The Big Idea Blog

If there were an HTML tag for "rant" I'd use it to give you the heads up that I was going to, so lets just pretend:

<rant on>

Stop calling your reports or work-products "artifacts".

Seriously.

You are not creating something for some future generation to dig up and contemplate about the role and use of whatever it is you think you are producing!

an artifact is an object recovered by some archaeological endeavor, which may have a cultural interest*.

The only people that really should be using that word are called archaeologists. If you're not an archaeologist, or if you aren't having a conversation with one, using the word "artifact" doesn't make you one.

Now, it's probably true that the work-product you're promising to deliver is going to get lost in some filing cabinet, or a hard drive or network share and probably will never see the light of day again requiring an archaeological effort to find it (unless you're lucky enough to have an audit, in which case it magically transforms into "evidence" as in "Exhibit A").

If anything your work-product is likely a by-product of some procedure or process that amounts to little more than a check-box on someones "deliverables" list.

</rant off>

While we're at it, try to go just one day where you don't use (or hear!) one of the top 10:

Stakeholder

Heads up

Mission critical

Bandwidth

Touch base

In the loop

Low-hanging fruit

Moving forward

At the end of the day

On the same page

The author of this top ten points out that "When overused or misused, however, buzzwords can overshadow or even distort the overall communication. Using too many buzzwords can lessen an individual's credibility as an independent, intelligent, creative thinker. At worst, it can make him/her look like a wishy-washy wannabe."

Some random links for your consideration:

Commonly Used Business Jargon -- "Solutioning, efforting, learnings?"

Overused Business Buzzwords

100 Overused Marketing Phrases

Maybe adopt a "buzzword jar" that people have to put $.25 in every time they get caught using one of these puff phrases?

So, today's Big Idea is this: "Have a meeting (or just follow-up!) with someone instead of "touching-base" or "circling-back". Find the courage to call your spreadsheet/powerpoint/report what it is instead of what you want people to think it is."

The only artifact you might be leaving behind is the impression that you are a poser.

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* Yeah I know that software people have co-opted the term, but that doesn't mean they know what they are talking about. I have a Master's in Software Engineering and I can tell you that they are just kidding themselves and you. I recommend negative reinforcement, like a water-spray bottle used to re-train cats.

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Following on from last week's intro article The Science of Persuasion and the Art of the Sale

Marketing and sales embody the art and science of persuasion, manipulation and compliance. “Selling” has probably been going on longer than marketing, though it is not hard to imagine the role of "advertising” embedded in our DNA in the form of gestures. Marketing is typically done in a one-way, non-interactive (passive) mode – whereas sales involve active agents. My research focuses on the latter with a goal of illuminating a possible strategy for building defenses against Bounded Irrationality by understanding Daniel Dennett’s Intentional Stance (in a nutshell, the thinking about what other people are thinking).

The best sales people know how to “read” their customers. The value added they provide ranges from gopher (fetch the item) to in-store subject matter expert. In commission based sales, where a sometimes significant portion of the salesperson’s salary (compensation) comes from a percentage of the total purchase price of the items sold (usually as a percentage of the profit) there is a higher motivation to increase the total spend of their customers.

Frequently, unbeknownst to the customer, there are additional sales incentives in place, usually in the form of a sales target or time-based contests. However, even with full disclosure of a potential bias, it does not lead to rational decision making. For example the salesperson discloses that if you buy X that will help them win a contest – in fact it could lead to a subtle collusion exploit where the shopper feels like they are helping the salesperson. This method is actually seen as the modus operandi of door to door charitable giving campaigns (magazine sales, candy bars, kids programs, etc).

Items these days are rarely of the “craft” variety (wherein you are buying from the maker directly) – which can mean the margins vary greatly by the time the end product reaches the showroom floor. The “up-sell” and the “cross-sell” are techniques employed by sales professionals to increase the over all transaction, and frequently will target higher-margin items, which likely lead to higher commissions or tips. The “gradation technique”, otherwise known as “foot-in-the door” form is as evident in dining experiences employed by wait staff as it is in consumer products.

Gradation techniques have been well understood by psychologists for decades. The so called “foot-in-the-door” (FITD) form is well known to salespeople and according to Freedman “it is one of the cornerstones of fund-raising.”

Here’s how it works:

…if a person complies with your first, small, request, he or she will have an increased tendency to comply with your subsequent, larger request.

That's an anchoring move. There's an equally effective, almost polar opposite approach called the "door-in-the-face" request:

...the “Door-in-the-Face” approach works when (a) a costly, large first request that the recipient will probably refuse and then (b) making a second, less costly and more realistic request.

