Strategy. Innovation. Brand.
Gaming the Tripwire
We need to make a decision.
When you make a decision, you create a certain amount of inertia. Let’s say your company decides to pursue Option X. Just by making the decision, you’ve created a vested interest group – people who benefit from continued investment in Option X. They will lobby for Option X even if turns out to be a bad decision. They may also lobby against review processes that could reverse the decision.
To ensure that you review decisions adequately, Chip and Dan Heath recommend the use of tripwires. The tripwire sets conditions that require you to review your decision.
David Lee Roth, lead singer of Van Halen, used a particularly ingenious tripwire to determine if a venue had fulfilled its contractual obligations. As the Heaths point out, Van Halen’s “production design was astonishingly complex.” Lots of things could go wrong and, if they did, band members might be injured. Given the complexity, how could the band quickly tell if all the contractual obligations had been fulfilled?
Roth came up with a simple solution: in the midst of a complicated contract, Roth inserted a demand: a large bowl of M&Ms would be on hand with all the brown M&Ms removed. This was Van Halen’s tripwire. If the bowl of M&Ms was properly prepared, the band knew that the local managers had read the contract closely and had (most likely) done everything right. On the other hand, if a brown M&M appeared … well, it was time to throw a fit and double check everything. A brown M&M indicated that a critical decision needed to be made – should the show go on?
Tripwires are good ideas but they can be gamed. At my college, for instance, all male students had to take two years of military science (ROTC). We marched around in uniforms and learned the proper care and feeding of an M1 rifle.
Every month, officers from the local base inspected us. They paid particular attention to the cleanliness of our rifles. There was one part of the rifle – just below the barrel – that was especially hard to clean. We noticed that the officers always focused on that part of the rifle. If it was clean, they assumed that the rest of the rifle was also clean; there was no need to look further. It was a tripwire.
As soon as we cadets realized this, we cleaned only that part of the rifle. In fact, we had contests to see how dirty we could make the rest of the rifle without being found out. We learned that we could pass inspection with filthy rifles as long as that one small section was clean. We delighted in fooling our officers.
Tripwires are great ideas. They remind you that all decisions are temporary and need to be reviewed from time to time. They set conditions that trigger such reviews. But they’re not foolproof. If the people who support the decision figure out the tripwire, they may well try to game it. It’s up to you to figure out how the game works.
Seeing Without Seeing
I never saw him!
A few days ago, Suellen put some freshly laundered sheets at the base of the stairs. Whoever went upstairs next should take the sheets and put them away in the linen closet. Don’t climb the stairs just to take the sheets up, but the next person to go upstairs should take the sheets with them. Simple, no?
I was the next one to go upstairs. But I wasn’t thinking about sheets. Rather, I was thinking about getting the checkbook from the office (also upstairs) and going to the bank to move some money from savings to checking so I could pay bills on the first of the month. Sheets were unexpected.
Thinking about monthly bills, checkbooks, accounts, etc. fully occupied my attention. I completely missed the sheets. I’m sure that I looked right at them. In fact, I probably had to step over them. But, did I see them? Well… yes and no. My eyes saw them but my brain didn’t. In the lingo of brain scientists, I was inattentionally blind.
It happens all the time. We’re thinking about one thing while doing another. We pay attention to what we’re thinking about. We may “see” something in our visual field – we may look right at it – and not register it. In effect, we’re blind because our attention is elsewhere and we didn’t expect to see sheets (or unicorns or anything out of the ordinary).
I’m sure that this is how a lot of accidents happen. I’ve heard people say, “I never saw him” or “It came out of nowhere.” In general, our brain can function quite well on autopilot. It’s how we drive 30 miles without remembering any of it. Driving is simple enough that the autopilot portion takes over and leaves our attention free to wander. It’s just fine. Until it’s not.
So here’s a tip: set a little “attentional” alarm in your brain. When the alarm goes off, ask yourself, “What am I paying attention to?” and “What am I missing?” Then look around to see what’s really going on in your visual field. You’ll be surprised.
As I came back down the stairs with the checkbook in hand, I noticed the sheets. I realized immediately what had happened. I had been inattentionally blind. I also knew that Suellen might be suspicious of this excuse. Bottom line: I picked up the sheets, took them back upstairs, and put them away. Problem solved.
A Cursive Hire
I can explain…
Some years ago, I needed to hire a director for our corporate communications organization. This was before Linked In and Monster.com, so we advertised in various media and collected several hundred resumés. Then we tried to read them all. Our brains turned to jelly.
However, one resumé stood out – it was handwritten. Not just the cover letter; the entire multi-page resumé was written in an elegant and self-confident cursive script. Additionally, it was customized, pointing out in various places how the applicant’s experience would help him succeed in our company.
Compared to the hundreds of photocopied, machine-produced resumés, the handwritten resumé told us that the applicant was seriously interested in our position. He had obviously taken some time to study our needs and prepare a thoughtful application. Indeed, he had obviously taken some time just to prepare the physical document.
We decided that we needed to meet and interview the person (as well as several others, of course). The interview went well and we wound up hiring him.
