A lot of focus, rightly, has been on conversations with risk advisers on how best to engage the LIF reforms to maximise the security and longevity of a risk advisers proposition, if their model is to be adversely affected by the pending changes. I say “if”, because the reality is, that advisers who already have adopted a hybrid model, initially see very little impact if any at all, as a consequence. However there are a significant number of businesses and individual advisers who have written under the model that life insurers have provided and it is those advisers, especially newer entrants and aspiring advisers who will, (yes that’s a definite), be adversely impacted by the reduction in their income unless they adapt quickly to the changes. The questions that still need answering are: where are the positive impacts to the end client and what can be done to address the suitability and quality of strategic advice as highlighted by ASIC report 413?
In a surprise to many (if my reading of social media is correct), life insurers are not the winners from the LIF reforms. Life insurers are reliant on advisers and without a sustainable and in fact growing adviser force, life office insurance sales via advisers may fall. It’s a simple equation, less advisers equals less new business. Surely the saving grace for life insurers is the reduced commission payable?
Simple maths debunks this thinking. For arguments sake, let’s say that currently 80% of new business is written on upfront commission and that, that upfront commission averages 110% with a renewal of 10%. After 7 years the life insurer has paid out 180% of the policy premium. (It’s actually more when you factor in premium increases but let’s call it square on that point). Now take the LIF regime and let’s say that all business is written on 80/20 in year one. After 7 years the life insurer has paid out 220% of the policy premium. It’s worse for the life insurer on level commission, for at 30% the life insurer after 7 years would have paid out 240% of the policy premium. So, where are those premium savings for consumers going to come from? Reduced lapses? Possibly.
When it comes to lapses, most insurers have been working behind the scenes dealing with lapse rates at an individual adviser level. Lapse rates for some insurers are the best they have been for a while. Others are finding it difficult. Should LIF reduce lapse rates there would be some assistance towards premium reductions, mitigated by the overall increased cost of acquisition (unless that cost is improved by efficiency gains). It would be better if people didn’t claim! The reality however is that claims, especially in the disability space are increasing and should that trend continue, premiums most likely will increase.
If you are working in a life insurer at the moment, there certainly isn’t champagne dripping from the taps. However what responsible life insurers are trying to do at the moment is:
• Improve policy onboarding efficiency
• Develop new product to meet the needs of advisers and policy holders
• Provide mechanisms to assist advisers in their businesses : in regard to engaging and retaining clients and maximizing conversion rates
• Assist new advisers progress to best practice
None of the above except for the last point, deals with enhancing quality strategic advice, and for that education programmes and technical sessions are being built, assessed and placed in diaries with associated learning materials and in field tools. It’s this combination that is needed to draw advisers to dealing with the disruption: getting smarter, getting more efficient and getting deeper engagement (with advisers from the life insurers perspective and with the client from both views). It is also one that supports a growing adviser force, the key ingredient for a positive impact on consumers let alone life insurance company sustainability.
So are the LIF reforms positive? That depends on how you measure success.
If it’s from the customers view and that view is predicated on the need for dramatic premium reductions, then that is possibly not a reality. If it’s from an income perspective for the life offices or advisers, then that journey is a longer one and has the aim of long term sustainability. If it’s from a higher standard of advice through education, that is a progression and requires work on education standards and programmes.
However, if you do measure success as a progression then maybe professionalism and what I mean by that is the definition and norm associated with fee for service, then, maybe this, LIF, is a small starting point for that progression. Personally I am not sure if I agree with that definition. I can see models (and have seen) where insurance with adjunct services such as estate planning and cash flow management are highly valuable and fee generating services that clientele will be happy to pay for.
For someone however who wants an average premium to protect their family, will the remuneration without an additional fee be adequate compensation for an adviser to adhere to the tenants of quality strategic advice? My modelling suggests no (based on current advice processes), and without that adviser being able to service that client, where will that client turn to and will they get suitable advice?
That is the key worry for retail life insurers and advisers and should be the key concern for our legislators. How advisers and life offices work together on this point to find advice and product solutions that not only sustains but grows advice businesses is the real challenge and focus for the coming changes. Efficiency of engagement, application, policy maintenance and communication will win this challenge for life insurers and advisers alike. It requires collaboration and engagement between the insurer and the adviser. That’s a very positive outcome.
Wednesday, 28 October 2015
Wednesday, 2 September 2015
I wish I was (still) a financial adviser.
Right now as I write, I'm sitting on a plane, about to take off, bound for Brisbane, Australia, to complete the final two site visits (of the six I had to do) as part of the judging process for the 2015 Adviser of The Year (That I'm fortunate my company Zurich sponsors). I'd wanted to record the journey of the judging process (and the semi finalists) in a blog in a similar way to the Million Dollar Round Table diary I kept in June of this year.
Alas, time not only escaped me, but I also could not find the appropriate words to do the advisers who had opened up their businesses (and their hearts) to me, justice. Such is the serious that I approach this role with and the care that I believe one must take throughout the process.
As I reflect now, however, I can't help but think how much I miss being an adviser.
This may seem a strangely "out of touch" comment, especially considering the media, regulatory and self imposed scrutiny that our profession is facing and the significant changes for advisers and insurance providers that are set to be implemented in 2016. I am however neither out of touch (I have spent countless hours with advisers discussing the changes, and even more time modelling the financial and advice consequences to consumers of the changes) nor overly romanticising the advice profession. Rather I am appreciative of the value that financial advisers add not only to transforming the lives of their clients in the most positive of ways, but also how dramatically they protect the community (that includes you, our bureaucrats, our politicians) from a heavy burden from having to cater for a populace ill prepared for life events.
It is something like the Adviser of the Year judging process that makes you realise how deeply financial advisers care for their clients.
Now that feeling of taking a client to a place where they feel secure, where they have a solid foundation to build towards their personal dreams and they have "the freedom to say yes" (thanks to Chris Browne and Rising Tide for that one) is something I dearly miss. However I can do it no longer. Just like I do with the Adviser of the Year entrants, I did with my clients, and I become heavily emotionally invested in their story and journey. It is something that financial advisers do daily, and when you do so with so much passion there is no room to do things by halves. For me it was emotionally devastating to lose a client through death, something which I had prepared them and their families for financially but something they and I were never, could never be emotionally prepared for. I miss my clients. I miss Grace, I miss Jaclyn and I miss Bob, clients who passed away in my final year of advice. I miss Annette and Gary, clients (who I still see) thriving with their family and their life plans : I miss that weekly check in we had. I hear the stories of the Adviser of the Year participants and how deeply they are invested in their clients dreams and how much they have contributed to making those dreams a reality.
It takes skill to do this. Discipline. Courage. Process. Passion. It is what all the Adviser of the Year participants have.
I think of my sister, who is a doctor, a paediatric emergency specialist. I think of all the banged up kiddies she sees. The hundreds of thank you letters and cards she gets from parents, and I wonder what is in your make up that doesn't make you go crazy? What emotions she must feel? She tells me she detaches it when on duty, she has to. Then in her quiet moments she reflects.
