an eclipse.”

So how do we observe an attitude?  For example, someone enters a room in a raging temper, obviously incredibly upset and fuming about something that has happened.  Did I observe the raging temper?  Some of you might be saying ‘yes’, but what did I actually observe?  I saw the person enter the room, their face was contorted, they had tight closed fists held stiffly at their sides.  They were walking briskly and were mumbling about something I couldn’t quite make out.

I inferred from my observations that they were in a raging temper.  Inference?  Let’s check the definition.

In-fer

  1. to derive by reasoning; conclude or judge from premises or evidence.  ” They inferred form his cool tone of voice”
  2. to guess; speculate; surmise
  3. to hint; imply,suggest

That inference, the conclusion about the meaning of the observations, says as much about me the observer as it does about the person under observation.  I cannot prove that the person was in a fowl temper, I can only use the specific examples of their behaviour that evidence my conclusions.

So what does this mean?  Why is it important to note this differentiation?

Conclusions about attitude or personality are subjective, and people are very easily offended when their attitude or personality is attacked.  Focusing on your conclusion or judgement of the behaviour very rarely results in improved performance.  In fact, it’s one of the best possible ways to achieve ill feeling.

So what do we do?  You think (due to observations of behaviour) that someone has a bad attitude…how are we to let them know (because without feedback we cannot expect an improvement) without including our own perceptions and judgements?

We concentrate on the observable behaviour.  OK, an example.  You think John has a bad attitude and that it’s affecting the quality of his work.  When providing him with feedback, you need to ask yourself which of his behaviours is causing the problems…his lateness and arguing with his colleagues…and let John know about those, don’t mention attitude.

This way, we avoid building barriers to be heard and provide specific information about behaviour that can be improved.  John can concentrate on being on time, which is measurable rather than be offended and wondering what exactly a bad attitude means.

Remember, feedback is supposed to be helpful.  Determine whether what you want to say will help or not by asking yourself, ” Will my comments be specific enough and non-threatening enough to help them improve?”

Distinguish between what you observe and what you infer… This distinction is very important.

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Posted in Behaviour, Business, Cause & Effect, Uncategorized

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I am thinking, therefore I exist.

February 14th, 2010

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??

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Posted in Human Nature, Motivation, Philosophical

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Behaviour maketh the person?

November 30th, 2009

What is your opinion of Daniel O-Donnell?  Like his music?  Find him an appealing songster?

Take a minute to come up with a few adjectives to describe him.

What came to mind?  I speculate that the adjectives were not entirely positive.  Perhaps you used words such as ‘boring’, ‘banal’…perhaps you said he’s only liked by the ‘blue rinse brigade’ and sings ‘old stuff’.  Yet, is this completely fair to him as a person?  To be judged on only a few elements of his persona?  Personally I’m not a fan of his music and find his photo shoots amusing for the simple fact that he has only the one pose but… he makes a special effort for his fans.  He insures that there are rows at the front of his concerts reserved for the disabled, he takes time out of his schedule to meet many of his fans….and has even (upon request) signed a birthday card for my aunt who has Downs Syndrome.  This is all above and beyond the call of duty.  I cannot deny that Daniel O’Donnell has many excellent qualities.

Why am I droning on about Daniel O’Donnell you might ask?  The reason, because he made me think about the way I judge others and question the values on which I rate him.  How many of us presume to know someone based on one small element of their personality?  If someone behaves in an inappropriate manner towards us or others do we jusdge the person on that behaviour?  How would you feel about someone making persumptions about you without understanding the context?

When we are providing feedback to others it is important to concentrate on the behaviour not the person.  It is possible to like the person but not the behaviour.  I’m sure you can think of many examples of this.

How interesting it is to look at people through fresh eyes.  To see someone in a different light.  Take a moment now and think of someone, your colleague, your boss…your partner.  Write down 3 adjectives to describe them.  Now think about their physical characteristics, their hobbies, their interests, their dreams, ambitions…the way they relate to others.  Write down 3 more adjectives.  Refreshing isn’t it?  I wonder how many of us stop seeing the attributes of another because we have already made up our minds about what we think of them as a person.

I might not appreciate Daniel O’Donnell music but I can’t wait to see my aunts face when she opens that card…it’ll make her year…and that it definitely worth appreciating!

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Posted in Behaviour, Human Nature

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