We are all “choice architects” – that is any one who wants to influence the decisions of others – in other words EVERYONE! The book takes the perspective of paternal liberalism – that is every one should have the opportunity to choose from unlimited options, but assistance and guidance should also be provided to those who would like it. That is the essence of choice architecture – providing the options along with the appropriate decision support framework. The authors set the scene by identifying two thinking styles:
• Automatic – the “intuitive doer” or HUMANS – a la “Homer Simpson":
- Uncontrolled
- Effortless
- Associative
- Fast
- Unconscious
- Skilled
• Reflective – the “rational planner” or ECONS – a la “Dr Spock”:
- Controlled
- Effortful
- Deductive
- Slow
- Self aware
- Rule following
The authors offer the six principles of good choice architecture combined into the acronym
- NUDGES:
1. iNcentives
2. Understand mapping
3. Defaults
4. Give feedback
5. Expect error
6. Structure complex choices
Key points:
1. Choice architecture is about “framing” options in order to eliminate the influence unhelpful cognitive biases (bad “nudges”) such as: Anchoring, Availability, Representativeness, Salience, Optimism, and Conformance
2. Choice architecture can also be about manipulation through media such as; selective information, peer pressure, thought priming (wedging), and safety in numbers (herd mentality)
3. The new spirit of democracy and egalitarianism provided by the intranet has enabled the right to choice by the classically underprivileged (women & minority groups). Choice is enabled through the application of simple decision support tools for example
RECAP:
o Record (past history of activity)
o Evaluate (against possible alternative courses of action)
o Compare Alternative Prices
Why is this relevant to strategic partnerships?
Facilitating the development of sustainable strategic partnerships is all about developing better choice architecture to structure complex collaborative decision making processes.
Key lesson:
- Freedom of choice is a curse to those who are not adequately enabled to make good decisions.
- Notwithstanding the above – “everyone has the right to be wrong!” – the paradox of liberalism.
- The transparency principle is best – That is “to eliminate complexity is to stifle innovation. A better approach is to improve transparency and disclosure”.
A sense of urgency By John Kotter
What is it about? Change and people and a sense of urgency Strategic partners will not always share the same sense of urgency – this means different things to different people.
Key points:
1. The best way to determine the potential “fit” between partners is to look at what is done rather than what is said.
2. Complacency is found when the behaviour is inwardly focused resulting in passivity and affinity for the status quo.
3. A false sense of urgency is when the behaviour is very emotional and is the result of unrealistic expectations.
Why is this relevant to strategic partnerships?
Incongruent cultures of partner organisations will often manifest themselves as a mis-match of urgencies. Often resulting in conflict & misunderstanding.
Key lessons:
How do you create a true sense of urgency?
By focusing more on the heart and not just on the logical mind. There are four tactics for successful change;
1. Bringing the outside in
2. Leading with proactive calmness
3. Always look for the upside in a crisis
4. Deal and disable – passive complacency and emotional urgency.
The Life You Can Save By Peter Singer
What is it about?
Its about the philosophy of giving.
Key points:
1. If you are not donating to aid agencies – you are doings something wrong.
2. There is an emerging culture of giving: a. GOOGLE.ORG is where 1% of all profit and equity from GOOGLE.COM goes toward projects “that help the world” b. %50 LEAGUE (USA) is a club of high net worth individuals who want to give away half of their wealth
3. There is a tension between the LEFT & RIGHT views of philanthropy:
a. The LEFT sees that giving as a way to salve the capitalist guilt for exploiting labour
b. The RIGHT see that the creation of wealth is a prerequisite to its distribution
4. Increasingly there is a business view being taken of giving/granting. This genre of philanthropy is being enabled by investment analysis and the web whereby donors can optimise their contribution based on two key performance metrics:
a. Efficiency: % administration costs via web based charity navigator tools that can rank charitable options from 0% to 20% administration costs as a percentage of total funds under management
b. Effectiveness: measured based on an assessment of $ cost/life saved
Why is this relevant to strategic partnerships?
The charity business is big business and no longer can tolerate an amateur approach to management and resource allocation.
Key lesson:
As foreshadowed in “People in glass houses” by Australian volunteer to the UN in the 1950’s Shirley Hazzard – the grandiose, tops down approach to global issues from organisations such as; USAID, IMF, World Bank, and the UN – have all been massive failures largely due to lack of accountability. THINGS WILL CHANGE!!
The new philanthropists By Charles Handy
What is it about?
Mantra of the new breed of philanthropists – “you will only have succeeded if it survives after you have gone”. The new philanthropists talk of making a difference, of giving something back, but they are not satisfied just writing the cheques to worthy causes. These people want to be in the driving seat because that’s where they belong and being by nature entrepreneurial – they like to fill gaps and unmet needs.
Key points:
1. Giving away money has never been so fashionable among the rich & famous.
2. There is a new area emerging in philanthropy – venture grant making.
3. Engagement with the new philanthropists means a long term relationship – with “hands-on” support as well as funding.
Why is this relevant to strategic partnerships?
Another of Charles Handy’s books is called the “The elephant & the flea” in which he uses this metaphor to describe the symbiotic relationship between those with the entrepreneurial concept and those with the resources necessary to achieve its actualisation. The reality is that a successful outcome is the result of successfully managing this co-dependent relationship.
