Semmelweis Reflex - Now Wash Your Hands

In This Issue:

Semmelweis Reflex or Persuasion Failure - Now Wash Your Hands!

Semmelweis Reflex or Persuasion Failure?

Have you ever wondered why your powers of persuasion failed, even when you provided compelling evidence?

Have you experienced your amazing offer being rejected even though it was seemingly an irresistible deal?

Was your innovative start-up idea rejected, despite you providing supporting metrics that made it a no-brainer?

Has your boss or Leadership Team rejected your suggestions for them to embrace Lean Agile behaviours, in support of so-called Agile Transformation initiative that the stakeholders have heavily invested in?

You may think your powers of persuasion have totally failed you.

Because what you are saying is plain and simple common sense.

A no-brainer, even. And you can prove it.

That rejection, in the face of compelling evidence to the contrary, sounds like Semmelweis Reflex!

Wikipedia defines this as:

The?Semmelweis reflex?or "Semmelweis effect" is a metaphor for the reflex-like?tendency to reject new evidence or new knowledge because it contradicts established norms, beliefs, or?paradigms.

Rejection of evidence that contradicts the status quo, affects all areas of a business, including sales, marketing, health and safety, Finance, HR, Operations, coaching, customer acquisition and customer attrition.

Rejection of evidence to bring about change, is also highly prevalent in Agile transformation initiatives. It's a major contributor to their failure.

The underlying triggers for these defensive human behaviours transcend departmental boundaries.

WHY SEMMELWEIS REFLEX?

In 1847, Hungarian physician, Ignaz Semmelweis, discovered that childbed (puerperal) fever mortality rates fell ten-fold when doctors disinfected their hands between seeing patients, and especially after performing autopsies.

It's a no-brainer, right??

Guess what…his colleagues didn't believe him!

Why should they? After all, germ theory had not been discovered then.

Despite Semmelweis providing compelling evidence from his research, doctors simply rejected the theory that hand-washing would prevent the transmission of disease.

Instead, some openly ridiculed him and majority upheld their pre-existing belief that "gentlemen's hands are clean".?

A pathologist colleague, Professor Jakob Kolletschka, cut his finger with a scalpel during an autopsy and he later died of a febrile illness, similar to that affecting his female patients, who were giving birth at the hospital.

Semmelweis observed the connection with his claim that "cadaverous particles" were contaminating pregnant women patients and he had growing evidence which supported this.

As his colleagues' rejection continued, some sought to have him struck off as a doctor, and his mental health deteriorated

Semmelweis was, in 1865, forcibly locked up in an asylum, cruelly treated, until he died 2 weeks later, ironically from sepsis infection, widely attributed to injuries resulting from the beatings he received as an in-patient.

It's enough to make you think twice about going into a Board Room with a shiny new slide deck to support your pitch!

CULTURE & BELIEFS

In her book, "The Insider's Guide to Culture Change", Siobhán (shiv-awn) McHale defines corporate culture as:

…the way we do things around here.?

Regardless of whether it makes sense, people behave in unpredictable and illogical ways - because they always have.

These behaviours are often founded on beliefs.?

Beliefs and culture are closely intertwined and have nothing to do with common sense or no-brainers.

Ultimately, our beliefs trigger our behaviours in response to certain stimuli.

Our brains work to maintain the status quo, and resist change.

DECODED - DEFENDING THE STATUS QUO

Having first discovered Semmelweis Reflex some years ago, I have not heard anyone speak about it in the field of #coaching or #marketing recently, apart from Phil Barden , in his compelling book, "Decoded".

If you confront people with information that contradicts their existing mental models or paradigms, it evokes what the scientists called reactance, which is like a defensive and negative response, causing them to reject that information.

Barden suggests that humans feel threatened when anything risks upsetting the status quo and we naturally reject any new information that may create any turbulence in our lives.

This goes back to our basic survival instinct of preserving energy that might otherwise be expended on causing uncertain change to the status quo, which has facilitated our survival so far.

Why risk this?

It's a no-brainer, right?

Our default reasoning is that to do so creates risk, which could otherwise be avoided, simply by rejecting new evidence, regardless of its provenance.

If we understand why Semmelweis Reflex might be the default behaviour, we can seek ways to overcome this with Decision Science and persuasion.

To reject this, which is often the default behaviour of those suggesting change, is also a form of Semmelweis Reflex on our part.

Think about it.

If we accept that people reject compelling evidence to change merely because it disrupts their status quo, our inaction to persuade them to change is even worse.

Because we know better - we have the evidence to support that.

It's a no-brainer, right?

IMPACT-BASED PRICING - A NO-BRAINER

If we reject compelling evidence that our customers won't pay us based on the value of the outcome (IMPACT) that we deliver, we shall continue to miss out on the increased revenue that we deserve, by charging for our services at a lower, time-based rate (hourly, daily etc.).?

That belief holds us back from realising our true potential, simply because we fall back on that traditional limiting concept of, "we have never charged for our services that way, so we can never change that".

Semmelweis Reflex!

As a child, I remember hearing the story of a Vespa scooter mechanic who was asked to travel with club members on trips from London to Brighton, in case any of them broke down.

He did so, without seeking upfront payment, and when one of the scooters broke down, miles from anywhere, he promptly got out his tools and within minutes, the machine was up and running again.

He charged the equivalent of a day's labour for 5 minutes work, explaining that the fee was for his expert knowledge, together with the outcome of an unspoiled day of riding, which would otherwise have been spent at the roadside, waiting for a rescue truck ride back to London.

He made more money on these weekend club outings than he did with his day job.