For financial advisers, they don't detach. They are 100% of the time emotionally connected with their clients. I don't know any financial adviser who detaches emotionally when with a client (or afterwards for that matter). I see it in their meeting notes and given life in their staff. I see it in their client stories.
I wish I could do it again, but I cry way too easily. I'm so lucky that Zurich is so heavily invested in the advisers of the Adviser of they year and I get to stay connected through this process and then get to share via Zurichs education series all that I see.
So as a precursor to the new tools and presentations that will be delivered by Zurich post this 2015 journey, I say hats of to all the financial advisers who love their clients, who say to me they "can never imagine doing anything else, or ever stopping". Who in the face of ever changing landscapes, continue to deliver positive client outcomes that change an individuals life for the better, a families world for the better and make the communities they work in stronger, connected and spirited.
Take a bow.
Alas, time not only escaped me, but I also could not find the appropriate words to do the advisers who had opened up their businesses (and their hearts) to me, justice. Such is the serious that I approach this role with and the care that I believe one must take throughout the process.
As I reflect now, however, I can't help but think how much I miss being an adviser.
This may seem a strangely "out of touch" comment, especially considering the media, regulatory and self imposed scrutiny that our profession is facing and the significant changes for advisers and insurance providers that are set to be implemented in 2016. I am however neither out of touch (I have spent countless hours with advisers discussing the changes, and even more time modelling the financial and advice consequences to consumers of the changes) nor overly romanticising the advice profession. Rather I am appreciative of the value that financial advisers add not only to transforming the lives of their clients in the most positive of ways, but also how dramatically they protect the community (that includes you, our bureaucrats, our politicians) from a heavy burden from having to cater for a populace ill prepared for life events.
It is something like the Adviser of the Year judging process that makes you realise how deeply financial advisers care for their clients.
Now that feeling of taking a client to a place where they feel secure, where they have a solid foundation to build towards their personal dreams and they have "the freedom to say yes" (thanks to Chris Browne and Rising Tide for that one) is something I dearly miss. However I can do it no longer. Just like I do with the Adviser of the Year entrants, I did with my clients, and I become heavily emotionally invested in their story and journey. It is something that financial advisers do daily, and when you do so with so much passion there is no room to do things by halves. For me it was emotionally devastating to lose a client through death, something which I had prepared them and their families for financially but something they and I were never, could never be emotionally prepared for. I miss my clients. I miss Grace, I miss Jaclyn and I miss Bob, clients who passed away in my final year of advice. I miss Annette and Gary, clients (who I still see) thriving with their family and their life plans : I miss that weekly check in we had. I hear the stories of the Adviser of the Year participants and how deeply they are invested in their clients dreams and how much they have contributed to making those dreams a reality.
It takes skill to do this. Discipline. Courage. Process. Passion. It is what all the Adviser of the Year participants have.
I think of my sister, who is a doctor, a paediatric emergency specialist. I think of all the banged up kiddies she sees. The hundreds of thank you letters and cards she gets from parents, and I wonder what is in your make up that doesn't make you go crazy? What emotions she must feel? She tells me she detaches it when on duty, she has to. Then in her quiet moments she reflects.
For financial advisers, they don't detach. They are 100% of the time emotionally connected with their clients. I don't know any financial adviser who detaches emotionally when with a client (or afterwards for that matter). I see it in their meeting notes and given life in their staff. I see it in their client stories.
I wish I could do it again, but I cry way too easily. I'm so lucky that Zurich is so heavily invested in the advisers of the Adviser of they year and I get to stay connected through this process and then get to share via Zurichs education series all that I see.
So as a precursor to the new tools and presentations that will be delivered by Zurich post this 2015 journey, I say hats of to all the financial advisers who love their clients, who say to me they "can never imagine doing anything else, or ever stopping". Who in the face of ever changing landscapes, continue to deliver positive client outcomes that change an individuals life for the better, a families world for the better and make the communities they work in stronger, connected and spirited.
Take a bow.
Sunday, 26 July 2015
Creating a Climate of Mastery
When we think about creating a winning culture, during both periods of success and a culture that carries through in periods of adversity, too often the basis of that “culture” is on the end outcome, the goals. That seems to make sense. There is a target to achieve, a competition to win, a league ladder to top.
What is missed with that approach is the achievement motivation of the individuals and the team. This refers to the efforts to master the task, with excellence, to overcome obstacles and take pride in exercising talent rather than a singular focus on the end outcome. Consequently the hallmarks of high achievers are that they select challenging tasks and persist in the face of failure.
What we know from sports science is when we as leaders can provide task-oriented feedback our “players” perceive the motivational climate to be more mastery orientated and less based on ego-orientation (a key facet of a goal based motivational climate), (Gershgoren et al, 2011).
This approach is often lost within sales team cultures. Too often the win at all costs attitude permeates through observation, modelled behavior and rewards aligned to the end goal that ignores attitudinal shifts towards a high ego-orientated state, that ultimately leads to attributions of success primarily to an individuals proficiency and attributions of failure to those other than the individual. In other words a blame culture, win at all costs, and ultimately a culture that does not thrive in the face of adversity.
This creates a problem for those entering such a culture. These “high achievers” have a fragile hold on success. For the new entrants whose competency at tasks may initially be low, can without initial success demonstrate a maladaptive behavior pattern in that faced with now being able to compete they, reduce their efforts, cease trying or make excuses. However as the blame game is one that perpetuates in these climates, they shift to tasks that are guaranteed to provide success and challenge new ways, new methods, fight change and fight progression and avoid peer evaluative feedback. In fact they don’t cope with feedback very well at all.
What motivation theories tell us is that to build a culture of achievement orientation, a climate of mastery, leaders in organisations need to become better at focusing on task mastery and feedback that builds confidence in an individuals management of the task at hand rather than a singular focus on the end goal.
Weinberg and Gould (2015) provide these guidelines:
• Set appropriate tasks aligned to progression towards mastery of a subject
• Emphasise the task goals and downplay the outcome goals
• When providing feedback ensure that attributions are appropriate. In other words focus on what the individual can control from a task perspective and ensure they take responsibility of task achievement and non-achievement.
• Enhance the perception of competence and control for the individual.
Critically this approach aligns with studies of organisational behavior such as the groundbreaking working of Amabile and Kramer (2011),that provided the keys to positive work culture. It was identified that clear tasks, with appropriate encouragement, resources, feedback, transparent leadership and celebrating the small wins (task achievement) were vital ingredients to developing a vibrant supportive and winning culture.
We as leaders directly and indirectly create motivational climates. If we do not give this influence we have any thought or planning (on a daily basis) we can unconsciously and irrevocably create a climate that focusses on blame, that is siloed, stagnant and incapable of reacting to challenges that require different thinking and approaches.
