Sometimes small changes in the way things are organised can have profound effects and that’s the premise for this book that offers readers 52 examples of areas in which they can affect change in business, many of which cost little or nothing to implement.
Goldstein and Cialdini have academic psychology backgrounds while Martin runs a firm called Influence at Work which applies behavioural science to business and public sector challenges. Their ideas appear eminently sensible and simple when thought about but are so often neglected in practice.
As they note, the 52 lessons differ in some way from each other in areas such as the psychological mechanism that drives them or the contexts and situations where they can be most successfully employed, they share an important similarity. When used responsibly and in the right context, each can afford the communicator a significant advantage when attempting to influence others.
Many of the ideas appear obvious but are often overlooked. When it comes to influencing the behaviour of others, often the smallest changes in approach yield the biggest results.
Take the case of “no shows” at hospital appointments, for example. In the UK, this is estimated to cost the NHS about £800 million a year. In a recent pilot, the authors implemented two small changes for the NHS that resulted in significant reductions. First, at the time of making the appointment, hospital staff asked patients to repeat back the time of the appointment and confirm that this was okay. This resulted in a 3 per cent drop in no-shows. However, when patients were asked to write down the time themselves on an appointment card, the “no show” rate fell by an impressive 18 per cent.
Moving people from passive to active modes can be applied in many places. After meetings, for example, those sending memos summarising actions should invite a “yes” or “no” response from other parties in terms of mutual understanding.
Asking for specific commitments also works better than general ones. Another study in a Californian hotel showed that those guests who were asked and agreed to recycle their towels carried this behaviour into other environmentally friendly activities such as turning off the lights. They ranked much higher in this behaviour than guests who just agreed more generally to be environmentally friendly during their stay.
Another equally impressive small step has reaped huge benefit for the UK’s revenue and customs authority, HMRC. For many years, HMRC had tried a variety of tactics to persuade tax payers to pay and file on time. Then, in 2009, it added one sentence to letters to late-payers informing them of the large number of people who actually paid their taxes on time. This practice – combined admittedly with a number of other best practices from the private collections industry – resulted in the collection of £5.6 billion more overdue revenue than the previous year.
Social proof or the evidence of the crowd is the key here. In other words, people’s behaviour is largely shaped by the behaviour of people around them, especially those with whom they closely identify.
The book is rich in examples. This is a clever, well-worked volume from which readers should find at least a few useful take-away ideas.