He certainly knew his worth and his customers were happy to pay him accordingly for the peace of mind and life-changing outcome that he provided.

It's a no brainer, right?

Absolutely, but most of us reject the possibility of doing something similar.

I have been guilty of that for years!

Semmelweis Reflex? Oh, yes!

Susan Trivers is an IMPACT-BASED Pricing SME, who coaches professional services firms to overcome these demoralising, preconceived beliefs, that they are not worthy of being rewarded for the life-changing outcomes that they deliver.

Susan helps businesses to unlock those untapped profits that are simply there for the taking.?

Only connect with Susan if you are serious about wanting to know your worth and being rewarded accordingly, just like the Vespa mechanic.

Otherwise, preserve your status quo, submit to your inner Semmelweis Reflex and leave that untapped money on the table for your competitors to steal - they know their worth!

MY EXPERIENCE - A NO-BRAINER

During an Enterprise Coaching engagement with an eCommerce SaaS business, for which I ashamedly admit that I charged my services at a daily rate (forgive me Susan Trivers ! ??), the customer wanted me to resolve non-delivery issues within their Agile teams and increase their bottom line.

Whilst interviewing key people at all levels of the business, I quickly gained a clear picture of their overall business model, their end-to-end Value Stream and clear visibility of their bottlenecks.

Their marketing campaigns were purely focused on customer acquisition and the cost of this was high.?

However, customer acquisition was low, mainly due to the internal Agile technical teams not delivering those campaigns to the corporate website, thus forcing the business to outsource some key campaigns to a costly agency.

The bottleneck was clearly the non-delivery of the Agile teams.

"Let's fix that", I suggested.?

It's a no-brainer, right?

One of the Senior Leaders, who was responsible for the Agile teams, refused to accept this, despite the combined testimonies that I had collected from the other Senior Leaders confirming the buck stopped with the Agile teams.

Despite the overwhelmingly compelling evidence, which supported their prime objective for engaging my services, the rejection soon followed.

"Our Agile teams are good enough", echoed around the Board Room, to the frustration of all in attendance.

Common sense was rejected that day, for no logical reason.

Semmelweis Reflex!

I went on to draw their attention to the fact that their customer attrition rate was also high.

If the root cause for this could be addressed, it would be cost-effective to retain existing customers, therefore reducing attrition, whilst creating an opportunity to launch a campaign to winback lost customers with their newly-improved service.

Stating the obvious, this was a relatively low-cost way of picking up the money that was already on the table.

It's a no-brainer, right?

Wrong!

My evidence was rejected.

Addressing high customer attrition and customer #winback was completely off the agenda, at all management levels of the business.?It wasn't even up for discussion.

Frustratingly, those untapped profits remained on the table, unclaimed. A prime opportunity for a competitor to steal it all.

The #culture, "...the way we do things around here", prevailed.

The piercing silence resonated like a battle sound in defense of the status quo, as the Board Room emptied, together with their profits.

Semmelweis Reflex!

WINBACK - A NO-BRAINER

Dan Pfister is a customer Winback Marketing Expert, he is also the host of The Winback Marketing Podcast .

I love what Dan does. Customer #winback really is a no-brainer, and I have had tremendous success with it in my early career.

Dan says:

"There is gold buried in your past customers".

Yet his greatest challenge is convincing businesses to focus on winback and mine the gold that is already theirs for the taking.

It's a no-brainer, right?

Not exactly.

Semmelweis Reflex?

In this interview with Dan, where I reveal how, by overcoming Semmelweis Reflex, I closed a record sale through customer winback and nearly got the Sales Director fired!

Listen on Spotify?

Listen on Apple?

Do connect with Dan Pfister and subscribe to The Winback Marketing Podcast .

WE ARE FOCUSED ON WHAT'S RIGHT IN FRONT OF US

Dan Pfister , host of The Winback Marketing Podcast , asked Nancy Harhut , author of "Using Behavioral Science in Marketing", why most companies reject compelling evidence to winback lost customers in favour of acquiring new ones.?

Nancy responded:?

"From a Behavioural Science perspective, it may have to do with, the fact that we are focused on the present.?

It's all about what's in front of us right now. The idea of going in and getting new customers is just a lot more salient.

Part of it is the way companies are structured, and how they prioritise things.?

There's always this push, 'We need to get new business', 'We need to grow our customer base'. That's what's in front of them. If they??have to sell more product they need to find more customers. Maybe have a new customer acquisition goal or a new market penetration goal.

Because that's the more salient thing, the thing that people are more aware of, the thing that's in front of them, they are more focused on it.?

To their detriment, they forget about winback, they forget about retention and they focus on acquisition, acquisition, acquisition.?

So, from a Behavioural Science perspective, we are focused on what is right in front of us, the thing that is salient and most important, for many companies that is, growing their customer base."

Listen to Nancy Harhut 's interview on The Winback Marketing Podcast on Apple and Spotify.

OVERCOMING SEMMELWEIS REFLEX - A NO-BRAINER

Often, we refuse to see and act upon the no-brainers in life, simply because we have never done so.

We reject all evidence that might disrupt the status quo.

The habitual "...the way we do things around here", is a culture that you will recognise and may even be a part of.

Often described as "The Saviour of Mothers", thousands, perhaps millions of lives have been saved because of the research of Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis.

Sadly, he paid the ultimate price.

You don't have to.

But you might pay the high price of missing out when your competitors act upon those no-brainers first.

It's a no-brainer, right?

Now wash your hands!

In the next edition of Delivery With Agility , I'll unpack more of What's New In Scrum and how it has become more delivery-focused than ever.

Scrum on!