Introduction: Change Management and The Cookie Framework
Melina Palmer: Welcome to episode seven of The Brainy Business, understanding the psychology of why people buy. This episode is called Change Management. It’s still not about the cookie. Ready? Let’s go.
Announcer: You are listening to The Brainy Business podcast, where we dig into the psychology of why people buy and help you incorporate behavioral economics into your business, making it more brain friendly. Now here’s your host, Melina Palmer.
Melina Palmer: Hello everyone, my name is Melina Palmer and I want to welcome you to The Brainy Business podcast. The past two weeks have been dedicated to my “it’s not about the cookie” framework, which show how the experience and all the things leading up to the sale matter much more than whatever is being sold itself or the price you label it at. This week, I am extending to one more application: change management. Think of this as anytime you’re trying to get someone to buy in and make a commitment where money is not exchanged. And because I have gone in depth on the cookie story in the last two episodes, I will not explain it again here. If you have not yet listened to episode five, The Truth About Pricing, or episode six, How to Sell from the Stage, I recommend you check those out to help with the foundation. There are links to both in the show notes and you can always find the episodes by using the show number after the website URL. For example, you can find episode five by going to thebrainybusiness.com/five. And remember, while I will not always mention the show notes, anything that makes you stop and think hm. I would like to read more on that study or I wish I had a link to that is probably linked there. So check the show notes regularly and if you don’t see something you expected to have there, shoot me an email Melina@thebrainybusiness.com and I will put something together for you. Oh, I almost forgot. All three of these episodes have awesome freebie worksheets you can download and use to enhance your learning and application of the concepts. So when you visit those pages, like for this episode at thebrainybusiness.com/seven. You can download your free worksheet to build out your next change conversation. And if you’re on The Brainy Business email list already, you got that in your inbox when this episode went live on Friday. If you’re not yet on the list, I would love to have you join the group. You can get onto the list by downloading my free ebook, the Ten Behavioral Economics Concepts You Need to Know and How to Apply Them. Or when you download any of the freebies in an episode, just make sure you select that you want to receive the newsletters. This can all be done at thebrainybusiness.com.
Understanding Change Management as Non-Monetary Sales
Melina Palmer: Okay, now that we have all that out of the way, I want to talk to you about change management. Before I get too much into the weeds, I want to talk about what this concept actually means. I struggled for quite a while to come up with a title for this episode. I think because I was really anchored in this concept of pricing and sales and dollars and money, because it’s all in this cookie framework, and I was trying to bring it all together, and I was looking for a catchy name title and was having a hard time finding the right fit. So I asked my husband, because he’s my sounding board for pretty much everything, to get his thoughts on titles I was considering. And when I was explaining the concept, I said, you know, it’s every time you’re having a conversation and trying to sell someone on your perspective, but no money changes hands. I’ve been thinking of it as non-monetary sales. To which he said, Melina, and I say this with love, don’t ever use the term non-monetary sales again. So that made me laugh. I felt like I had to share it with you today just for whatever it says about my personality. Now, I kind of want to prove I can make that term take off.
Melina Palmer: But for this episode, we will stick with change management or leading through change, which is clearly something that a lot of people are talking about
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Melina Palmer: these days. When I put change management into a Google search, it brought back 1.3 billion with a B billion results. So this is something people are talking about right now and are interested in. And I am, really excited to let you know how the. It’s not about the cookie framework ties in with change management. It may seem like it doesn’t come together, but really, change and getting people to change is all about selling them on your perspective and getting them to buy in and commit, even when money is not being exchanged. Let me give you a couple of home life examples, to help ease into the concept. Have you ever tried to get your significant other to take out the trash or do the dishes? You are selling them on the concept, and they’re under no obligation to buy what you’re offering. No money exchanges hands. In theory, I suppose you could have a different situation in your home, but you get the idea.
