Some emotional and behavioral drivers and triggers
Priming
Kahneman, in his groundbreaking book entitled “Thinking Fast and Slow”, describes the “marvels” of priming: For example, if you have recently read or heard the word EAT or FOOD, you are more likely to complete the word fragment SO_P as SOUP rather than SOAP. The opposite would be the case if you had read or heard the word WASH. EAT primes SOUP and WASH primes SOAP. We do this unconsciously. Amazing but true! Kahneman notes that it is difficult for many of us to accept that many of our behaviors and emotions can be primed by events of which we are entirely unaware. Of course, savvy marketers are very aware of these factors and effectively “prime” our thinking and buying behavior. Amazingly, in other research studies, “priming” groups of students with the words “forgetful, old age, lonely” and so on made these students walk much more slowly from the interview room than students that were “primed” with more energetic words. Athletes “prime” themselves with energetic and powerful mantras and images.
Change leaders can also utilize this phenomenon by, for example, priming employees as they arrive at work, (and frequently during the day) with words or phrases that energize change-oriented behavior. Words like “Innovate, speed, agility, collaborate” and so on, could be effective “priming” effects. In one technology company I worked with, I noticed that many of the work area and hallway walls were proudly adorned with the examples of technology breakthroughs that they had historically through the decades. While these items were truly amazing examples of legacy breakthroughs, I was convinced that these “old” artifacts primed many employees to be complacent and think “old” versus to be innovative about breakthroughs of the future. This organization fundamentally missed the huge technology advance from older devices to new, smaller mobile devices and have struggled to catch up.
Framing
People react very differently to the same information presented in different ways. Thaler and Sunstein describe research that shows that when a problem or decision is presented in a positive or negative way that implies loss or gain, people will overwhelmingly respond differently, despite the fact that the basic information is the exactly same. In one study, if doctors are told that “ninety of one hundred patients survived” as a result of a certain type of surgery, they are much more likely to recommend surgery than If told that “ten of one hundred died”. Our “System 1” brain responds immediately to this kind of loss or gain information without the more logical and thoughtful consideration of our System 2. Framing occurs because, as Kahneman notes, our System 2 brain tends to be lazy, and most people tend not to think deeply about what we hear or read – we tend to react to information in the moment (especially when under pressure or stressed).
Elliot Aronson (“The Social Animal”) also describes fascinating research examples of our built-in tendency to respond very differently simply based on how a choice is presented (indeed, it can be quite scary when we begin to be more aware of how easily our behaviors and decisions can be swayed). This human tendency can be used for positive benefit in organizational change initiatives by developing communications about the change process that “frames” information in a way that will be interpreted positively by our System 1 brains. For example, in many technology change projects, there is often a lot of information communicated about what IS changing – the response to these changes can very often foster resistance and fear. Leveraging the framing effect, communications could begin by describing what will stay the same. For example, while technology systems are implemented, the business processes behind the systems often remain the same or similar and thus less intimidating to many employees who may find this kind of technology change intimidating.
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