Tag psychology

Why Short-Term Promotions Matter

It’s been over a month since I posted. I wanted to focus on my family and my work to be sure I was doing everything possible to support those two critical aspects of my life. Posting here doesn’t change my… Continue Reading →

OMG – Best.News.Letter.Ever!

I’ve mentioned Bri Williams before. She runs a consultancy in Australia and has a wonderful newsletter that I devour and save ever time it hits my inbox. I won’t lie… I steal a lot of ideas from her. But as… Continue Reading →

When You Think You’ve Got a Leg Up You Show Up

A great influence and incentive tool that is rarely used is something called “idiosyncratic fit.” For those of you in Rio Linda that means the rules of the game favor my specific situation and skill set. Idiosyncratic means peculiar or… Continue Reading →

Motivating Change May Be Seen as a Risk

Incentive programs are designed to get people to do something. Sell more. Call more. Research more. Fill out paperwork more. But I think humans may be hard-wired to not change.  I think humans look at inaction more favorably than action…. Continue Reading →

Ask for the Commitment – Drive More Success

Commitment is a powerful influencer. When you ask someone for a commitment, and they agree to it, that person is much much more likely to follow through and do what they said they would do. Not 100% of the time…. Continue Reading →

Start with a Loss

Many channel incentive programs require some sort of “enrollment” process. Almost every person in the program will have to agree to a privacy policy and program terms and conditions before they can play in the program. That’s friction many clients… Continue Reading →

Is That REALLY the Issue?

I love the “really” test. It’s simple. It’s funny. And it almost always gets to the real issue. The process is simple. Once someone says… “The problem is [fill in the blank].” Your respond with “Really?”, while giving that “really”… Continue Reading →

80% of Good Incentive Designers Know Social Proof Can Backfire

I spent an hour with a friend and behavioral science/behavioral investor author yesterday recording a podcast. I’ll alert you when/if it goes live. We talked about a lot of things – one of which was using social proof as a… Continue Reading →

A Thousand Ways to do Something That Will Never Work 100% of the Time

Motivation has been studied, prodded, poked and dissected since cavepeople were painting on walls. And all that effort has led to multiple theories of why people do what they do. I believe each has a modicum of value and insight… Continue Reading →

The Most Underutilized Tool in the Incentive Program Toolkit

Guess. What is the one tool that is almost free, has a huge impact on individual performance, yet is rarely used correctly or often? [Imagine Jeopardy theme in your mind right now.] It’s not rewards – points, travel, cash or… Continue Reading →

The Incentive “Archer” Rule

We like simple answers. We like one-trick ponies. We like easy. This laziness also applies to our incentive program design. Too often solution architects stop early and design a program with a singular dimension and hope it will achieve the… Continue Reading →

“Pseu-Pseu-Pseudio” Motivation?

When you are outbid on an auction site you get ticked off. You jump on your phone and bid again – claiming your rightful place at the top of the heap as the #1 bidder. Then someone bids above you… Continue Reading →

Head Starts Can Double Results

People love a head start. So much so if you give your program participants a head start in your incentive program you will get much higher results. In one experiment with “punch cards”, people who were given a “get a… Continue Reading →

Incentive Programs Are About Choices – Not “Conditioning”

There is a lot of conversation in the incentive blogsphere (yeah – it’s a thing) about how incentive programs influence behaviors. So much of it is misinformed and just bad design. There is too much braying from program designers who… Continue Reading →

Never Cross the Social and Market Norms Streams

One of my favorite books on influence is “Predictably Irrational” by Dan Ariely. It’s a mash up of “Freakonmics” and “Influence: Science and Practice” and “Fooled by Randomness.” I reference the book regularly and have my e-notes in a special file… Continue Reading →

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