Try It, You Might Like It

I have had the same telephone company for years. Now there was a time when this was the only telephone company around, but now there are others vying for my business. They routinely call me up and try to get me to switch to their services. I am sure their services are excellent, but I just don’t bother to listen through the promotional information.
So, why do I stay with this one telephone company; simple, it is the one I have always used.

So I wondered why and how human beings ever get around to making change. In the book Mind Hacks, there is a very good understandable scientific explanation of what it takes to get someone to change. This section talks about a study done on university students.

Half of the students were given mugs with the university emblem on it. The other half didn’t have mugs and when they were offered a mug to buy, they only wanted to pay $2 for the mug. But the group that already owned the mugs didn’t want to give them up and didn’t want to take less than $5 for their mug. Now this is interesting in that the mugs were only worth $6. The second batch of students placed a higher value on the mugs perhaps because they already owned one. So what does all this have to do with making change?

You can spell out all the amazing things the change will do for a person once they make the change, or you can just get people to try it. Once they try it, they will, it seems, be more likely to make the change for longer.

So what would it take for a phone company to get someone like me to change service? Hmmm. I guess they would have to let me try something for free for a while with no hassle to me.

In the same vein, I worked for a time overseas as a food demonstrator in a large grocery store. We have all seen these folks, giving out their tidbits to weary customers. What I know from having done this job is that just getting a sample of the food makes a lot of people pick up that salami, or bag or chips, or cake. According to the idea in Mind Hacks these people, once they have tried that particular product, are more likely to make the change to picking it up again and again.

This makes me think about how we as trainers can encourage people to change. How about we let them step into the shoes of how we want the change to look or feel. I am thinking if we want people to create harmonious teamwork, how about we let them work in a harmonious team for a while. Maybe we have to send them to Sweden or something for a month with Ingar’s harmonious team, but it might work.

Or if we want to our children to enjoy a simpler life, we get them to try it for a while to see how it fits.

I remember years ago there was a program that brought children brought up in war-torn parts of Ireland to countries like Canada for a short break. I believe the thinking behind the program was to let the children live in a different, more peaceful atmosphere for a change. I wonder the experience left a positive mark on the children.

So according to Mind Hacks “People don’t like change. If you really want people to try something new, your should just coerce them into giving it a go and chuck the idea of persuading them first off.”