How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life

by Caroline Webb

With that in mind, what can you do to see your challenge from a completely different angle? Here are some specific things to try: Write in longhand.

Explain your issue to someone else. If you’ve spent a while wrestling with an idea, try explaining what you’re doing to someone else. In software engineering, this process is sometimes called “rubber ducking” because even explaining your work to an inanimate object (such as a rubber duck) is a reliable way of reaching new insight.

Map it out. Create a physical map of the key aspects of the project or problem you’re working on.

REACHING INSIGHT When you need a flash of inspiration on a thorny topic, try the following: Pose a question. When you’re feeling blocked, ask yourself: “What would be a totally different approach to this?” “What would be a great way of going about solving this?” “If I knew the answer, what would it be?” Refresh and reboot. Try shifting your focus to a different type of task for a while, before returning to the original issue. Switch views. Try a different way of describing or looking at the issue you’re working on, and notice what patterns or insights come to the surface: • Write about it in longhand for ten minutes. • “Rubber duck” it: explain the issue to someone unfamiliar with it. • Create a physical map of your issue, e.g. using sticky notes. Find an analogy. Expose yourself to a different type of stimulus (e.g. observe another organization’s ways of working; view websites or images from fields different from yours), and ask yourself: How is this like the topic I’m working on? How is it different? What new idea does that suggest I could explore?

A recent study by psychologists at Yale did a good job of highlighting the grip that confirmation bias can exert on our brains. Researchers asked a group of volunteers about their political views, and then had them analyze some data on gun control. Those who had identified themselves as conservatives made significantly more numerical mistakes when asked to analyze data that seemed to indicate that gun control worked. And the liberals became equally innumerate when they were faced with figures suggesting gun control did not work.1 It’s just that little bit harder for our brains to think clearly about evidence that goes against our views—and the brain’s automatic system doesn’t like hard work.

It’s why for every 20-degree increase in a day’s temperature, researchers found that car dealers sell 8.5 percent more convertibles.

Another shortcut we take is to assume that if something is easy to understand and remember, it’s probably correct. (Behavioral scientists describe this as a preference for processing fluency.)

When we’re surrounded by people who have already formed an opinion about the right thing to do, it’s easy for our brain’s automatic system to decide that no further thought is required—a shortcut known as groupthink.

Next up is the endowment effect, the fact that we tend to overvalue things we have—even when they hold no sentimental value.

Here are five cross-check rules that I’ve seen people deploy effectively: “Don’t Default,” “Devil’s Advocate,” “Mandate Dissent,” “Never Say Never,” and “Pre-mortem.”

What does that look like in practice? Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, says, “What I try to do in meetings is to find the people who have not spoken, who often are the ones who are afraid to speak out but have a dissenting opinion. I get them to say what they really think and that promotes discussion, and [then] the right thing happens.”

Economist Ting Zhang and her Harvard colleagues, in a series of experiments, found that one subtle shift better enabled people to find ways to resolve dilemmas like this. The shift was this: Don’t ask, “What should I do?” Instead ask, “What could I do?”

MAKING WISE DECISIONS Next time you have a choice to make, whether big or small: Notice when your automatic system is talking. “It’s obviously right [or obviously wrong].” “I recently heard XYZ…therefore…” “Everyone agrees.” “I understand it—so I like it!” “Let’s just stick with what we know.” “There’s only one real option.” Adopt a cross-check routine. Try each of these cross-check questions, and decide to make at least one of them part of your personal routine: • Don’t default: “What would be another option, and what do its advantages tell me?” • Play devil’s advocate: “What would be another way of seeing this?” • Mandate dissent: “If you had to raise a concern, what would you say?” • Never say never: “Is it always/never/absolutely the case?” • Conduct a pre-mortem: “If this goes horribly wrong, what will have caused that?” Watch out for system fatigue. If you feel impatient, distracted, or clumsy, give your deliberate system a mindful pause. Shift your focus to more routine tasks. Take extra cross-checking steps to compensate for your automatic system’s shortcuts. Resolve dilemmas with greater ease. Ask “What could I do?” rather than “What should I do?”

