Mental Models: Value Attribution

WE VALUE THINGS WHEN THEY COST MORE.

How might this apply to great teams and cultures?

Our behavior is a function of our perceptions. More specifically, when we observe others behave in a certain way, we ask ourselves a fundamental question: Why? Why did they fail to meet the deadline? Why did they get the promotion? Why did a manager or mentor help you when you needed it?

The answer we give is the key to understanding our subsequent behavior. If you believe that a mentor helped you because they are a nice person, your action will be different from your response if you think that they helped you because your boss pressured him to.

How might this apply to your business?

“Cost” may be monetary or an investment of time. Is your product or service priced accordingly? What items can you withhold until they are earned—perhaps a new feature or privileges? On pricing pages, offer a range of packages and highlight—or at least offer—a more expensive one than you think most customers would choose.

Consider

A colleague failed to meet a deadline. Do you invest in them and help them finish their work? Do you give them the benefit of the doubt and place the blame on the difficulty of the project? Or do you think that they are irresponsible? Reflect on your responses and understand what they say about your perspective.

See Also

Story, Framing, Anchoring & Adjustment, Limited Access

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In the whirl of our day-to-day interactions, it’s all too easy to forget the nuances that distinguish great teams, great cultures, and great products/services.

Mental Model Flash Cards bring together insights from psychology into an easy reference and brainstorming tool. Each card describes one insight into human behavior and suggests ways to apply this to your teams as well as the design of your products and services.

Mental Models: Trigger

WE NEED SMALL NUDGES PLACED ON OUR REGULAR PATHS TO REMIND AND MOTIVATE US TO TAKE ACTION.

How might this apply to great teams and cultures?

Effective, encouraging nudges need to catch people where they are. There are many triggers for change in organizations:

• Poor performance generally triggers a need for improved revenue or decreased costs

• An acquisition or a merger triggers a need to create synergies and blend organizations

• A change in leadership triggers a need for education and communication

• New agreements, laws or regulations trigger a need to update compliance systems and processes.

How might this apply to your business?

Catching customers where they are might require a tweet, relevant advertising through social media, a link or other distraction; offline triggers may be used as well. Also think about triggers someone can set (SMS alerts, IM reminders) or take with them (a printed sheet) as a reminder to do something.

Consider

What triggers have you experienced today? this week? this month?

See Also

Surprise, Feedback Loops, Sequencing, Shaping, Variable Rewards, Delighters

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In the whirl of our day-to-day interactions, it’s all too easy to forget the nuances that distinguish great teams, great cultures, and great products/services.

Mental Model Flash Cards bring together insights from psychology into an easy reference and brainstorming tool. Each card describes one insight into human behavior and suggests ways to apply this to your teams as well as the design of your products and services.

Mental Models: Peak End Rule

WE JUDGE OUR PAST EXPERIENCES ALMOST ENTIRELY BY THEIR PEAKS (PLEASANT OR UNPLEASANT) AND HOW THEY ENDED.

How might this apply to great teams and cultures?

What are the peaks and endings in the employee experience in the organization you have designed? Peaks may be on boarding, promotions, personal development experiences over the course of their time in the organization. Endpoints or pause-points like termination, sabbaticals, or time off can also be anchoring experiences. Identify and improve these.

How might this apply to your business?

What are the peaks and endings in the customer experience of the product or service you have designed? Peaks may be the core value you provide or a small surprise thrown into the user journey. Endpoints can be obvious (order fulfillment from an e-commerce site) or more subtle (such as a friendly or funny registration confirmation page). Identify and improve these.

Consider

How have Peaks and Ends served as valuable learning opportunities?

See Also

Humor Effect, Surprise, Story, Gifting

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In the whirl of our day-to-day interactions, it’s all too easy to forget the nuances that distinguish great teams, great cultures, and great products/services.

Mental Model Flash Cards bring together insights from psychology into an easy reference and brainstorming tool. Each card describes one insight into human behavior and suggests ways to apply this to your teams as well as the design of your products and services.