Applying Behavioral Economics to Everyday Changes
Melina Palmer: What about convincing your kids to put on their pajamas or brush their teeth? We have a particularly precocious two year old whose favorite word is no and who’s especially against anything involving brushing these days. Even though she likes brushing her teeth, she really loves to do that for whatever reason and have her toothbrush and walk around with it. But when you ask her if she wants to brush, she says, no, brush. And then we’ll throw her head back and say, no, no, no, no. It’s actually, it’s kind of comical when it’s not a busy morning, but it’s not about brushing her teeth. Like I said, she actually likes that, and brushing her hair she’s usually fine with. But when you ask her now, she gets hung up on wanting to be independent, and she has no concept of money. So even if I wanted to bribe her, which I don’t, but if I wanted to, I can’t. And as a parent, it’s our job to instill good hygiene. So we need to sell her on the idea of brushing her teeth and preferably getting her to buy in without the use of force. If you can get her to brush her teeth herself, that’s better. And also being able to give me an opportunity to, brush her hair, and everyone’s happier that way when she’s in on the plan, when she wants to participate, versus trying to brush a, screaming two year old’s teeth, which I’m sure every parent has dealt with. So how do I get her to buy what I’m selling? Some days it’s about making it fun. Some days, seeing her brother brush his teeth is enough to get her engaged. And like I said, she actually is interested in getting in brushing her teeth. And, that’s a good distraction so that I can brush her hair, which she likes a little bit less, and put it up in pigtails. And, you know, 90% of the time, I can get clean teeth and pigtails successfully completed without much of a fuss. And, you know, the other 10%, we settle just on clean teeth and combed hair. If you’ve been to one of my presentations or listened to episode one, Unlocking the Secrets of the Brain. You know, I often compare our subconscious brain to a small child. And while we would all like to think we’ve grown past this point, much of our decision making is still done on this level. While her conscious brain is focused on her hair or the comb in my hand, there is almost no way I can get a brush near those bed head locks. However, when she’s distracted and thinking about something else, like playing with the water or her toothbrush, it’s really an easy process. She completely ignores what I’m doing, which is nice. Now, think about this in your work. Have you ever had the experience of putting together a plan, strategy, or proposal which you knew was in the best interest of the person you were presenting it to, or the company as a whole, only to have them immediately get hung up on some small detail and turn it down? This could be anything, but the situation that keeps coming to my mind is any sort of reorganization at a company. If you’ve ever worked in a company with more than one person, this has probably come up. Let’s say the company is doing a shift of departments, and a large group of people will now report to another executive, or they will have title changes, or perhaps the most dreaded of all, they need to move their desk. Bum, bum, bum. While money could be involved in some of this, let’s assume for the sake of this
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Melina Palmer: episode, that there’s no monetary factor here. No one’s losing money or being expected to move down into the basement like Milton on Office Space. And come to think of it, Milton is a great example of this concept in action. The thing that matters to you, the person selling the concept, the thing you think should matter to the person who will be experiencing the change and needs to buy in, does not always align. And actually, it usually doesn’t. In my previous role running the marketing department, I did a lot of campaigns and promotions. One thing I always talk to my staff about, and I still do this with my clients now, is to, as I call it, consider the ripples. One small decision or word on an advertising campaign or a change conversation can have a different impact on different people, and it’s based on their perspective. It’s important to consider who will see a certain piece, what their background is, what matters to them, and what you want them to do with that information. I will use a financial institution example, since I referenced my time with the credit union. So if a credit union wants to promote credit cards, can you put the same message in every location? Sure you can, but that doesn’t mean you should. There are different groups who need to or will see the message, and they need to be considered individually. Off the top of my head, I come up with about 15 groups and subgroups, including current members who already have a credit card with you, and that has subgroups, of people who use it regularly and who are inactive. Then you have current members who do not have a credit card with you, with a subgroup of current members who used to have a credit card with you and closed it for some reason. Previous members who never had a credit card with you, previous members who used to have a credit card with you non members who have credit cards elsewhere, with subgroups of people who are looking to switch and those who are not actively looking to switch. You have non members who do not have a credit card which could be due to age, credit score or other bankability. There’s this whole group of people who are unbanked for whatever reason. Then you have employees of the credit union, frontline staff, back office and executive team would need to hear different messages, and then board members for the credit union often look at marketing materials as well. Not all of these groups matter in every situation, and often it’s best to limit the final groups you factor into the messaging plan. But while the overall brand and campaign message needs to be consistent, you don’t want a big jumbled mess. You also need to identify what an individual in each of these groups is supposed to do when they see the message and what they need to hear to get them to take the next step. For example, let’s say your card offers points and you want to do a promotion to encourage new cardholders. If you simply blast the world with the message of 25,000 bonus points, it’ll be good for the people who do not have cards with you and have cards somewhere else. Frontline employees might like to talk about it, but what about the people who already have a credit card with you who use it regularly and did not get those points and are not eligible to get them from you? Now, they’re using your card habitually by this point, but you might have encouraged them to start looking at another card if they aren’t finding enough value in the current offering. While they may not notice a billboard or radio adjustment, if you send them a credit card statement with a message about any new cards getting 25,000 bonus points and that existing cardholders are not eligible, it sends the wrong message and they might get upset or annoyed and they might not tell you about it. They might not even realize it, but their subconscious might be triggered enough to start looking for a new card and new rewards. In this episode. I’m not going to get into habitual buying, but it’s really fascinating stuff. I will dedicate an episode to this coming up soon. When I lay it out like this, it seems silly that anyone would put a message like that, that new cards only get 25,000 bonus points and existing cardholders are not eligible. On a statement message to existing credit card holders. However, you would be surprised. Oh, you would be surprised how often this happens.