Here are some practical ways to make sure that you’re tackling even your most challenging, crisis-ridden work in discovery mode: Before you get into your task in detail, take stock of recent positive events.

Imagine the ideal outcome of the task or project.

There’s even evidence to suggest that we do better on pure logic tests when they’re given a social context. Researchers have used a puzzle known as the “Wason selection task” to demonstrate this.3 In the puzzle, you’re shown four cards and told that you need to check whether the following rule is being observed: if a card has a D on one side, then it has to have a 3 on the other side. Which card(s) do you definitely have to turn over in order to check the rule holds?

Got it? The answer isn’t D alone. And it’s not D and 3, because the rule doesn’t say that a 3 has to have a D on the reverse. The answer is D and 7: if you turned over the 7 and it had a D on it, you’d show the rule had been broken.

You can apply this insight in your own work when you’re wrestling with a tricky analytical or conceptual challenge, by recasting it in social terms. Here are some things to try: Turn the components of the problem into real people, and imagine them interacting.

Imagine a real person walking through the situation or process.

There are four themes I’ve mentioned earlier in the book that I’m going to recap here, since they’re especially powerful in sharpening your mind when you need to rise to a challenge. They involve scheduling blocks of deep thinking time, engineering your environment, prioritizing your sleep, and doing a short burst of aerobic exercise.

NASA has conducted multiple studies on the effects of what it calls “strategic naps,” one of which found that a twenty-five-minute nap boosted performance by 34 percent and alertness by 54 percent.

BOOSTING YOUR BRAINPOWER In your next big task, try the following techniques to help you think as clearly as possible: Start with positive framing. Think about something positive before getting into the tough stuff. For example: review recent progress or positive events; start with the ideal (and work back from that). Draw the issue tree. Break a complex task down into its constituent parts, step by step, to allow you to focus on one thing at a time and reduce the load on your brain. Harness your social brain. Imagine parts of your problem as people; imagine a real person you know walking through the issue you’re wrestling with (as a user or customer). Look after the smart basics. Remove distractions; surround yourself with cues that you associate with good thinking; don’t skimp on sleep; do some physical activity.

And research suggests that there are certain techniques to break through people’s spam filters. The key is to use a communication style that respects the way the brain works, by appealing to its reward system, engaging its social radar, and reducing the amount of processing it needs to do.

UCLA neuroscientist Matt Lieberman conducted a series of experiments showing that an idea is more likely to stick with listeners if they can imagine themselves telling someone else about it.

Flag an interesting “reveal.”

Try a different medium for conveying your information.

Adopt an unusual vantage point.

Emma also talked about the likely effect of her new teaching methods on named kids at their school, and also asked the teachers to put themselves in those kids’ shoes fifteen years from now. That was smart, too, because we all remember information more readily when it’s “socially encoded”—that is, if it’s linked to stories about real people’s motivations and feelings.

And one rule of thumb that everyone’s automatic brain uses (as I said in Chapter 12, on decision making) is to assume that things that are readily understood and remembered are probably correct. There are lots of ways that this liking of processing fluency plays out.10 In one example, Princeton psychologists Adam Alter and David Oppenheimer found that companies with names that were easy to pronounce outperformed companies with “disfluent” names on two stock markets.11 Another study found that people trusted aphorisms when they rhymed; less so when they didn’t. (Woes unite foes: sure. Woes unite enemies: really?)

Here are five ways to make your message easier for people’s brains to process:

1. Keep it as short as possible.

2. Provide signposts. If you have a lot of information to get across, help people find their way through it with clear signposts. Say things like: “There are three things I want to tell you…” and “Now, turning to the third point…” Doing this means they’re not devoting as much mental energy to wondering how much more you’re going to say.

