Promoting Value is Exactly Why No One Is Listening
We live in a world of innovation. Every day something new is created. So why is it then that so many great ideas die?
Sell the features. Sell the benefits. Sell the value. The right way to sell is to show how good your service, product or idea is.
Wrong.
Those things are necessary, but they are not what is essential for new ideas or innovation to catch on.
Changing The Frame
I have spent the majority of my career making things better. Continuous improvement, network design, process re-engineering — it has many different labels.
It’s all the same.
Make changes to what is being done to generate better results.
The single biggest key to my success in implementing new ideas?
Lower the barrier for entry.
We like to believe we are organic computers. Rational to the end. That given the right information and the correct inputs, people will produce the best output.
To get someone to actually change, give up on that idea immediately. In the words of Dan Ariely, humans are predictably irrational.
To succeed with a new idea or implementing radical change, you have to address the resistance people have, in addition to the positive benefits the change brings.
Status Quo
As much as it’s not for me, the majority of us love it. It’s not so much that we think that what we are currently doing is the “best” way to do something, rather that we know it works.
We favour the psychological safety of certainty. Humans at our core are naturally risk averse. Millions of years of harsh evolution has taught us to avoid risk and to play the long game based on what we know to be safe.
Status quo is comfortable because you know how something works, you understanding how it does (or doesn’t) impact you and you know with a high degree of certainty from your past experience what the results will be.
Work
New ideas carry with them the unknown. Since we aren’t sure exactly what will be required when we change to something new, not knowing the impact it will have on us creates a sense of discomfort.
In a broader context (implementing a new system at work for example), there is also the acknowledgment of the work or effort that will be required. Not only by an individual, but by different departments or teams.
The higher the perceived work effort, the more resistant people tend to be.
Even when they agree with the benefits, they cannot get away from the challenges the know they will face.
How It Makes Them Feel
I work in operations. In these environments you get a wide range of capabilities as you move through the organization.
People get used to what they do. They develop a mastery and that provides them with their sense of belonging and place within the organization.
Change can make people experience negative emotions. It can leave them feeling anxious, lose confidence, doubt the position they have established for themselves over the years.
Typically this will manifest as someone who hasn’t bought in or appears disengaged.
Reactance
This one has been getting more attention in literature lately. Reactance its simplest form is this — people don’t like being told what to do.
This forces people to perceive new opportunities as a threat versus the benefit we intend.
When someone feels pushed into or towards something, they will often push back equally hard. What’s more interesting is that even in the face of information contrary to their beliefs, reactance will force someone to dig in versus yield.
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