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Melina Palmer: It is one of those things where you put messaging on every item and you think, okay, it goes here, here, here. These are all the places where it needs to be. And you run a message for consistency sake, across everything, without thinking about what those people need to hear, where they’re coming from, and what matters to them. And this happens in change management situations all the time. You’re thinking about the group as a whole, having the right overall message to everyone, instead of considering the individuals and what they need to hear. Think back to Milton. first, if you haven’t seen Office Space, you really need to. It is hilarious, and, in my opinion, totally holds up. If you have seen Office Space, Milton is the one who gets moved to the basement, and all he cares about is his red stapler. The situation escalates as there’s downsizing throughout the organization. He gets worse and worse circumstances and even stops receiving paychecks. But at the end of the day, all he really cares about is keeping his stapler. He even says, if they take my stapler, I’ll set the building on fire. And when someone finally takes his stapler, what happens? Let’s just say he is not happy. And the thing is, it could have been prevented. He was saying repeatedly what mattered to him, and no one listened. They felt money should matter, or all these other things were concerned about their opinion of the change and what mattered. What about the other guys in the movie? In some cases, they cared about money, but they potentially would have just been happy with a copy machine that worked instead of having an error message that said PC load letter and being treated like they mattered. Yes, that’s a movie, and it exaggerates reality for the sake of humor. But is it really that far off? When confronted with change, our brains are trained to revert to a place of fear, and they’re very good at dwelling on small items. We make up stories and worry, often to the point of spiraling, all, while not being willing to ask clarifying questions because we’re afraid for the worst. You don’t want to look stupid. You don’t want someone to think, well, they obviously don’t know what they’re doing. They should be first on the chopping block. And if you’re trying to sell a change that impacts someone else and their territory, get ready for loss aversion to rear its ugly head big time.
Psychological Biases in Change: Endowment, Loss Aversion, and Status Quo
Melina Palmer: There’s actually a trifecta at play here, and there’s a link to an article in the show notes that’s called “Anomalies: The Endowment Effect, Loss Aversion, and Status Quo Bias,” which was authored by three men, two of them Nobel laureates Kahneman and Thaler, who I’ve mentioned before in this podcast. I’ll tell you a little about each concept here in case the 16 page paper from the Journal of Economic Perspectives is not high on your to read list. The endowment effect is the anomaly that our brains favor things they own over other things, even when they are given arbitrarily and, have the same value. In the study referenced, participants were either given a lottery ticket worth $2 or $2 in cash. When given the opportunity to trade later on, very few chose to switch. Why? They valued the thing they had been given or endowed with more than the alternative. Even when they didn’t pay for it and received it, like I said, completely arbitrarily, they were randomly handed out. Why do I favor my $2 lottery ticket or $2 in cash more when I could have been given the other thing? And why do you value your lottery ticket more than my cash? It’s a strange phenomena where our brains take ownership, that we’ve talked about perceived ownership a lot on the podcast so far, and it comes up again later in the episode. But that endowment effect where the thing that was given to you, you now value higher than other people. So I value my lottery ticket as higher than $2 worth in cash because of the opportunity that I could win. There’s all. There are all these things that I could get with it. And I feel like that $2 is not important, because what if I could have won? If I had been given the cash? Essentially, my perspective would be, well, that lottery ticket could be worth nothing. That’s just worthless paper. I don’t want or care about that. So you’re finding
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Melina Palmer: the benefits and really weighing in, going all in on what that is of the thing you already have. And our brains do this naturally, whether we want them to or not, which then leads us to loss aversion. And it might not surprise you to learn that people hate to lose things. Studies show it takes double the joy felt by a gain to outweigh the pain felt by a loss. I’m going to go ahead and give you a visualization example, so do me a favor and imagine that this morning you woke up and grabbed a pair of pants or shorts you haven’t worn in a while, and as you put them on, you found $20 in the pocket. Awesome. How do you feel? Probably pretty good. You might tell a couple people, maybe not, and you’ll probably forget soon after. Next time you put on those pants, will you remember they were the ones with the extra cash. Would you recount the story then? Would you feel the same emotions? Not likely, especially if it’s next summer. So here’s a new scenario. Imagine you’re going to an event that’s uncommon these days, something that only takes cash. You do some simple math in your head and know that $100 will be more than enough for the day. You’ll likely have extra, but better to have enough in case something catches your eye. You go to the ATM and get the cash, then drive to the event site. Once there, you grab your wallet to pay for parking and realize there are only four bills. You search to see if something fell between the seats. Maybe two are stuck together. No, you lost $20. How does that feel? Are you going to remember next time you go to use that ATM or go to that event? Will you lament and tell people about this loss for years to come and all the things you could have bought with that $20? Will you possibly blame the bank or credit union whose ATM you used and hold it against them, even though it likely isn’t their fault? This is loss aversion at work, and the pain from losing $20 will stick around a lot longer than the joy of gaining or finding that $20 in your pocket.