3. Use sticky phrases.

4. Give concrete examples.

5. Include a visual image to illustrate your point.

If we don’t stop to think about what they know or feel, our automatic system takes the projection bias shortcut, which means we generally assume that others see the world as we do. And that shortcut can cause us to suffer from what scientists call the curse of knowledge, where assuming that others know what we know leads us to overestimate how well we’ve communicated.17

GETTING THROUGH THEIR FILTERS Next time you’re intent on getting a message across: Provide a reward: surprise, novelty, or anticipation. Aim to get your audience to want to tell others what you said. Flag clearly the most interesting aspects of what you’re saying, so they don’t get buried, and promise a “reveal.” Try a different medium for getting your information across (e.g., posters, videos, hand-drawn pictures). Adopt an unusual vantage point. Emphasize the human angle, with the formula: “people plus positive emotion.” Show how your idea affects real people, and invite your audience to put themselves in their shoes. Explain why your message means so much to you or your audience. Inspire them by painting the picture of a potential positive outcome for everyone involved. Make it “fluent.” The easier it is to understand and remember, the more compelling your message will be. So: keep it simple and short; use signposts; use sticky phrases; give concrete examples; if you can, include a visual image to illustrate your point. Overcome the curse of knowledge. Don’t assume they know what you know. Ask what they understand and feel about the topic under discussion, and work from there. Stop to check their perspective as you’re talking.

What does this mean for you? Well, when you’re asking people to do something, you’ll probably get more cooperation if you give a brief reason, rather than merely asserting that it’s what you want them to do.

they don’t have to spend time thinking about an answer, they generally won’t. So when there’s a readily understandable and halfway reasonable option on the table, people are likely to choose it—or at least be swayed by it. As we saw in Chapter 12, this phenomenon is known by behavioral scientists as default bias.

Here are three ways to apply this advice when you’re seeking to influence others: remove the barrier, make the first concrete suggestion (perhaps giving a range), and provide visual hints.

Your aim is to reduce the amount of effort required on their part. At the simplest end of the spectrum, that might look like including a prepaid envelope with a form that you’re hoping someone will fill out and return to you. Or if you believe your colleagues think better when they’re well hydrated, and want them to drink more water, you might put jugs on the meeting room table rather than having people get up to fetch a drink.4 Make it effortless, and you’re halfway to getting the behavior you want.

In a recent study of this kind of tandem anchoring, Columbia Business School professors found that sellers who wanted $7,200 for a used car achieved better deals when telling buyers “I want $7,200 to $7,600 for my car” compared with saying “I want $7,200 for my car.” Giving this kind of modest range, including a bolstering (but still reasonable) top number, also worked better than pitching an unreasonably high starting point.

Charities are using a form of tandem anchoring when they give you guidance on “suggested donations.” If they provide standard options of $100, $50, $30, and “other,” they know they’ll get higher contributions than if the options are $50, $30, $10, and “other.” The $30–100 range is more likely to result in a donation of $30 than giving a suggested range of $10–50, even though $30 is contained within both.

To use social proof when making requests, try these approaches: “Someone like you said yes already.” Tell your colleagues that one or more of their peers have agreed to what you’re asking.

Recruit the influencers.

Experts: people widely respected for their knowledge or skills • Hubs: social types who are well liked around the water cooler • Gatekeepers: people who control important resources or processes

So people who’d been issued tickets at random now wanted about $2 to relinquish them. But the key finding was this: people who chose their own ticket asked for far more. They wanted a whopping $8.

when receptionists at two British doctors’ offices asked patients to personally write the time and date of a follow-up appointment on a reminder card, rather than simply being handed the completed card, it led to an 18 percent drop in missed appointments.

So how can you give people a sense of ownership, so they’re more invested in whatever you’re interested in doing or changing? Here are three suggestions for three different situations: Situation 1: If you have a suggestion to make, connect your idea to their own views and concerns.

Situation 2: If you need help, ask for their advice first. • Ask: “If you were me, what would you do to make this work?” • Then, and only then, ask: “Is there anything you might be able to do to help with that?”