ViewPoint.Orange

This is the first post of a new series – Orange Delight! This series stems from a simple belief “we are inspired people, we are ready to change the world with a smile.”  As a on-going effort, I will share a source of my inspiration every other week. Your thoughts and comments are very much appreciated =)

For this very 1st week, I’d like to introduce my latest addiction - Mind Mapping. It is a fantastic creativity booster and it keeps the thought process well organized. As opposed to linear documents, mind maps are more like graphs, with nodes of information which in turn holds other nodes of information. You can create a mind map for a book, describing each chapter as a node, or for a project, defining each feature as a node. Whenever you have the time to re-create your project, do it with a mind map. Start with the title and then add nodes with features or goals. You can use  mind mapping software programs or you can simply start with a blank paper, the physical support doesn’t really matters. The key is that mind mapping makes it easy to understand, remember, and communicate complex information.

If you are like me, your brain sometimes feels as if it is scrambled because of information overload, overwhelm, or under tremendous pressure. Switching out of the linear perspective, from the height of bird-eye view, something will start to change the way you process information. You’ll start to see new connections, missing links or unnecessary clutter. Before you know it, you will feel more organized and more inspired.

Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question “Why?” His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers — and as a counterpoint Tivo, which (until a recent court victory that tripled its stock price) appeared to be struggling.

Most American families all got a brochure from the Census Bureau within the past two weeks. Have you ever wondered why does the Census Bureau send letters telling people that they are going to be receiving their census form in the mail? Commerce Secretary Gary Locke told Jon Stewart on The Daily Show “past research has shown that if we send this advanced mailing, we can actually increase the response rate the percentage of households sending back the census form by six percent to twelve percent.”

In a similar vein, study has shown that by asking potential voters to predict whether they will vote on an election and to provide a reason for their prediction, participation rate could be increase 20% to 25%.

So what’s actually driving the drastic increase? Based on my recent interesting read of <Yes! 50 scientifically proven ways to be persuasive>, there are two important psychological steps involved in the success of this technique. First of all, when people are asked to predict whether they’ll engage in a socially desirable behavior in the future, they feel compelled to say yes because that’s the socially appropriate thing to say. Secondly, after most of these people have publicly state that they’ll perform the socially desirable behavior, they’ll be motivated to behave consistently with the commitment they just made.

What lessons can we draw from this human factor that can be effectively employed in our lives?

1. If you plan on joining a charity run for a nonprofit, start by asking your friends, family and co-workers whether they think they’ll donate
2. If you manage a restaurant or doctor’s office, having your receptionist ASK instead of TELL when taking a reservation. Simply by changing “Please call if you have to cancel,” to “Will you please call if you have to cancel?” I ensure you the no-show rate would drop significantly!
3. If you are designing a nonprofit/corporate responsibility website where voting mechanism is the center piece, make sure to cement those potential voters’ commitment by making it voluntary, active and publicly declared to others.

Small and easy changes to our messages and to our requests can be made vastly more persuasive, just remember: asking a little goes a long way!

How many problems in life can be solved by TINKERING the PERCEPTION rather than the tedious hard-working messy business of trying to change reality? LOL – isn’t this the main purpose behind all advertising & marketing? Don’t miss Rory Sutherland’s fantastic marketing solutions via TED talk. Check out discussions and comments here.