This second approach exploits a “framing attack” which we will explore in greater detail in a follow-on article.

In the intro story to the paper, we see Molly employing both!

Today's Big Idea is this: Who is anchoring and framing your next thought? And what action is it likely to lead to?

Remember, "forewarned is forearmed"...

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Click here for a .pdf copy of the full paper.

Who are you guys and what are you doing here distracting me? The Big Idea Blog is written by David Duccini & David Walbridge

(This is from the introduction to my final paper in IDSC 8711 Cognitive Science which I took this past semester at the U of M)

I'll write more about the various research and findings in upcoming articles. Enjoy!

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It’s late fall when the compliance expert makes her way down the block of a quiet urban St. Paul neighborhood known as West Como. The leaves of the maple trees lining the streets have started turning fire red and the setting sun lights them like burning bushes. She scans the block and selects the side with fewer houses. “Fewer houses mean more land between the houses”, she thinks, “which means larger tax revenues collected from the owners ergo more donation margin” she recalls from a pep rally she attended last week. She’s profiling her primary targets and a quick check of the clock on her clipboard tells her that she has plenty of time to make her way up the other side of the street. Besides, she thinks to herself, if she’s only marginally successful in her goals on this side of the street, it will only make it easier to work the crowd on the other.

She starts with the larger 1930’s stucco two story on the corner. The lot is large, taking up the equivalent of three houses on the other side of the street. A semi-private cedar fence rings the backyard. A quick check to the driveway reveals a bright yellow Smart Car, license plate “B SMART”. Bingo she thinks. These are my people.

She sees movement inside the house and casually approaches the front door. Ringing the bell she hears a buzz from deep inside the house, reminiscent of some indiscriminant sound from a black and white television show she can’t name. Must be original, she thinks and mentally puts a checkmark next to frugal.

“Hi my name is Molly” she says suddenly bright and cheery to the skeptical eye from the man staring her down from behind the screen door. “We’re out today collecting signatures from like-minded people who care about water quality. Would you be willing to sign here along with your neighbors that you care about water quality too?”

He opens the door and takes the clipboard – scanning the list of names he realizes that he doesn’t recognize any of them but also realizes that he hasn’t made an effort to really get to know his neighbors. He notices the stack of strategically fanned brochures underneath the signature sheets as he hands it back to her. She’s tracking his every gaze, feigns a small hurt look that he’s not impressed with the trophies she’s collected so far, but it fades as quickly as it appeared. She knows she collected them in another neighborhood, so it is really unlikely that he knows any of them.

She see’s the clock on the clipboard again – that constant drumbeat compelling her forward. She quickly snatches one of the brochures and tries to hand it to him. He humors her by scanning through it as she runs through her canned spiel on how important clean water is, and how few people world wide have clean water, and how X thousands or hundreds of thousands of people die every day or year, he’s not really sure which, “because they don’t have clean water” she finishes.

He looks up from the brochure and raises his hand, signaling that she can stop.

“You can keep the brochure” she says.

He knows what she’s after and plays along, “yes, I care about clean water and would be more than happy to help with a donation, the thing is I don’t normally have a lot of cash on me, mainly plastic to help me track my purchases. You understand?”

“Well, we do take checks”, she offers sincerely. “Most people have been giving between thirty-five to forty dollars”, she lies. Most people SHOULD be giving that much she thinks internally to reconcile the dishonesty. Molly really does care about clean water. She also cares about winning the trip to Mexico.

“Let me see what I have”, he says stepping back inside the house to check his wallet. She makes another mental checkmark and thinks tonight’s compliance run is going to be easier than she thought.

He comes back with a twenty and hands it to her in exchange for some additional brochures and the clipboard again for his signature. He politely refuses and she makes up some excuse about needing people’s names for “accounting purposes” and flips up the signature sheet to reveal another page with donors and dollar amounts. He tells her to put down “Doe” and steps back inside. Again the fleeting wounded look appears but she realizes the clock is ticking and shifts back into a sunny disposition. Besides, she knows from the public tax records she printed out on the backside of her clipboard who he probably is. Looking down the street she sees a neighbor out raking leaves and resets the check list and prepares to tell the neighborhood of the generosity of the guy on the corner.

The guy on the corner was me, and I had just been played.

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(C) Copyright 2009 "The Science of Persuasion and the Art of the Sale: The Role of Framing in Developing Defenses to Bounded Irrationality"

Who are you guys and what are you doing here distracting me? The Big Idea Blog is written by David Duccini & David Walbridge