The StoryBank
Stories have impact. When we use them in our business conversations, they make our messages clear and memorable. We are all great storytellers, but we can't be a one-story wonder. This podcast is designed to help you build your story collection.
The StoryBank
Episode 168 – Everyone’s Doing It – The Sign That Made It Worse
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Many years ago, an electric utility ran a simple experiment. It started telling households how their electricity use compared to their neighbours’ average.
It worked. Heavy users cut back.
But something unexpected happened as well. Households already using less energy than their neighbours saw the same comparison and started using more. If everyone around you is using more, then why hold back?
The solution to the “boomerang” problem turned out to be almost embarrassingly small. The company added a smiley face to the bill of anyone using less than average, and that one addition wiped out the backfire completely.
Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein tell this story in their must-read book, Nudge.
Telling people what’s normal is a powerful lever. It just moves behaviour in whichever direction you point it.
This week’s story looks at two real attempts to pull that exact lever, one in a hotel bathroom, the other in a national park hundreds of miles away. One worked beautifully. The other nearly tripled the very problem it was trying to fix. These examples are from Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence.
Listen on.
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