Make it reversible, when we make it possible for someone to back out of something we're increasing the #Trialability. The Agile community seems to have this one down pat. We tend to call it an experiment. We ask could we try this as an experiment for 4-6 weeks and gather data on the outcomes?
Reduce Upfront Costs, is one way to improve #Trialability. I found it interesting to learn, people value a savings of $5.99 with free shipping, over a $10 discount on the product itself. Free shipping resolved uncertainty, where a discount for even more money does not.
I guess I'm an odd duck, I look at the total cost of ownership
#UncertaintyTax when circumstances are uncertain our brains press pause. An experiment that Berger cites: students were offered a cheap vacation and placed in three groups: pass, fail and unknown. The pass and fail groups both wanted the vacation. The uncertain group didn't want the vacation as much. Yet eventually they will either be in the pass or fail group, so their interests should be the same. The Uncertainty caused them to press pause.
Everett Rogers - Diffusions of Innovation - one of the most cited science books ever. It's the source of Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, ...
In this book Everett, that up to 87% of the variance in adoption of an innovation (idea or product) comes from the trialability. Trialability is an odd, word. It just means if our ideas can't be easily tried. They will be ignored.
Next time you want an improvement at work make it sure it can be tried easily.
#UncertaintyTax#InfluenceAtWork - How much would you pay for $50 gift card at a local retailer that must used in two weeks. On average people were willing to pay $45. Now offer a lottery ticket with 50% chance of winning a $50 and 50% chance of winning $100 Gift card. We would expect the perceived value to go up or stay the same. In fact it dropped to $16.
To reduce the #UncertaintyTax at work, offer experiments and make bigger decisions reversible.
#InfluenceAtWork
It's not a top ten list and as you will see, I'm not yet David Letterman. I thought it would be fun to cover some of the many many reasons we fail to get what we want. (Cue the Stones?)
As you will see, smiling on camera is still a skill I'm learning.