by Janus Boye
Susan joined us from her home office in rural Wisconsin
The stories that we tell ourselves drive behavior. The stories help us understand who we are and why we do what we do, but how can you get people to change their self story?
In a member conference call, Susan Weinschenk joined us from rural Wisconsin for a conversation on the power of self stories to drive behavior. Susan has a Ph.D. in Psychology and she’s the author of "How To Get People To Do Stuff" where she describes the seven basic drivers of human motivation. Susan focuses on how to use human behavior research to dramatically improve the impact of your products and services.
How to get people to change their self stories?
Susan opened the conversation by briefly covering the idea of self stories and then taking us through how to get people to change their self stories. She used the example of a late adopter trying a new app.
Here’s three ways to do it according to Susan:
A crack in the self story, typically by taking small actions. This could be the late adopter who tries a new app and then realises that it wasn’t that hard and comes with some benefits. As other small actions are taken, the story eventually changes.
Fall into someone else’s stories. This could be by watching a video with a peer who has installed the new app. Peers, like a colleague, can be quite convincing and simply by watching how they seamlessly did it, can easily make you fall into their story.
Change your own self story. This is the conscious approach taken by few, where you actually write down your existing self story, and then simply rewrite it.
Ideally, Susan advised to feed into the stories people already have. That’s a bit easier than making them change their story.
Be careful with your assumptions
During the conversation, a question came up on culture and demographics. How important is it to understand the self stories?
Susan offered this advice:
There are big differences between living in the US or Asia, but one of the trickiest things for behavior change is to decide which of the factors are the most important
In other words: Be careful with assumptions. Don’t assume that just because your approach to change worked for one group, it will automatically work for another.
Back in 2017 Susan was a very popular guest star in one of our peer group meetings in Copenhagen. Self stories also came up, but we also made the connection to what really matters in a persona.
Nudging is like GPS directions
In closing we spoke about nudging and how to apply those techniques. According to Susan, it’s slightly different terminology, but the same thing. As she said:
With nudging you get someone to take small actions with big consequences. You are changing the situation, environment, what’s obvious or not obvious, to encourage people to take that small action.
When do you do nudge someone, and they do something differently, you are changing the self story.
Guthrie Weinschenk, Susan’s son, stepped in and offered the comparison between nudging and GPS directions. This is also how University of Chicago economist Richard H. Thaler and Harvard Law School Professor Cass R. Sunstein described nudges in their book Nudge. The book was published in 2009 and both coined the term nudging and catapulted nudge to be buzzword of the year a decade ago.
As Guthrie said:
A nudge, similar to a GPS direction, helps you get to where you want to get to. You can turn a different way any time you want, but nudges or GPS directions, helps you get to your destination. If you are trying to get people to a place they don’t want to go, it’s more changing behavior or even manipulation.
Learn more about behaviors and motivation
Earlier this year, BJ Fogg was the guest star on our first conference call of 2020. He talked about his new book Tiny Habits and took part in a popular Q & A on how simplicity changes behavior.
Susan also referenced the book Redirect, where world-renowned psychologist Timothy Wilson shows us how to redirect the stories we tell about ourselves and the world around us, with subtle prompts, in ways that lead to lasting change.
If you want to continue the conversation, Susan also said to just reach out to her. You can easily find her contact details on her business - The Team W.
Back in 2017, Susan made it to one of our Copenhagen peer group meetings and among the topics was what really matters in a persona.
Finally, you can also watch the 28-minute conversation below. It’s without slides, yet still full of insights and practical examples.