A new game plan is needed, one of confidence in the ability of our players to carry out the required “plays” and is achieved because they understand their roles, their tasks and through that clarity they have mastered the set plays and are ready for the challenge.
Sunday, 19 April 2015
How to Build Consumer Loyalty and Advocacy In Financial Advice.
We pay more for brand names. We pay more for and are advocated of brands that have emotionally connected with us. The richer the emotional content of a brand’s mental representation, the more likely the consumer will be a loyal user. This thinking is just as relevant for financial advice as it is for toilet tissue and car tyres. Puppy dogs chasing a roll of toilet paper and the piece of mind of safety on a wet road have less to do with the end product and more to do with feelings and emotions.
Understanding, therefore, how people think is a critical factor in building consumer loyalty and advocacy. So just how do we make decisions and what occurs in peoples minds to help them evaluate situations? What do we need to know about how peoples minds work?
“Cognitive control and value-based decision-making tasks appear to depend on different brain regions within the prefrontal cortex,” says Jan Glascher, lead author of the study and a visiting associate at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, referring to the seat of higher-level reasoning in the brain.
In normal brain functioning people : a valuation network in the brain auto computes what's good and what's bad, before the person concerned has a chance to consciously understand the decision making process has occured. It is quick. It is intuitive and it is automatic.
This highlights the complexities in dealing with customers where you need them to make a considered rationale choice. The choice has less to do with the rationalities of your proposal and more to do with how they feel about you and your brand. In short they have a gut feel about what is good and what is bad for them: and if you have not connected with them then that good choice (rationally) seems the uncomfortable one.
Most people believe that the choices they make result from a rational analysis of available alternatives. In reality, however, emotions greatly influence and, in many cases, even determine our decisions. In a book, Descartes Error, Antonio Damasio, professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California, puts forth that emotions are necessary ingredients to almost all decisions. What occurs is that emotions from previous experiences attribute value and impact how we consider the options in front of us. These emotions create preferences which lead to our decision. Damasio’s view is based on his studies of people whose connections between the “thinking” and “emotional” areas of the brain had been damaged. They were capable of rationally processing information about alternative choices; but were unable to make decisions because they lacked any sense of how they felt about the options.
Values
So if you are not using some method of assessing past experiences and values and hierachies in a clients decision making you actually leave so much of your process to chance. When it comes to money: we have values associated with our experiences and these values have been passed to us from our parents. If you are not questioning clients about these experiences your process is like waiting for a magic eye picture to appear.
Psychologist Valerie Wilson tells us that troubled relationships with money stem from childhood. Research shows that money habits are formed between the ages of 6-8.
Consequently these lessons (which we have learnt from our parents) shape the way we feel and act about money and money issues. Our attitudes to money bring with it a range of emotions and behaviour: they can be positive but they can also range from greed and arrogance, to jealousy and fear.
What all of this means is that that you need to embed in your process:
• a means of uncovering a clients values
• questioning on past experiences
• determining a clients hierarchy of choice assessment
• looking at a clients goals and the why of their goals so you can elevate a simple statement of a goal or objective to a highly functional progression and pathway that you indeed can influence
• a show casing of you as an individual and your brand
Dr Peter Noel Murray reminds us that the influential role of emotion in consumer behavior is well documented and studies show that positive emotions toward a brand have far greater influence on consumer loyalty than trust and other judgments which are based on a brand’s attributes. Only by building process in your business that is cognisant of: how people are drawn to brands, make decisions and order their values; can you truly expect to drive customer loyalty and advocacy.
Understanding, therefore, how people think is a critical factor in building consumer loyalty and advocacy. So just how do we make decisions and what occurs in peoples minds to help them evaluate situations? What do we need to know about how peoples minds work?
“Cognitive control and value-based decision-making tasks appear to depend on different brain regions within the prefrontal cortex,” says Jan Glascher, lead author of the study and a visiting associate at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, referring to the seat of higher-level reasoning in the brain.
In normal brain functioning people : a valuation network in the brain auto computes what's good and what's bad, before the person concerned has a chance to consciously understand the decision making process has occured. It is quick. It is intuitive and it is automatic.
This highlights the complexities in dealing with customers where you need them to make a considered rationale choice. The choice has less to do with the rationalities of your proposal and more to do with how they feel about you and your brand. In short they have a gut feel about what is good and what is bad for them: and if you have not connected with them then that good choice (rationally) seems the uncomfortable one.
Most people believe that the choices they make result from a rational analysis of available alternatives. In reality, however, emotions greatly influence and, in many cases, even determine our decisions. In a book, Descartes Error, Antonio Damasio, professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California, puts forth that emotions are necessary ingredients to almost all decisions. What occurs is that emotions from previous experiences attribute value and impact how we consider the options in front of us. These emotions create preferences which lead to our decision. Damasio’s view is based on his studies of people whose connections between the “thinking” and “emotional” areas of the brain had been damaged. They were capable of rationally processing information about alternative choices; but were unable to make decisions because they lacked any sense of how they felt about the options.
Values
So if you are not using some method of assessing past experiences and values and hierachies in a clients decision making you actually leave so much of your process to chance. When it comes to money: we have values associated with our experiences and these values have been passed to us from our parents. If you are not questioning clients about these experiences your process is like waiting for a magic eye picture to appear.
Psychologist Valerie Wilson tells us that troubled relationships with money stem from childhood. Research shows that money habits are formed between the ages of 6-8.
Consequently these lessons (which we have learnt from our parents) shape the way we feel and act about money and money issues. Our attitudes to money bring with it a range of emotions and behaviour: they can be positive but they can also range from greed and arrogance, to jealousy and fear.
What all of this means is that that you need to embed in your process:
• a means of uncovering a clients values
• questioning on past experiences
• determining a clients hierarchy of choice assessment
• looking at a clients goals and the why of their goals so you can elevate a simple statement of a goal or objective to a highly functional progression and pathway that you indeed can influence
• a show casing of you as an individual and your brand
Dr Peter Noel Murray reminds us that the influential role of emotion in consumer behavior is well documented and studies show that positive emotions toward a brand have far greater influence on consumer loyalty than trust and other judgments which are based on a brand’s attributes. Only by building process in your business that is cognisant of: how people are drawn to brands, make decisions and order their values; can you truly expect to drive customer loyalty and advocacy.
Tuesday, 16 December 2014
The authenticity of you : know yourself and others
In ground breaking research by George (The Author of: Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value), Sims, McLean and Mayer (2007) what we thought we knew about leadership was challenged. The notion of authenticity was introduced as a key determinant of leader ship success.
Authentic leaders (they wrote in a HBR artcicle in 2007) are ones that demonstrate demonstrate passion, are consistent especially with their values and their interactions and are not afraid to wear their heart on their sleeve.
Importantly they "establish long-term, meaningful relationships and have the self-discipline to get results. They know who they are." (George et al, 2007).
Some of the key points of this 2007 article were:
leadership emerged from the individuals life stories often reframed so they understood who they were at their core. In doing so, they learned that being authentic made them more effective.