Melina Palmer: Finally, status quo bias. Status quo is something you’ve heard before, and this one’s pretty basic. When given the choice, people tend to go with the status quo and favor it very heavily, especially when there are many options presented. So be wary of giving people too many choices when presenting them with a change, whether it has an actual advantage or not. The status quo is almost always more appealing to the subconscious brain to keep things as they are, which you need to overcome when trying to get someone to buy in on a proposal. So what does all this mean and what does it have to do with change management? There is a reason, actually, a lot of reasons. It’s hard to get people to buy in on changes, and a few wrong words can start negative spiral that is really hard, if not impossible, to come back from. Knowing these concepts that I’m going to talk about in this episode and using them to your advantage instead of letting them take over the conversation is your approach, and that is where the cookie setup comes in. As a reminder, the five components of “it’s not about the cookie” are one, the scent of the cookies two, free sample three, perceived ownership, four today only, and five, buy. Three get one free. I’m also going to be incorporating the endowment effect, loss aversion, and status quo bias within here, which there’s a reason why? This was step three in the series, so you’ve had a little bit of time to get used to it. And just like with pricing and selling from the stage, the prep is critical for change management.
The Scent of the Cookies: Preparing for Change Conversations
Melina Palmer: So let’s jump in to the scent of the cookies. The good bakery story outlined in episodes five and six started with the smell of the cookies. This is something so interesting to your subconscious, so appealing and distracting, that it breaks through the clutter and causes it to flag your conscious brain with the two year old right when we’re trying to get her to get her hair brushed, her being distracted by playing with water and brushing her teeth is enough
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Melina Palmer: to get her subconscious brain distracted. Even more than the other scenarios, change management conversations are more likely to have the brain flagged and on high alert. Think about it. The rumor mill might have already started and preceded your conversation. As it often does, good news travels fast, sure, but change inducing potentially threatening news wildfire. I’m going to continue with the example of working in an office for the sake of this episode, but know that this applies, as I’ve said, to leading any change and all change management the scent of the cookies is all the stuff that happens before the conversation takes place. And in this scenario, I’m going to use another scent that’s very well known in an office. Freshly popped popcorn can have a similar impact as cookies, a strong scent that gets many mouths watering. But have you ever worked in an office where someone burnt a big bag of popcorn? Terrible. It wafts through the whole office and is incredibly distracting. It seems to be all anyone can talk about. It’s the same with the rumor mill and the fear that people get surrounding the meeting that you might have seen set for your change management conversation. I once had a boss who used to send me short emails or instant messages that said we need to talk. Please come to my office at 2:00. This was often around 10:00 a.m. and while I never had any negative interactions or reasons to expect I had done anything wrong, what do you think I did? For 4 hours I fretted and worried about what was to come. I looked for subtext in this short message. I considered all the current projects I was working on. I thought of rebuttals for things that might be off or concerning. My whole day was consumed and by the time the 2:00 meeting came, I was sweating when I walked into the office, felt like my hands were shaking, and took a seat. To have the meeting actually be something like I just wanted you to know I’m going to be out tomorrow and I listed you as a contact in my email. The email that was sent to me was short because my boss was busy and I soon learned to not fear or read too much into this type of communication. But what if it was bad news? What if I was being summoned to let me know a big change was coming? Would I be excited about that message or so freaked out that my fight or flight response was already on high alert? Be thoughtful of the way the meeting or discussion is framed or called together. Being too vague might be a time saver for you in the sending of the invite, but it can be sending the wrong message to the recipient and cause a whole heap of trouble for you in the