I always tell job applicants that they need to stand out. Making your resumé look different certainly does the trick. In today’s digital age, resumés almost all look the same. Do something different. That may mean handwriting your resumé, (or just the cover letter), making your resumé longer or shorter than others, submitting a video resumé, or just doing something different … like showing up to press your case in person. In the meantime, practice your penmanship.
Culture – Virtue and Truth
Does virtue come from truth? Or does truth come from virtue? It’s an ancient question and one that helps define the differences between cultures.
According to the father-son team of Gert Hofstede and Geert Jan Hofstede, these questions help determine whether a culture is long-term or short-term oriented (LTO or STO). LTO cultures foster “… virtues oriented toward future rewards — in particular, perseverance and thrift.” STO cultures, on the other hand, foster, “…virtues related to the past and present — in particular, respect for tradition, preservation of ‘face’, and fulfilling social obligations.”
Cultures that rank high on the LTO index tend to be eastern. Countries with the highest LTO indexes are: China (LTOI = 118), Hong Kong (96), Taiwan (87), Japan (80), Viet Nam (80), and South Korea (75). Cultures that rank lower tend to have a European heritage: Sweden (33), Germany (31), New Zealand (30), United States (29), Great Britain (25), Canada (23), and Spain (19).
According to the Hofstedes, a short –term culture emphasizes quick results, spending (as opposed to saving), respect for traditions, and concern with preserving social status and ‘face’. Longer-term cultures emphasize sustained efforts, thriftiness, respect for current circumstances (as opposed to tradition), and concern with personal adaptiveness (as opposed to status).
How does all this play out? Students in LTO cultures tend to link success to effort. In STO cultures, students may attribute success to many factors, including luck, social status, appearance, or “who you know”.
The differences crop up in myriad other ways as well. Marriage is a moral arrangement in an STO culture but more of a pragmatic solution in an LTO culture. Gifts for children tend to be playful in STO cultures but educational in LTO cultures. Old age is viewed as an unhappy period in STO cultures but the opposite in LTO cultures.
The extended family is typically more important in LTO cultures. In long-term societies, you’re born into a family and tradition and you adapt to situations that were created long before you arrived. Society imposes itself on you. Short-term cultures, on the other hand, tend to value the “self-made man” who can impose himself on society.
These differences affect organizations in various ways. STO businesses tend to focus on the bottom line and this year’s profits. LTO businesses focus more on market position and profits over the coming decade. Managers and workers are in two different camps in STO cultures; they share similar aspirations in LTO cultures.
But what about virtue and truth? The differences tend to follow an East/West (or, more generally an LTO/STO) divide.
Western religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) all have a Book disseminating a truth that individuals can apprehend. What you believe is important. Virtue comes from truth.
Eastern religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Taosim) are not based on a Book containing eternal truth. Rather, they focus on living virtuously, which may include meditation, ritual, and self-abnegation. What you do is important. Living virtuously can lead you to spiritual awareness. Truth comes from virtue.
Where virtue comes from truth, enlightenment can happen instantaneously. Think of Saul on the road to Damascus. Where truth comes from virtue, enlightenment may take considerably longer.
Cursed Without Cursive?
When preparing a speech, I encourage my clients to hand write their notes and scripts. There’s something about handwriting that helps you connect with your thoughts and themes. The technique is especially helpful when preparing slides for a speech. Rather than sitting down at a keyboard, start with a set of yellow sticky notes. Then write down your thoughts — one per page — and arrange the notes on a wall. You’ll think more clearly and connect thoughts more effectively. You’ll also create better slides, with less text and more flow.
I never knew quite why handwriting worked so effectively. I just knew that it did. Then I stumbled across an article by William Klemm in Psychology Today about the importance of writing in cursive (as illustrated above). Klemm argues that learning to write cursive makes kids smarter. When learning cursive, “…the brain develops functional specialization that integrates both sensation, movement control, and thinking. Brain imaging studies reveal that multiple areas of the brain become co-activated during learning of cursive writing of pseudo-letters, as opposed to typing or just visual practice.” It also improves fine motor skills and gets kids to learn to pay attention more effectively.
Similarly, Susanne Baruch Asherson, writing in the New York Times, argues that “Cursive handwriting stimulates brain synapses and synchronicity between the left and right hemispheres, something absent from printing and typing.” Iris Hatfield, writing in New American Cursive, says there are ten reasons to learn cursive. Among them: increased speed, better fine motor skills, better self discipline, and improved self-confidence.
These articles are about teaching cursive to children. Do these benefits apply to adults? I encourage my clients to write drafts of their speeches (or press releases or white papers, etc.) by hand. I think most of them don’t take my advice — it just seems antiquated. But those that do, report positive results. Their communications are simpler and clearer. I also encourage my students to write drafts of their essays by hand. Again, most of them don’t take my advice. But I can generally guess which ones do. They turn in better papers.
So think about your communications. It’s a complex world and communicating effectively is a fundamental competitive advantage. Give cursive a chance. You may just find that you win more business.
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