What the authors point out is that "critically many leaders reported that their motivation came from a difficult experience in their lives and rather than seeing themselves as victims, though, authentic leaders used these formative experiences to give meaning to their lives. They reframed these events to rise above their challenges and to discover their passion to lead" (George et al, 2007).
But this awareness and discovery can not take place without and individual having the courage and honesty to open up and examine their experiences. As they do so, it is suggested that leaders become more humane and willing to be vulnerable.
It is only by doing this type of self analysis to become self aware that leaders can develop and express the authenticity that is required to truly lead. Connection with people : really connecting with people is key as is understanding how in any given situation another person may be feeling. To that end George et al, write that these authentic leaders are constantly aware of the importance of staying grounded. They spend time with their families and close friends. They participate in physical activity and refesh and replenish their bodies and encourage others to do so. And further they create environments where a culture of acceptance, or flexibility of telling hard truths, of honesty and support are all accepted norms. All of this is essential to their effectiveness as leaders, enabling them to sustain their authenticity.
So what's your story? How self aware are you? How much have you examined your values? Over and above all of this how connected are you to the people that you lead.....do they see you as authentic?
So if you've read this far....thank you. I wanted to share with you part of my story. The story that, as a child, already influenced the construction of my personal identity and in time was to shape who I was and am now as an individual (Macionis & Plummer 2012, p. 215). What happened was a traumatic event in my childhood that involved sexual abuse.
Thirty-five years later, I am: a husband, a father, a driven and competitive individual,motivated by; making a difference in my career and social life, but also by; a fear of failure and a constant drive for being the best I can be. That drive has delivered a comfortable existence, a residence in the leafy east towards the Yarra Valley, and an office, in the financial hub of Melbourne. My career has provided the financial freedom to embark on further education, adding to an university degree and postgraduate qualifications in financial services. As I reflect now, it seems that I have defied, through design, research that points to lower incomes for male survivors of CSA and a career choice of a ‘female’ occupation (Robst & VanGilder, 2011, p. 350) and fought to join Weber’s concept of ‘party’ to effect power over my social outcomes, seeking class and status to reach my goals (Back et al, 2012, p. 51).
Similar to studies of relationships for male CSA survivors, I found myself, as a child, with very few dependable connections with adults (Kia-Keating et al 2010, p. 679). My relationships ran a course where they were with someone who offered emotional availability and care or where they themselves needed my help. I was drawn to women who were available or had experienced trauma.
Herbert Mead argued that people take on identities that we base on our participation in networks of social relationships and related roles (Merolla et al, 2012, p. 149). How we determine our sense of self is based therefore on social experience. The personalities I encountered allow me today to appreciate another persons point of view. Their problems (that I often sought out), from eating disorders, mental health issues, CSA and rape survivors, provided me with a sense of understanding of what real challenges and adversity are. Perspective was a gift that these people gave to me.
It is that appreciation of the experience of others that has allowed me to enjoy my work role as it is today. Fundamentally my career has been built around understanding peoples motivations and drivers and why they make the decisions that they do. My role involves me coaching and mentoring a sales team in financial services and I am called upon to deliver presentations about positive customer experiences and how to create them.
Financial services, however, in my experience, remains a male dominated industry and presents a boys club environment where the way to get ahead (sometimes) is by managing upwards. But rather than become part of this culture I have steadfastly resisted, seeking out the few female leaders in the industry and working with them. When I found myself in a male dominated organisation I refused to play the political games that were required for career enhancement instead striving for the recognition of personal endeavour. That rebellion against the social stability of those workplaces was in reality a protest against authority figures, particularly male ones. Weber’s assessment of authority and power is incredibly relevant.
In the workplace I do not automatically accept the traditional authority of a hierarchy of managers. Weber’s rational-legal authority and the political life of the society of a workplace (Macionis &Plummer 2010, p. 538) may be the backbone of organisations, but for me they represented the potential for the abuse of power. My association with experiencing CSA from a patriarchal figure saw me in later life avoid engaging in the politics of workplaces. Rather I was drawn to leaders who exhibited outstanding qualities that Weber described as charismatic authority,less attributed to social organisation and more associated with an individuals personality (Macionis & Plummer 2010, p. 538). Throughout my working life I have found those qualities more often in women and tried to lead others in that manner, setting an example of work ethic and relying less on the authority of a position and more on the genuineness of my actions.
For years I struggled with the emotional journey of healing. In Chris Gardner’s book, ‘Start Where You Are’, Chris, a victim himself of childhood abuse, passes the reader some advice:
“…to anyone in real crisis …find a place of calmness and stillness …where you can gain some perspective. Only with a reasoned outlook can you find the solutions and empowerment that are already there” (Gardner 2010, p. 58).
When I reflect on the experiences that make me who I am, I think of Foucault who argued that we are the product of discourses without which there is prior no essential self (Back et al, 2012, p. 95). The social experiences of my life, have developed the characteristics of what makes me, me (Macionis & Plummer 2012, p. 208). I am grateful for where I am in life, for the people I have met and the experiences I have had. It seems incredulous that I could ever look at my CSA experience that way. But finally I can say “Peace! Be Still” (Gardner 2010, p. 61)and understand in that moment the rich perspective my life experience has given me.
The story of your life makes you who you are. If you aspire to lead with authenticity, explore your story, decide what you can share, articulate your values and learn about others. Only then can you lead.
References
Back, Les; Bennett, Andy; Edles, Laura Desfor; Gibson, Margaret; Inglis, David; Jacobs, Ron; Woodward, Ian 2012, Cultural Sociology : An Introduction, e-book, accessed 15 November 2013,.
Gardner, Chris 2010, Start Where You Are ; Life Lessons in Getting from Where You Are to WhereYou Want to Be, Amistad, New York.
George, Bill, Sims, Peter, McLean, Andrew N and Mayer, D 2007, Discovering Your Authentic Leadership, HBR, Feb 2007 Edition,
Kia-Keating, Maryam, Sorsoli, Lynn and Grossman, Frances, K. 2010, ‘Relational Challenges and Recovery Processes in Male Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse’, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 666-683.
Macionis, John, J. and Plummer, Ken 2012, Sociology: A Global Introduction, 5th ed., Pearson, Prentice Hall, New York.
Merolla, David, M., Serpe, Richard, T., Stryker, Sheldon and Schultz, P. Wesley 2012, ‘Structural Precursors to Identity Processes: The Role of Proximate Social Structures’, Social Psychology Quarterly, vol. 75, no. 2, pp. 149-172.
Robst, John and VanGilder, Jennifer 2011, ‘The role of childhood sexual victimisation in the occupational choice of adults’, Applied Economics, vol. 43, pp. 341-354.
Authentic leaders (they wrote in a HBR artcicle in 2007) are ones that demonstrate demonstrate passion, are consistent especially with their values and their interactions and are not afraid to wear their heart on their sleeve.
