“hacks” as trojan horses for mindsets

It’s really hard to convince people to think differently. The smarter the person is, the harder this gets. Ironically, it gets even harder when the person knows about cognitive biases and understands that they, too, have them. 

As a leader, you may be best served with some of your people by starting with the “hack” – the practical maneuver you want the person to use to get better results. That better result can have vastly more persuasive power than your preaching. Having achieved more after taking your advice, their ears may be more open to your theory of the case. In other words, they’re likelier to believe what you tell them. 

I’ve often witnessed a “Belief Cycle” at play in organizations where people regularly make improbable leaps in performance. The cycle has three parts: belief, work, results. Each part fuels the next. Different people enter the cycle at different parts. Starting at “work” (what I’m calls “hacks” above) doesn’t mean you’ve skipped or ignored “belief.” It means they’ll develop those beliefs after they’ve seen the results.

-ben