Say Yes!

A large Danish company once hired me to help develop and deliver a five-day program for senior commercial managers. The theme was “Making Strategies Happen”.?

On the first day, a professor at a business school taught about strategy. The next two days were dedicated to effective project management. The rest of the time the participants spent with me, focusing on making others follow.?

On the third day, I met them in a big room after dinner for the "Yes Crash Course." Through a presentation based on neuroscience and a series of exercises, I kind of brainwashed them to say "Yes!" on my command. Influenced them to make new circuits in the brain and reinforced habitual learning by repetition. Say yes!

The next morning, during breakfast, I unexpectedly showed up to introduce the day's program. My opening statement to this group of commercial leaders was that I found sales extremely boring. They looked up in astonishment. After a pause to allow for reactions, I continued: “What fascinates me is buying”.

Buying is the ultimate outcome of any sales process, whether it is a product, service or experience. My rationale was that understanding the psychology of the buying process will make you a much better seller.?

The turning point in a buying process is when you accept investing time, energy or money to receive back something of perceived value. You engage in an exchange of goods and possibilities. Say yes!

“Why say no? No is closing. Period. End of story. Say Yes! And open to adventure, growth and life.” (From the “Yes Crash Course”)

Making others follow starts with them buying your idea. Their positive response is seen in the change of behavior, now driven by a desire to get or do whatever you propose or display. When it comes to that, we are all buyers and sellers of ideas. Say Yes!

Behavior is how we react or respond to a particular situation or stimulus. Most behavior is unconscious. We react more than we respond to life. The context we are in heavily influences what we think, feel and do. This makes it obvious to use design to influence behavior. And also to make the right choice as easy, fun and rewarding as possible. Say Yes!

The human brain developed at a time of history where resources were scarce. The ability to save energy became an evolutionary qualifier. The brain is still obsessed with energy saving, always in the market for simple and safe solutions.?The easier, the better.

Science has shown that the most direct way to influence behavior is to work with context design and habit building. A smart design element is to set the desired behavior as the default, ensuring that it costs additional energy to deviate from the pre-selected option.?

By tapping into what is already there, we can influence behavior with little or no effort. You can tap into existing structure, link to social routines, or combine already established personal habits. You can put triggers, cues and nudges in the environment or remove barriers to the desired behavior. Making it easy to behave as desired, and hard not to. Say Yes!

The old brain regions are super fast and inexpensive to run compared to the newer regions. The behavior controlled from these regions is unconscious and automatic?—?based on a complex yet primitive pattern recognition system. We call it habits.?

By connecting areas of the brain holding attention and intention with areas controlling the conditioned behavior, you can design new habit circuits and make it easy to act and react as wanted. Linking to already existing habits (habit stacking) is a powerful way to activate and anchor new behavior. Say Yes!

The buying process is an active interplay between motivation, ability, and opportunity. Motivation is the desire to move closer to a reward or away from a threat. Ability refers to the competence, knowledge and experience you have, but also to the context you are in. Opportunity is about being at the right place at the right time.

According to the behavioral scientist BJ Fogg , you can accelerate things by turning opportunities into prompts and matching them to the identified motivation and ability.?

In a simplified view, there are three main motivators: sensation of pleasure or pain, anticipation of hope or fear, and belonging (acceptance/rejection). The away from motivators are the strongest and fastest, while the towards motivators are weaker, but longer lasting.

Ability can be increased in three ways: through training, with tools and resources, or through facilitating behavior. In general, you decrease complexity and increase simplicity.

Prompts can be designed as a cue, trigger, call to action, request, etc. Your task as a behavioral designer is to match the right prompt with the actual motivation and ability. If you succeed, you can start a whole chain of behaviors leading to the desired outcome.?

The advice is to start small if you want behavioral change to be sustainable. For example, if you want people to contribute more in meetings, you can start inviting them to pose curious questions or adapt an agenda point. If they get the idea, maybe later they will take over entire meetings, including preparation, facilitation and follow up.

We are all influencers. If you want to have impact, you must get attention from others and allow them to engage in your idea. In fact, you need a series of Yes’es.?

The first two come from accepting who you are and the circumstances you are in. You must say “Yes to the Mess” , as professor and jazz musician Frank Barret wrote in his book of the same name.?

The next Yes’es come from the people attracted by your idea and involved in contributing to the progress of the ongoing process. At a certain point, they adapt the idea and call it their own. These final Yes’es build the sense of attachment and belonging. Things are moving your way. Say Yes!

The brain-friendly approach is part of conscious innervation and the transperiental matrix.