Importantly they "establish long-term, meaningful relationships and have the self-discipline to get results. They know who they are." (George et al, 2007).
Some of the key points of this 2007 article were:
leadership emerged from the individuals life stories often reframed so they understood who they were at their core. In doing so, they learned that being authentic made them more effective.
What the authors point out is that "critically many leaders reported that their motivation came from a difficult experience in their lives and rather than seeing themselves as victims, though, authentic leaders used these formative experiences to give meaning to their lives. They reframed these events to rise above their challenges and to discover their passion to lead" (George et al, 2007).
But this awareness and discovery can not take place without and individual having the courage and honesty to open up and examine their experiences. As they do so, it is suggested that leaders become more humane and willing to be vulnerable.
It is only by doing this type of self analysis to become self aware that leaders can develop and express the authenticity that is required to truly lead. Connection with people : really connecting with people is key as is understanding how in any given situation another person may be feeling. To that end George et al, write that these authentic leaders are constantly aware of the importance of staying grounded. They spend time with their families and close friends. They participate in physical activity and refesh and replenish their bodies and encourage others to do so. And further they create environments where a culture of acceptance, or flexibility of telling hard truths, of honesty and support are all accepted norms. All of this is essential to their effectiveness as leaders, enabling them to sustain their authenticity.
So what's your story? How self aware are you? How much have you examined your values? Over and above all of this how connected are you to the people that you lead.....do they see you as authentic?
So if you've read this far....thank you. I wanted to share with you part of my story. The story that, as a child, already influenced the construction of my personal identity and in time was to shape who I was and am now as an individual (Macionis & Plummer 2012, p. 215). What happened was a traumatic event in my childhood that involved sexual abuse.
Thirty-five years later, I am: a husband, a father, a driven and competitive individual,motivated by; making a difference in my career and social life, but also by; a fear of failure and a constant drive for being the best I can be. That drive has delivered a comfortable existence, a residence in the leafy east towards the Yarra Valley, and an office, in the financial hub of Melbourne. My career has provided the financial freedom to embark on further education, adding to an university degree and postgraduate qualifications in financial services. As I reflect now, it seems that I have defied, through design, research that points to lower incomes for male survivors of CSA and a career choice of a ‘female’ occupation (Robst & VanGilder, 2011, p. 350) and fought to join Weber’s concept of ‘party’ to effect power over my social outcomes, seeking class and status to reach my goals (Back et al, 2012, p. 51).
Similar to studies of relationships for male CSA survivors, I found myself, as a child, with very few dependable connections with adults (Kia-Keating et al 2010, p. 679). My relationships ran a course where they were with someone who offered emotional availability and care or where they themselves needed my help. I was drawn to women who were available or had experienced trauma.
Herbert Mead argued that people take on identities that we base on our participation in networks of social relationships and related roles (Merolla et al, 2012, p. 149). How we determine our sense of self is based therefore on social experience. The personalities I encountered allow me today to appreciate another persons point of view. Their problems (that I often sought out), from eating disorders, mental health issues, CSA and rape survivors, provided me with a sense of understanding of what real challenges and adversity are. Perspective was a gift that these people gave to me.
It is that appreciation of the experience of others that has allowed me to enjoy my work role as it is today. Fundamentally my career has been built around understanding peoples motivations and drivers and why they make the decisions that they do. My role involves me coaching and mentoring a sales team in financial services and I am called upon to deliver presentations about positive customer experiences and how to create them.
Financial services, however, in my experience, remains a male dominated industry and presents a boys club environment where the way to get ahead (sometimes) is by managing upwards. But rather than become part of this culture I have steadfastly resisted, seeking out the few female leaders in the industry and working with them. When I found myself in a male dominated organisation I refused to play the political games that were required for career enhancement instead striving for the recognition of personal endeavour. That rebellion against the social stability of those workplaces was in reality a protest against authority figures, particularly male ones. Weber’s assessment of authority and power is incredibly relevant.
In the workplace I do not automatically accept the traditional authority of a hierarchy of managers. Weber’s rational-legal authority and the political life of the society of a workplace (Macionis &Plummer 2010, p. 538) may be the backbone of organisations, but for me they represented the potential for the abuse of power. My association with experiencing CSA from a patriarchal figure saw me in later life avoid engaging in the politics of workplaces. Rather I was drawn to leaders who exhibited outstanding qualities that Weber described as charismatic authority,less attributed to social organisation and more associated with an individuals personality (Macionis & Plummer 2010, p. 538). Throughout my working life I have found those qualities more often in women and tried to lead others in that manner, setting an example of work ethic and relying less on the authority of a position and more on the genuineness of my actions.
For years I struggled with the emotional journey of healing. In Chris Gardner’s book, ‘Start Where You Are’, Chris, a victim himself of childhood abuse, passes the reader some advice:
“…to anyone in real crisis …find a place of calmness and stillness …where you can gain some perspective. Only with a reasoned outlook can you find the solutions and empowerment that are already there” (Gardner 2010, p. 58).
When I reflect on the experiences that make me who I am, I think of Foucault who argued that we are the product of discourses without which there is prior no essential self (Back et al, 2012, p. 95). The social experiences of my life, have developed the characteristics of what makes me, me (Macionis & Plummer 2012, p. 208). I am grateful for where I am in life, for the people I have met and the experiences I have had. It seems incredulous that I could ever look at my CSA experience that way. But finally I can say “Peace! Be Still” (Gardner 2010, p. 61)and understand in that moment the rich perspective my life experience has given me.
The story of your life makes you who you are. If you aspire to lead with authenticity, explore your story, decide what you can share, articulate your values and learn about others. Only then can you lead.
References
Back, Les; Bennett, Andy; Edles, Laura Desfor; Gibson, Margaret; Inglis, David; Jacobs, Ron; Woodward, Ian 2012, Cultural Sociology : An Introduction, e-book, accessed 15 November 2013,
Gardner, Chris 2010, Start Where You Are ; Life Lessons in Getting from Where You Are to WhereYou Want to Be, Amistad, New York.
George, Bill, Sims, Peter, McLean, Andrew N and Mayer, D 2007, Discovering Your Authentic Leadership, HBR, Feb 2007 Edition,
Kia-Keating, Maryam, Sorsoli, Lynn and Grossman, Frances, K. 2010, ‘Relational Challenges and Recovery Processes in Male Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse’, Journal of Interpersonal Violence, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 666-683.
Macionis, John, J. and Plummer, Ken 2012, Sociology: A Global Introduction, 5th ed., Pearson, Prentice Hall, New York.
Merolla, David, M., Serpe, Richard, T., Stryker, Sheldon and Schultz, P. Wesley 2012, ‘Structural Precursors to Identity Processes: The Role of Proximate Social Structures’, Social Psychology Quarterly, vol. 75, no. 2, pp. 149-172.
Robst, John and VanGilder, Jennifer 2011, ‘The role of childhood sexual victimisation in the occupational choice of adults’, Applied Economics, vol. 43, pp. 341-354.