long run. This is the difference between that freshly, popped popcorn or freshly baked cookie smell and the bag of burnt popcorn. The scent that you’re sending for the subconscious to latch onto is very subtle here. It’s a really delicate balance. If you are delivering bad news or presenting a change, you want them to buy in on which their brain will probably think of as bad news. Even if you have come to terms with all the reasons why it’s good, you don’t want to oversell the meeting or make it seem like it’s all fun. And this is where the free sample can help. You don’t want to bait and switch them. And in the case of a free sample with a change management conversation, I’m talking about transparency. Share as much information as you can to help get them on board in advance. Many people need time to process and you do not want them to do that while sitting in your office. Give them time to come up with questions, think through what has been provided and come prepared to the meeting. If you can remember reciprocity. I talked about this in episode three on, lead magnets. If you are entrusting them with information in advance, you should tell them so they know the value and see this as a gift, making them more likely to want to pay you back in kind with an open conversation. Instead of saying something like please read the attachment in advance of our meeting. Or worse, make sure you read this before the meeting. You should say, because I know you value having time to process. I wanted to provide you this information
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Melina Palmer: in advance so you can collect your thoughts before the meeting. Please do not share it around as not everyone is being given this opportunity before tomorrow’s conversations. Do you think they will feel more valued like their opinion matters? Will they be more ready to have a conversation when the meeting comes and you want to make sure, that document is outlined in a way that helps them come to the best conclusion themselves so their brain takes ownership over the change you are going to propose to them. Have you ever heard that people are more likely to work harder for ideas they created or came to on their own? That is perceived ownership at work. You want to use the endowment effect, loss aversion, and perceived ownership to your advantage while knowing what their status quo bias is harboring an affection for. In case this hasn’t been made clear yet, I’m going to be explicit here. When you are proposing a big change, you need to do your homework. When the stakes are high, your prep work needs to be significant as well. While at the credit union, I proposed a significant change to our branding. I wanted to convert our entire approach and essentially gamble the entire marketing budget, which was not insignificant, on a new focus. This meant I needed to get the executive team on board with leaving the status quo how we’d always done things, and coming over to my new approach, which included having local bands and artists create all the imagery and sound for the credit union brand, which we would not know in advance or have control over. It was a big ask. It was a huge change and I would not have gotten unanimous approval if I had not done my homework in advance. I met with each member of the executive team in advance to get their insights and input. I learned about what they cared about, what their concerns were, and what would make them say no before the meeting, as well as what would make it easy for them to say yes. Furthermore, fearful, I had multiple meetings by the day of the actual meeting. It wasn’t a surprise to anyone present. They had their opportunities to be involved in the planning process. I incorporated their suggestions and I referenced the ideas that were theirs by name. Keep in mind, no one asked me to do this or take on this project. I had been researching and evaluating for months because I wanted the credit union to succeed and I knew a new brand and culture shift were the way to get us there. Even though we had been successful up to this point and in many ways I was stepping out of my own comfort zone to come up with this new approach. My passion came through because I knew this was the right thing to do. Yes, it was scary for all of us. As I said, I was gambling my reputation on this change. If I put in all that effort to sell my idea to the team and it didn’t work, let’s just say the stakes were high. But putting in the groundwork meant I had advocates. And let me tell you, having advocates is so, key in branding. I have seen far too many awesome campaigns and brand efforts die on the vine because they never gained traction outside the marketing department. Branding needs everyone on board. Culture shifts need everyone on board. Company missions and values need everyone on board. Any change, you need everyone on board, and not reluctantly. You need advocates. You need to think long term when you use perceived ownership, the endowment effect and loss aversion to your advantage in the beginning, it will pay off in the end. In my case, it meant we nearly tripled brand awareness in less than two years. My intuition was right, but it would not have been as successful if I had not laid the groundwork and gotten the whole company on board with the new direction. As the stakes increase, your need to prep increases as well. This scent of the cookies approach gets more and more important as the project or proposal or risk increases. Perceived ownership is always key with getting someone to buy in on change management, but its depth can vary similarly.