Key lesson:
Sustainability – “surviving after you have gone” - of strategic partnerships ultimately depends on finding the right fit for each of the partners.
The Opposable Mind By Roger Martin
What is it about?
It’s about the process of integrative thinking. There is no one right answer. The best outcome is most likely to result from a process of trade-off and compromise between typically opposing perspectives on the same issue.
Key points:
1. What is salience? It is what features of an issue that I think are important.
2. This means that salience can mean different things to different people.
3. There are a number of tools and processes that can assist in surfacing and understanding these differences in salience.
Why is this relevant to strategic partnerships?
The key to sustaining strategic partnerships is to find the complementarities in salience between partners and thereby understand and reinforce the fit between them.
Key lesson:
Salience is a different thing to different people. Integrative thinking provides a process for finding the glue to fit the strategic partnership together.
Buyology By Martin Lindstrom
What is it about?
BUYOLOGY = Neuromarketing: an intriguing marriage between marketing & science = sub-conscious thoughts, feelings, and desires that drive the purchasing decisions we make each and every day of our lives. It is the ultimate “no bullshit zone”.
Key points:
- What people do and what people say are usually different (e.g. anti-smoking ads).
- We are better at collecting data than doing anything with it
- Having a better understanding of irrational behaviour gives us more control not less.
- Schadenfreude – Taking pleasure in others mis-fortune
- The “ten pillars” that are shared by successful brands and religions:
Sense of belonging
A clear vision
Power over enemies
Sensory appeal
Story telling
Grandeur
Evangelism
Symbols
Mystery
Rituals
Why is this relevant to strategic partnerships?
Be fully cognisant of your own reasons for engaging in a strategic partnership BUT ALSO have a clear understanding of why your partners see it as a good fit for them also. Arising from this understanding will come great insights into how each partner should act and manage the behaviour of their staff in order to sustain the strategic relationship.
Key lessons:
- Neuro-economics is the new economic paradigm for business. This is because classical economic theory has hit the wall because of its core reliance on the premise that people will behave in a predictably rational way. (e.g. confirming the debono triad – FEAR, GREED, & HASSEL – “hitting the BUY button”.
- There are somatic markers that influence human decision making. These are based on past experiences of reward or punishment, fear too can create some of the most powerful somatic markers – also take advantage our stressed-out, insecure, and increasingly vulnerable natures.
Good Quotes:
“Half my advertising budget is wasted. Trouble is , I don’t know which half”
Department Sore Pioneer – John Wanamaker
“Being consumer-driven would be a great thing – but only if consumers knew how to drive”
Dr Lewis Atkinson
The Pleasures & Sorrows of Work by Alain De Botton
What is it about?
De Botton is a very interesting author. He has a melancholy sense of humor with which he exposes much of the irony of our modern life and the place of work as part of our identity and life’s purpose. The review sounds pretty tragic so far doesn’t it?
I found resonance with a collage of occupations profiled in this book.
First the rocket-scientist. Whose hi-tech professionalism is juxtaposed with the simplicity of poverty-stricken French Guiana – home of the EU space program. He has accumulated expertise and know-how that yields the capacity to precisely position a TV satellite in orbit somewhere 36,000 kms above Japan. The gods must be wary of experts.
Second the Painter. Who is granted the opportunity gather all of their intelligence and sensitivity in a single place – the art. What an extraordinary satisfying thing to feel collected together in one place - being in the moment.
Quote from Josh Pyke (Australian singer/songwriter);
“We need to feel the sum of all our parts…”
Third the accountant. A dedicated financial specialist. A throw-back from many iterative divisions of labour over the past one and a half centuries.
Finally the entrepreneur. Who seems to require a painfully uncommon synthesis of imagination and realism. Sound familiar?
Why is this relevant to strategic partnerships?
Don’t partner with some one who is happy just “going through he motions” – biding time until the end. They will just drag you back into mediocrity. Partner with difficult people. The unreasonable people, the ones who are always in trouble, because they are the ones who have the best chance at greatness.
Key points:
At its best work is about earning money as just an excuse to do other things; to get out of bed, to speak to others, to travel, to be expert, and to collaborate with people who excite you.
Earning a living from doing what you love permits us to do all of this and more. But most importantly, it gives us resources and permission to be who we are.
What a gift.
Key lessons:
De Botton’s rather tragic concluding passage:
“Our work will at least have distracted us, it will have provided a perfect bubble in which to invest our hopes for perfection. It will have focused our immeasurable anxieties on a few relatively small-scale achievable goals. It will have given us a sense of mastery, it will have made us respectably tired, it will have put food on the table. It will have kept us out of greater trouble.”
And to quote my Dad – Peter John Atkinson:
“The bastards have taken all the fun out of it………………………….”
Great quotes
“To look at a newspaper is to raise a seashell to one’s ear and to be overwhelmed by the roar of humanity”
“The civilisation of the modern office could not be feasible without the hard take-offs and landings effected by coffee and alcohol”
“While any fool can have a good idea, only a few great minds have it in them to start a profitable business”
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