What does it take for you to believe?

In many organisations one of the biggest challenges is to overcome the cynical view that “…it will never happen..” The problem with this cynicism is that left unchallenged you’ll never inspire or motivate the necessary actions to make things happen and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

So how do we make people believe?

How do we make then believe: in the need for change; the benefits of change; that it will happen; that they have a role; and that they must act. That’s an awful lot of belief that is necessary!

I think the answer lies in a quote by Confucius Chinese philosopher & reformer (551 BC - 479 BC)  and in understanding how the media compile and broadcast stories, either news or dramas that have an audience identify, understand, engage, and believe.

The quote by Confucius is “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”

Arguably belief is stronger when it is founded on personal experience (what we do) rather than the wisdom of others. However it is strongest where the two coincide and the words, pictures, sounds, facts, feelings around us accord with the values, culture and experience within us.

It is interesting to consider the key seven ways to influence belief and action

Do it…

Because you like me, and you’re like me - We often do things because of the value we put on relationships. We do things to please or ingratiate others and help identify ourselves with them. Following celebrity diets, fashions or views are examples.  In organisational change it is good to be able to “Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch” (http://www.kipling.org.uk/poems_if.htm) since this means more people will be like you and like you.

Do it to reciprocate, repay past or future debt or promise - A lot of community work, ethics, religion are based on “give to receive” or “eye for an eye”. Reciprocity “do unto others as you might have them do for you” is a feature of many cultures and does effect behaviour whether the reward is now or in the after-life. In organisational change positive negotiation and some give and take can unlock change.

Do it because everyone else is doing it -Most advertising is based on social and peer pressure to be with the in-crowd. Every parent knows the argument that “..everybody else is..”. People will often join a crowd or a queue simply to see what’s happening and this creates expectation and an appetite for something which are the fertile soil for belief. In organisational change it is good to point to other examples, precedents and case studies.

This offer is good for a limited time only - Some advertising is based scarcity which creates value. This is not unrelated to the above ideas of expectation and an appetite, but extend this to desire. Desire, wanting something to happen or be true is often the basis of making it true: “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man” (George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists"). In organisational change it is good to emphasise that the time is NOW!

Do it to be consistent, with past, with values, with type - We sometimes do or believe things because it fits with our culture, our family, our sense of self and our place in the community. This applies to the church as much as it does to the football crowd or the political group. Belief and belonging are strongly linked. In organisational change it is good to create community and belonging and codify the conditions for membership.

You can believe me, I’m an authority - We sometimes do or believe things because we respect authority. Dr Andrew Wakefield and MMR Vaccine springs to mind (http://www.spiked-online.com/site/article/13532/) If you want to really understand this see the experiments of Stanley Milgram (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment) In organisational change it is good to have authority, experience, wisdom, credentials and past experience.

Do it or else - We sometimes do or believe things because we are coerced. North Korea springs to mind. You could argue that doing something when coerced is not belief, but it is based on a belief that you have no better choice. In organisational change where there is a crisis strong leadership may be decisive and possibly divisive but sometimes do it or else is necessary for survival.

So when do we believe…

We believe when sufficient factors above and sources suggest when something is True Enough.  True Enough to serve our purposes, confirm our prejudices, satisfy our needs and expectation and fit with our values.

When the media tell us and we experience it then it must be true.

I recommend this book True-Enough-Learning-Post-Fact-Society

http://www.amazon.com/True-Enough-Learning-Post-Fact-Society/dp/0470050101

Tim Rogers

Founder ciChange

timrogers@ciChange.org

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/CI-Change-4301853

ciChange seminar and networking events for 2013 sponsored by Total Solutions Group http://www.tsgi.co/