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The Nuance of Scarcity in Change Management
Melina Palmer: Step four of the “it’s not about the cookie” approach is using scarcity for the today only style of selling. I am going to go ahead and say this is optional in change management conversations and should be used with caution when people are on edge and likely to get a fight or flight response. Triggering on scarcity could work against you if not done properly, and if done wrong, it could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Let’s call this an advanced tactic, and I will give you an example of a time it could be used. Well, I don’t know how common desk moving is at most organizations, but in my six years at the credit union I went through three or four moves personally, and it seems there was always shifting going on. Growing meant taking over spaces and moving departments. Some included remodels, some didn’t. All were time consuming and required a lot of effort for the employees. On several of those occasions, I was tasked with discussing layout options and opportunities with my team. It was my job to get them on board with the shift, get them to choose which desks they wanted, and settle any disputes between team members who wanted the same space and ensure everything was cohesive. For example, if all but one member of the team wanted to have low walls between desks, do you give the person who wants more privacy the high walls if it impedes the others? There are only so many windows to go around. Some spaces might be bigger than others, or closer to the bathroom or the door or the coffee station. Knowing what mattered to each person could help facilitate the conversation and sale of each location before presenting the options to my team, I had meetings with the facilities manager and he would let me know the possible configurations. Knowing status quo bias is what I needed to overcome. It was important to find out from each person what they liked about their current setup and what their ideal scenario would be. For example, if someone was already at a window, it might be important to them, but it might not. Let’s say I have learned that employee A really cares about the window. It is their deal breaker. Employee B is less concerned about the window, but they frequently get coffee and would like to be close to the refill station. I can look at the plan and find the configuration that would make these options possible and present them as such. If I met with employee A first to assist with creating perceived ownership and the endowment effect, I would show them the drawing and if possible, could walk them over to the new space. I could point out that, because I know they care about the window, I created the layout this way, but I’m only able to guarantee them that space space if they sign off before the meeting ends, because I’m meeting with employee B next and they might care about the window too. As I said, this is tricky business because it can cause unintended ripples. You remember when I talked about that earlier in the episode? If one employee tells another that Melina took care of me first, she made sure I got the only window, and you got what was left. Which of course would not be what I said, but it could get implied and twisted, causing a problem. This is a tactic best used when everyone can benefit, or you have a team that is flexible and bonds well, or if you’re proposing something that only impacts one person, it is a tool in your toolbox if you need it. But as I said, proceed with caution if you’re going with that scarcity approach, as it could go wrong.
