See it, Feel it, Change it!
Any discussion about feelings in the business world might seem unnatural and even awkward. We are all more comfortable as supply chain professionals dealing with rational undisputable facts. Yet, there is more and more empirical evidence that suggests that it is much more persuasive than hard facts if we can get people to SEE what we are talking about, FEEL what we are talking about and then on their own CHANGE.
Case in Point! Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, as reported in SuperFreakonomics, was stuck at 80% compliance on their hand-washing policy, while their goal was 90%. One day their hospital leaders surprised their medical staff and administration at a meeting by asking them to press their hands into an agar plate. The agar plates were then sent to their lab for culturing. At the next meeting, the hospital leaders showed these same individuals photos of the plates that revealed gobs of deadly bacteria on all of the attendee’s hands that would later examine patients or eat lunch. The hospital also went one step beyond this demonstration. They took the filthiest photo images and made a screen saver to be shown on the hospital’s network of computers. Suddenly, hand-washing compliance spiked to nearly 100% and stayed there.
In some ways this concept is just like a science class. Until students with their own eyes can SEE an experiment work, FEEL its effects on their environment, they won’t CHANGE their preconceived opinions. The theory behind this idea is that knowledge alone is rarely enough to make change happen. People have to want change to happen!
This subtle change awareness is best achieved through EMOTIONS, not logic. This can be best brought about through demonstrations, experiments, and dramatizations; actually, anything you can think of that can get an emotional response!
So I hope you can see that while facts, data and statistics are important to inform and educate your customers, “It takes emotion to bring knowledge to a boil” states Dan Heath and Chip Heath the authors of Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard.
Filed Under: Change Management • savingsblog