Thursday, 4 December 2014
How strong is your brand : managing customer psychology
In the current climate with such a focus on the industry, now more than ever before, making clients happy is key: [1]happiness makes us want to share and this is within not only our social circle in a physical sense but now with a site like “Adviser Ratings” - in a virtual forum.
Happiness is achieved by bonding and in the financial planners office when a client is most likely feeling emotions of fear and anxiety, people look to cope with those emotions by bonding with the adviser and the advice process. As researcher Lea Dunn advises us “in the absence of friends, consumers will create heightened emotional attachment with a brand that happens to be on hand.” That begs the question : how strong is your financial planning brand remembering that you and your staff indeed epitomise your brand and it is what clients are looking to bond with?
What is required then is process that embodies your authenticity and most importantly has an understanding of the psychology of the client before, during and after the advice process and how you can use technology to enhance that engagement. Welcome then to “Technoclientology”: the psychology of engaging clients in a modern world, where we combine what we have learnt from neuroscience, modernity and behavioural psychology and when combined with a social world, we can enable clients to make better decisions.
Psychology
Just how do we make decisions and what occurs in peoples minds to help them evaluate situations. What do we need to know about how peoples minds work?
“Cognitive control and value-based decision-making tasks appear to depend on different brain regions within the prefrontal cortex,” says Jan Glascher, lead author of the study and a visiting associate at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, referring to the seat of higher-level reasoning in the brain.[2]
In normal brain functioning people : a valuation network in the brain auto computes what's good and what's bad, before the person concerned has a chance to consciously understand the decision making process has occured. It is quick. It is intuitive and it is automatic.
This highlights the complexities in dealing with customers where you need them to make a considered rationale choice. The choice has less to do with the rationalities of your proposal and more to do with how they feel about you and your brand. In short they have a gut feel about what is good and what is bad for them : and if you have not connected with them then that good choice (rationally) seems the uncomfortable one.
Most people believe that the choices they make result from a rational analysis of available alternatives. In reality, however, emotions greatly influence and, in many cases, even determine our decisions
In a book, Descartes Error, Antonio Damasio, professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California, puts forth that emotions are necessary ingredients to almost all decisions. What occurs is that emotions from previous experiences attribute value and impact how we consider the options in front of us. These emotions create preferences which lead to our decision. Damasio’s view is based on his studies of people whose connections between the “thinking” and “emotional” areas of the brain had been damaged. They were capable of rationally processing information about alternative choices; but were unable to make decisions because they lacked any sense of how they felt about the options. (ref Dr Peter Noel Murray).
So if you are not using some method of assessing past experiences and values and hierachies in a clients decision making you actually leave so much of your process to chance. When it comes to money : we have values associated with our experiences and these values have been passed to us from our parents. If you are not questioning clients about these experiences your process is like waiting for a magic eye picture to appear.
This all means that what you need to embed in your process is :
- a means of uncovering a clients values
- questioning on past experiences
- determining a clients hierarchy of choice assessment
- looking at their goals and the why of their goals so you elevate a simple statement of a goal or objective to a highly functional progression and pathway that you indeed can influence
- a show casing of you as an individual and your brand
Dr Peter Noel Murray reminds us that The influential role of emotion in consumer behavior is well documented:
•Advertising research reveals that emotional response to an ad has far greater influence on a consumer’s reported intent to buy a product than does the ad’s content – by a factor of 3-to-1 for television commercials and 2-to-1 for print ads.
•Research conducted by the Advertising Research Foundation concluded that the emotion of “likeability” is the measure most predictive of whether an advertisement will increase a brand’s sales.
•Studies show that positive emotions toward a brand have far greater influence on consumer loyalty than trust and other judgments which are based on a brand’s attributes.
We pay more for brand names. These brands have emotionally connected with us. The richer the emotional content of a brand’s mental representation, the more likely the consumer will be a loyal user.[4]
[1] The Science of Emotion in Marketing: How Our Brains Decide What to Share and Whom to Trust : Courtney Seiter
[2] Making Choices: How Your Brain Decides
Two distinct brain networks guide our reasoning and the behaviors we ultimately undertake based on those judgments
By Maia Szalavitz @maiaszSept. 04, 2012
[3] Making Choices: How Your Brain Decides
Two distinct brain networks guide our reasoning and the behaviors we ultimately undertake based on those judgments
By Maia Szalavitz @maiaszSept. 04, 2012
[4] How Emotions Influence What We Buy
The emotional core of consumer decision-making
Published on February 26, 2013 by Peter Noel Murray, Ph.D. in Inside the Consumer Mind
Happiness is achieved by bonding and in the financial planners office when a client is most likely feeling emotions of fear and anxiety, people look to cope with those emotions by bonding with the adviser and the advice process. As researcher Lea Dunn advises us “in the absence of friends, consumers will create heightened emotional attachment with a brand that happens to be on hand.” That begs the question : how strong is your financial planning brand remembering that you and your staff indeed epitomise your brand and it is what clients are looking to bond with?
What is required then is process that embodies your authenticity and most importantly has an understanding of the psychology of the client before, during and after the advice process and how you can use technology to enhance that engagement. Welcome then to “Technoclientology”: the psychology of engaging clients in a modern world, where we combine what we have learnt from neuroscience, modernity and behavioural psychology and when combined with a social world, we can enable clients to make better decisions.
Psychology
Just how do we make decisions and what occurs in peoples minds to help them evaluate situations. What do we need to know about how peoples minds work?
“Cognitive control and value-based decision-making tasks appear to depend on different brain regions within the prefrontal cortex,” says Jan Glascher, lead author of the study and a visiting associate at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, referring to the seat of higher-level reasoning in the brain.[2]
In normal brain functioning people : a valuation network in the brain auto computes what's good and what's bad, before the person concerned has a chance to consciously understand the decision making process has occured. It is quick. It is intuitive and it is automatic.
This highlights the complexities in dealing with customers where you need them to make a considered rationale choice. The choice has less to do with the rationalities of your proposal and more to do with how they feel about you and your brand. In short they have a gut feel about what is good and what is bad for them : and if you have not connected with them then that good choice (rationally) seems the uncomfortable one.
Most people believe that the choices they make result from a rational analysis of available alternatives. In reality, however, emotions greatly influence and, in many cases, even determine our decisions
In a book, Descartes Error, Antonio Damasio, professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California, puts forth that emotions are necessary ingredients to almost all decisions. What occurs is that emotions from previous experiences attribute value and impact how we consider the options in front of us. These emotions create preferences which lead to our decision. Damasio’s view is based on his studies of people whose connections between the “thinking” and “emotional” areas of the brain had been damaged. They were capable of rationally processing information about alternative choices; but were unable to make decisions because they lacked any sense of how they felt about the options. (ref Dr Peter Noel Murray).