Framing and The Small Steps Approach in Change Management
Melina Palmer: Finally, we’re at the concept of framing. This has actually come up throughout the other steps as well, because framing is everything when it comes to change management. And just as with pricing, it isn’t what you say, it’s how you say it, just like it isn’t what you’re selling, it’s how you sell it. It’s not about the cookie. And when it comes to change management, just like public speaking or pricing strategies, whether people buy in and support whatever you are selling is not about your final offer. All the stuff that leads up to the offer matters more than the offer itself, assuming that the offer is reasonable, similar to the informational presentation approach in the last episode. Framing. In the case of change management, needs the small steps approach. If you could
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Melina Palmer: have the person you are meeting with do only one thing, what is it you would want them to do? You can’t give them too many things to do or the request will get muddled. You need to know why you want them to take the step, let them know why it matters to them and get them invested in that proposed outcome. Remember the vague, cryptic emails from my boss that put me on edge and into a panic? That was a framing issue. When you finally get to the buy three, get one free phase of the cookie setup, you need to make sure the offer is framed properly for them to be receptive to it. In the desk moving example, you don’t want to say to someone, you have to move. I know you won’t like it and I know it sucks, but we don’t have a choice, so you better get on board quickly. Whoa, talk about sending the wrong message. You have primed them to think this is a bad idea. Instead, you want to frame the benefits. You’ve already given them an opportunity to tell you what they care about. You’ve laid in perceived ownership. You got them to visualize themselves in the new space, and then you lay out the offer. You could say I was able to review all the available spaces in the new layout and I took your suggestions with me when I met with facilities. I know I grabbed the best window available for you and built a plan around that because I know how much it matters to you. Your current desk has an obstructed view, but I found a spot that would give you even more windows to look out for, and it’s facing the other side of the building, so there won’t be that glare hitting your computer in the morning. I’m pretty confident I captured everything on your wish list when I designed this, but wanted you to have the ability to weigh in before we finalized it with facilities. Can you see yourself enjoying working in this space? Hopefully you can feel the difference between those two approaches. And notice the question at the end. It’s asking if they can see themselves enjoying working in the space. It isn’t asking them to compare to the existing desk, it’s building up the positives of the new space, like the perceived ownership of an overnight test drive I talked about in episode five. You’re reminding them of what they asked for, that you put in the extra effort on their behalf, reciprocity that they matter, that they already bought in, and you’re making it easy for them to agree to the proposal and be happy about it. This is framing, framing the benefits, talking about the good stuff instead of helping them to dwell on the bad is how you get changes to move forward. And as I’ve said through this whole episode, it takes a lot of work. I knew from having had conversation with my employees and various efforts throughout the time the years before we were working on a move. I knew who cared about windows and who didn’t. I knew some of these things because I was observant and heard them talking about it or mentioning that they cared and who went out for coffee and and all of those things. So it was easy for me. But you can do this on an intentional basis when you need it as well. Just know that that groundwork is not a, one conversation and then you’re done. You have to be putting in that effort in advance of the time that you’re going to make the offer so that they feel their input was actually used and valid in the change. And remember, the final pitch will always differ based on the person and the situation. Someone who is really anxious or unhappy about moving will require a different approach. But that’s why you put in that extra work upfront. And just like the public speaking example from last week, your goal should not be to throw information at them and have them looking to get away from you as quickly as possible after the conversation. You want them to feel comfortable coming back to you with questions. You are allies in this, and that needs to be clear. It’s not something you’re doing to them, it’s something you’re embarking on together. If you thought this was the most complex of the scenarios in the “it’s not about the cookie” framework, you’re right. As I said, there is a reason this was the final installment in the series, but you can do this and you’ll be so glad you use the approach once you start. Sure, it takes practice, but that’s why I created the formula for you. And you can use the free worksheet that goes with this episode by visiting thebrainybusiness.com/seven. And yes, all
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Melina Palmer: three episodes use the same formula, but the application is different, so I recommend downloading all three and using each as support for their intended purposes, of setting up pricing, of presenting from a stage and selling in that way, and change management. Thank you for tuning in to episode seven of The Brainy Business podcast today on change management, and for that matter, all three episodes in the series. And the “it’s not about the cookie” framework. Change is all around us, and being able to lead people through it is important in any business. Turning naysayers into advocates is critical to your success and I would love to help you ensure your next change, and all the changes after that are the best they can be. Visit thebrainybusiness.com and click on work with me to schedule your free 15 minutes consult. You can also email me@Melina@thebrainybusiness.com if you would prefer to chat that way. If you liked this series and are finding value in the podcast, will you do me a favor? Can you think of one person who you think would benefit from the information? Who would also find value in the tips provided here and share the episode with them? Do you know someone who may have a difficult change conversation coming up? You can share the episode directly from the app, or you could email them this link thebrainybusiness.com/seven if you are willing to share it. I would be so grateful. Thank you in advance. I hope you tune in next week for episode eight, which is called What Is Value? While we’re shifting gears a little bit, this episode will help make it clear why the cookie framework is effective and teach you how to create and share the value in your products and services, making them irresistible. Trust me, you do not want to miss this one. Until then, thanks again for listening and learning with me and remember to be thoughtful.
Announcer: Thank you for listening to The Brainy Business podcast. Melina offers virtual strategy sessions, workshops and other services to help businesses be more brain friendly. For more free resources, visit thebrainybusiness.com.
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