Mental Models: Achievements

WE ARE MORE LIKELY TO ENGAGE IN ACTIVITIES IN WHICH MEANINGFUL ACHIEVEMENTS ARE RECOGNIZED.

How might this apply to great teams and cultures?

Achieving something of personal or social significance is gratifying and even motivating, but more so when recognized in some way. Achievement is signaled by things like promotion, membership, privileges, and acquisitions.

How might this apply to great products?

In gaming environments, achievement is shown through points, badges, levels and other kinds of recognition.What challenges — tied to desired behaviors — do you have in place and what are the associated achievements?

Consider

What challenges — tied to desired behaviors — do you have in place and what are the associated achievements?

See Also

Appropriate Challenges, Feedback Loops, Competition, Reputation, Status, Story

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In the whirl of our day-to-day interactions, it’s all too easy to forget the nuances that distinguish great teams, great cultures, and great products/services.

Mental Model Flash Cards bring together insights from psychology into an easy reference and brainstorming tool. Each card describes one insight into human behavior and suggests ways to apply this to your teams as well as the design of your products and services.

Mental Models: Serial Position Effect

WE HAVE MUCH BETTER RECALL OF THE FIRST AND LAST ITEMS WITHIN A LIST.

How might this apply to great teams and cultures?

Ever had a manager that made decisions based on the last meeting they had? We need to make data-driven decisions, but common cognitive biases can skew how the information is interpreted. Letting the numbers speak for themselves is an alluring aspect of analytics, but the reality is that human bias can creep into the process if practitioners aren't vigilant.

How might this apply to your business?

E-commerce websites position products on a product page carefully as well, showing the products that they would most like to sell near the beginning. In online marketing, links presented at the top of email newsletters or on a search engine results page receive many more clicks.

Similarly, links at the beginning and end of a navigation menu on a website will also receive more clicks. Off-line marketing also employs the same principles: Restaurant menus are carefully designed with the serial position effect in mind, and when watching television, consumers are more likely to remember the first and last commercials seen during a commercial break.

Consider

This doesn't just happen with business strategy, e-commerce, or marketing metrics. Think of the impact of giving performance reviews, for example. Do people really remember ALL the data they heard or the first or last thing they were told?

See Also

Peak-End Rule, Chunking

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In the whirl of our day-to-day interactions, it’s all too easy to forget the nuances that distinguish great teams, great cultures, and great products/services.

Mental Model Flash Cards bring together insights from psychology into an easy reference and brainstorming tool. Each card describes one insight into human behavior and suggests ways to apply this to your teams as well as the design of your products and services.

Mental Models: Familiarity Bias

WE TEND TO DEVELOP A PREFERENCE A PREFERENCE FOR THINGS OR APPROACHES MERELY BECAUSE WE ARE FAMILIAR WITH THEM.

How might this apply to great teams and cultures?

This is familiar to almost everyone who has ever argued technology, politics or religion. We tend to accept only new information that supports our old ideas. This is just as likely -- and even more dangerous -- in the realm of analytics, where outcomes can influence decisions at the highest levels. The entire point of analytics as a strategic tool is to push beyond old ideas into more effective choices and policy: why poison the waters?

How we react to other people’s behavior would depend on the type of attributions we make, which depend on what data we collect and our relationship to that data. For instance, if we are predisposed to thinking a particular opportunity will not work in our organization, someone looking to work on that opportunity will not change our minds. Or, when faced with poor performance, such as missing a deadline, we are more likely to punish the person if an internal attribution is made (such as “the person being unreliable”). In the same situation, if we make an external attribution (such as “the timeline was unreasonable”), instead of punishing the person we might extend the deadline or assign more help to the person. If we feel that someone’s failure is due to external causes, we may feel empathy toward the person and even offer help (LePine & Van Dyne, 2001). On the other hand, if someone succeeds and we make an internal attribution (he worked hard), we are more likely to reward the person, whereas an external attribution (the project was easy) is less likely to yield rewards for the person in question. Therefore, understanding attributions is important to predicting subsequent behavior.