So if you are not using some method of assessing past experiences and values and hierachies in a clients decision making you actually leave so much of your process to chance. When it comes to money : we have values associated with our experiences and these values have been passed to us from our parents. If you are not questioning clients about these experiences your process is like waiting for a magic eye picture to appear.
This all means that what you need to embed in your process is :
- a means of uncovering a clients values
- questioning on past experiences
- determining a clients hierarchy of choice assessment
- looking at their goals and the why of their goals so you elevate a simple statement of a goal or objective to a highly functional progression and pathway that you indeed can influence
- a show casing of you as an individual and your brand
Dr Peter Noel Murray reminds us that The influential role of emotion in consumer behavior is well documented:
•Advertising research reveals that emotional response to an ad has far greater influence on a consumer’s reported intent to buy a product than does the ad’s content – by a factor of 3-to-1 for television commercials and 2-to-1 for print ads.
•Research conducted by the Advertising Research Foundation concluded that the emotion of “likeability” is the measure most predictive of whether an advertisement will increase a brand’s sales.
•Studies show that positive emotions toward a brand have far greater influence on consumer loyalty than trust and other judgments which are based on a brand’s attributes.
We pay more for brand names. These brands have emotionally connected with us. The richer the emotional content of a brand’s mental representation, the more likely the consumer will be a loyal user.[4]
[1] The Science of Emotion in Marketing: How Our Brains Decide What to Share and Whom to Trust : Courtney Seiter
[2] Making Choices: How Your Brain Decides
Two distinct brain networks guide our reasoning and the behaviors we ultimately undertake based on those judgments
By Maia Szalavitz @maiaszSept. 04, 2012
[3] Making Choices: How Your Brain Decides
Two distinct brain networks guide our reasoning and the behaviors we ultimately undertake based on those judgments
By Maia Szalavitz @maiaszSept. 04, 2012
[4] How Emotions Influence What We Buy
The emotional core of consumer decision-making
Published on February 26, 2013 by Peter Noel Murray, Ph.D. in Inside the Consumer Mind
Wednesday, 12 November 2014
A new way to connect with customers : Technoclientology defined
(This is the preamble and background to a recently published article in my IFA blog. I've set the scene here and then included the link to the IFA article for the "implementation steps")
There's something about plane travel and hotel rooms that gets my mind whirring in a good way. It's not the jet lag that sets it off, or the preservatives in the airplane food, or the lack of sleep from missing my contoured latex pillow. Quite the contrary, for me I find everything about the experience a wonderful array of petri dishes where at worst I get to observe human beings engage in what sadly is becoming a lost art: human interaction, and at certain high points as those petri dishes bubble over with colonies of live clashes of culture, I find the collision of sales, marketing, social interaction, technology and human behaviour truly fascinating.
The simple act of boarding a plane provides an opportunity to assess people and the choices they've made on how to board (using an app, a text message, a frequent flyer card, a good ole fashioned boarding pass - from a kiosk or printed from home or work). How do those choices correlate to their other behaviours and decisions? From luggage (trying to sneak a third bag past the disapproving attendant, or nonchalantly with the utmost confidence), to other items they carry : kindle, iPad, hardcover book, style of headphones, facial expressions, volume and tone of voice : all of this creates a story from which assumptions and rather accurate conclusions can be made about how an individual and consequently how we collectively are dealing with the modernity of society and translating it into our daily interpersonal interactions and decisions.
Now perhaps clearly I have too much time on my hands and am somewhat voyeuristic ("what's that guy in 3C staring at?") but, for me this type of people watching in situations like this is incredibly important. They are a guide to the psychology of how people engage in a world that is changing at a dramatic pace. They give us insights into how we act and utilise technology for ourselves and with others and how we like to be engaged in a service environment.
Apple, do this brilliantly and are a great example to choose as what they are selling is more than the latest and coolest gadget. What Apple sells by means of its Apple Genius employees is empathy and leadership which allows customers to make the right decisions for them. Dr Sebastian Bailey wrote in Forbes magazine how detailed and deliberate Apple have become at grasping and using the psychology of selling. Apple, he points out, use the “feel, felt, found” approach to not only demonstrate empathy but to also enact evidence of social proof to lead a customer to solutions that others like them have made[1]. This embodies what we now refer to as Emotional Intelligence, defined as the ability to monitor your own and others feelings and emotions. Sebastian continues that what Apple do having set the stage thus, is the “Geniuses are not passive” they use “mantras like ‘we guide every interaction’, ‘we recommend solutions’ and ‘we help them discover’. Through the handy mnemonic ‘APPLE’ (Approach, Probe, Present, Listen, End), employees lead customers to a decision that they believe is all their own.”[2] Now this is where the neuroscience of Technoclientology kicks in because when it comes to choice, three is the magic number. As Sebastian reminds us, Researchers at the University of Minnesota used brain scans to show that it’s easier to make a choice between three products than it is to choose between two.
Going deeper here choice architecture is the process of encouraging people to make good choices through grouping and ordering the decisions in a way that maximizes successful choices and minimizes the number of people who become so overwhelmed by complexity that they abandon the attempt to choose. Generally, success is improved by presenting the smaller or simpler choices first, and by choosing and promoting sensible default options.[3]
Can we assess these choices using technology and in particular via social networks? Long have we heard that the future involves us arriving home, activating our giant touch screen wall, being notified that one friend has recorded Entourage for you and 3 others are watching it right now and that your groceries you ordered via an app are 5 minutes away from being delivered and a map indicates where the driver is right at that very minute, etc, etc, etc. The future may be coming fast but interaction with only a touch screen wall is maybe a pipe dream. In a study by the Australian Psychological Society, respondents were asked about their preference for online communication when compared to face-to-face interactions. The majority of respondents reported that they preferred to communicate with people in person rather than using online social networking sites (54%, with 25% neutral on this matter) suggesting that people are not necessarily moving away from face-to-face interactions but perhaps use online social networking to enhance their in person communications.[4] However disturbingly but perhaps not surprisingly if you’ve caught an elevator lately (a place where temporary hypnosis always takes effect) and seen every person staring into their phone, concerns about reduced face-to-face interactions and the loss of social skills have emerged.
Being “social” and using the technology platforms of social media means effective engagement to enhance interaction not to detract from it. Gossieaux and Moran, identify that in a web 2.0 world we are as human 1.0 beings engaging like we always have in that we are engaging in tribes, it’s just that now we can engage with tribes that span the globe and belong to multiple tribes at the same time, but what hasn’t changed is that these tribes have formed as they always have : there is a common connection and there is a transference of beliefs, knowledge and value that affects the way in which we make decisions and ultimately in how we live.[5]
In creating the term Technoclientology, my intent was to guide those in the business of professional services and all service industries for that matter to an umbrella discipline for engaging customers. Technoclientology then is the psychology of engaging clients in a modern world and encompasses the skills, techniques and concepts of sales, modernity, social (read Human) 1.0 and the insights from the field of neuroscience, that when combined allow us to observe, collate data, analyse and draw conclusions about how people will react and make decisions in a given situation faced with competing choices. A Technoclientologist uses these insights to enable people to become empowered and make decisions that are in their best interests. What is achieved here is the working towards a greater good.