How might this apply to your business?

If introducing a radically new project, use characteristics of something already familiar to people. For example, use visual aspects similar to other popular services or the likeness of a familiar physical environment. You can establish formal partnerships with already familiar brands to help make your new idea seem safer.

Consider

What sense do you make of being on both sides of this issue? How will you mitigate that going forward?

See Also

Framing, Priming, Conceptual Metaphor, Status Quo Bias, Affect Heuristic

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In the whirl of our day-to-day interactions, it’s all too easy to forget the nuances that distinguish great teams, great cultures, and great products/services.

Mental Model Flash Cards bring together insights from psychology into an easy reference and brainstorming tool. Each card describes one insight into human behavior and suggests ways to apply this to your teams as well as the design of your products and services.

Mental Models: Status Quo Bias

WE TEND NOT TO CHANGE AN ESTABLISHED BEHAVIOR (UNLESS THE INCENTIVE TO CHANGE IS COMPELLING).

How might this apply to great teams and cultures?

People are inclined to keep things as they are. We go with the flow to build trust and create subtle shifts. With status quo, there is a lack of tension, a feeling of comfort. It is about fairness, balance and 'rightness'. We like and trust people who we believe are like us and who like us. When we trust them, we are then more easily persuaded by their recommendations. We are also more persuaded when they do not knock our arguments.

How might this apply to your business?

People adopt what is recommended by people (and brands) they trust—simply stating the most popular options is often enough to influence decision—and people tend to stick with that choice.

Consider

Have you thought through the default options in your app? the service you provide? the product you've built? If you’re asking people to switch, consider how you might represent sticking with the status quo as a loss (and pitch the new system as an “alternative” rather than a replacement).Rather than argue (against the opposing view or the competition), how can you agree in a way that does not compromise what you want them to think or the choice you want them to make? Rather than fighting their arguments, include them in your case.

See Also

Loss Aversion, Ownership Bias, Familiarity Bias, Story, Framing

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In the whirl of our day-to-day interactions, it’s all too easy to forget the nuances that distinguish great teams, great cultures, and great products/services.

Mental Model Flash Cards bring together insights from psychology into an easy reference and brainstorming tool. Each card describes one insight into human behavior and suggests ways to apply this to your teams as well as the design of your products and services.

Mental Models: Humor Effect

HUMOROUS ITEMS ARE MORE EASILY REMEMBERED—AND ENJOYED!

How might this apply to great teams and cultures?

The basic principle of humor is that it is unexpected in some way. In learning contexts, use humor to:

• Ease new knowledge acquisition and retention

• Reduce hostility

• Deflect criticism

• Relieve tension

• Improve morale

• Help communicate difficult messages

How might this apply to your business?

Humor can be a useful tool in the sales person's toolbox, but it must be used with care. When people are relaxed, they trust more and will hence share more personal information, accept 'facts' from others and generally be willing to buy. Humor is a way of relaxing people and can easily put them in a good mood.

Some companies build humor into their entire brand. Delta, SouthWest Airlines, and Virgin are examples of organizations that incorporate humor into their brand. These companies can legitimately make fun of themselves, though they are yet deadly serious about delivering excellent customer experience.

Almost any online test is an opportunity to add humor. But don’t stop there: think about interactions and how they can be made humorous. Just as humor is injected into a conversation, we can easily add humor to hover actions, button clicks, three-step processes and other user actions.

Consider

Humor is a surprisingly useful and subtle way of persuading. How do you incorporate the element of surprise or humor to spark interest in what you are doing?

See Also

Affect Heuristic, Peak-End Rule, Surprise, Delighters

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In the whirl of our day-to-day interactions, it’s all too easy to forget the nuances that distinguish great teams, great cultures, and great products/services.

Mental Model Flash Cards bring together insights from psychology into an easy reference and brainstorming tool. Each card describes one insight into human behavior and suggests ways to apply this to your teams as well as the design of your products and services.