So where to from here? Read the rest of this article and the steps you need to really connect with clients at:
http://www.ifa.com.au/blogs/13875-why-you-need-to-be-a-technoclientologist?utm_source=IFA&utm_campaign=IFA_Bulletin06_11_2014&utm_medium=email
[1] Bailey, Sebastian, 2012, The Psychological Tricks Behind Apple’s Service Secrets, Forbes, 2012
[2] Bailey, Sebastian, 2012, The Psychological Tricks Behind Apple’s Service Secrets, Forbes, 2012
[3] Iyengar, Sheena, 2010, The Art of Choosing: The Decisions We Make Everyday - What They Say About Us and How We Can Improve Them. Hachette UK
[4] The Australian Psychological Society, 2010, The Social and Psychological Impact of Online Social Networking
[5] Gossieaux and Moran, 2010, The Hyper-Social Organisation
There's something about plane travel and hotel rooms that gets my mind whirring in a good way. It's not the jet lag that sets it off, or the preservatives in the airplane food, or the lack of sleep from missing my contoured latex pillow. Quite the contrary, for me I find everything about the experience a wonderful array of petri dishes where at worst I get to observe human beings engage in what sadly is becoming a lost art: human interaction, and at certain high points as those petri dishes bubble over with colonies of live clashes of culture, I find the collision of sales, marketing, social interaction, technology and human behaviour truly fascinating.
The simple act of boarding a plane provides an opportunity to assess people and the choices they've made on how to board (using an app, a text message, a frequent flyer card, a good ole fashioned boarding pass - from a kiosk or printed from home or work). How do those choices correlate to their other behaviours and decisions? From luggage (trying to sneak a third bag past the disapproving attendant, or nonchalantly with the utmost confidence), to other items they carry : kindle, iPad, hardcover book, style of headphones, facial expressions, volume and tone of voice : all of this creates a story from which assumptions and rather accurate conclusions can be made about how an individual and consequently how we collectively are dealing with the modernity of society and translating it into our daily interpersonal interactions and decisions.
Now perhaps clearly I have too much time on my hands and am somewhat voyeuristic ("what's that guy in 3C staring at?") but, for me this type of people watching in situations like this is incredibly important. They are a guide to the psychology of how people engage in a world that is changing at a dramatic pace. They give us insights into how we act and utilise technology for ourselves and with others and how we like to be engaged in a service environment.
Apple, do this brilliantly and are a great example to choose as what they are selling is more than the latest and coolest gadget. What Apple sells by means of its Apple Genius employees is empathy and leadership which allows customers to make the right decisions for them. Dr Sebastian Bailey wrote in Forbes magazine how detailed and deliberate Apple have become at grasping and using the psychology of selling. Apple, he points out, use the “feel, felt, found” approach to not only demonstrate empathy but to also enact evidence of social proof to lead a customer to solutions that others like them have made[1]. This embodies what we now refer to as Emotional Intelligence, defined as the ability to monitor your own and others feelings and emotions. Sebastian continues that what Apple do having set the stage thus, is the “Geniuses are not passive” they use “mantras like ‘we guide every interaction’, ‘we recommend solutions’ and ‘we help them discover’. Through the handy mnemonic ‘APPLE’ (Approach, Probe, Present, Listen, End), employees lead customers to a decision that they believe is all their own.”[2] Now this is where the neuroscience of Technoclientology kicks in because when it comes to choice, three is the magic number. As Sebastian reminds us, Researchers at the University of Minnesota used brain scans to show that it’s easier to make a choice between three products than it is to choose between two.
Going deeper here choice architecture is the process of encouraging people to make good choices through grouping and ordering the decisions in a way that maximizes successful choices and minimizes the number of people who become so overwhelmed by complexity that they abandon the attempt to choose. Generally, success is improved by presenting the smaller or simpler choices first, and by choosing and promoting sensible default options.[3]
Can we assess these choices using technology and in particular via social networks? Long have we heard that the future involves us arriving home, activating our giant touch screen wall, being notified that one friend has recorded Entourage for you and 3 others are watching it right now and that your groceries you ordered via an app are 5 minutes away from being delivered and a map indicates where the driver is right at that very minute, etc, etc, etc. The future may be coming fast but interaction with only a touch screen wall is maybe a pipe dream. In a study by the Australian Psychological Society, respondents were asked about their preference for online communication when compared to face-to-face interactions. The majority of respondents reported that they preferred to communicate with people in person rather than using online social networking sites (54%, with 25% neutral on this matter) suggesting that people are not necessarily moving away from face-to-face interactions but perhaps use online social networking to enhance their in person communications.[4] However disturbingly but perhaps not surprisingly if you’ve caught an elevator lately (a place where temporary hypnosis always takes effect) and seen every person staring into their phone, concerns about reduced face-to-face interactions and the loss of social skills have emerged.
Being “social” and using the technology platforms of social media means effective engagement to enhance interaction not to detract from it. Gossieaux and Moran, identify that in a web 2.0 world we are as human 1.0 beings engaging like we always have in that we are engaging in tribes, it’s just that now we can engage with tribes that span the globe and belong to multiple tribes at the same time, but what hasn’t changed is that these tribes have formed as they always have : there is a common connection and there is a transference of beliefs, knowledge and value that affects the way in which we make decisions and ultimately in how we live.[5]
In creating the term Technoclientology, my intent was to guide those in the business of professional services and all service industries for that matter to an umbrella discipline for engaging customers. Technoclientology then is the psychology of engaging clients in a modern world and encompasses the skills, techniques and concepts of sales, modernity, social (read Human) 1.0 and the insights from the field of neuroscience, that when combined allow us to observe, collate data, analyse and draw conclusions about how people will react and make decisions in a given situation faced with competing choices. A Technoclientologist uses these insights to enable people to become empowered and make decisions that are in their best interests. What is achieved here is the working towards a greater good.
So where to from here? Read the rest of this article and the steps you need to really connect with clients at:
http://www.ifa.com.au/blogs/13875-why-you-need-to-be-a-technoclientologist?utm_source=IFA&utm_campaign=IFA_Bulletin06_11_2014&utm_medium=email
[1] Bailey, Sebastian, 2012, The Psychological Tricks Behind Apple’s Service Secrets, Forbes, 2012
[2] Bailey, Sebastian, 2012, The Psychological Tricks Behind Apple’s Service Secrets, Forbes, 2012
[3] Iyengar, Sheena, 2010, The Art of Choosing: The Decisions We Make Everyday - What They Say About Us and How We Can Improve Them. Hachette UK
[4] The Australian Psychological Society, 2010, The Social and Psychological Impact of Online Social Networking
[5] Gossieaux and Moran, 2010, The Hyper-Social Organisation
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