change
21 posts
On Ambition
Before I went to high school, everyone in our year sat an aptitude test. We were eleven years old, and the assessment took place over three hours one morning early in summer. The goal was to identify each student’s potential and stream girls into year groups based on their IQ. The theory being that
Two Questions For Days Like These
Will we wake up in a few months and lament that we haven’t made more of this time in isolation? The direct impact of current events is largely beyond our control. And yet it affects us indirectly, often in imperceptible ways. There are many things going on in the world that we can’t influence, but…
Effective Change
Even though nine of her children emigrated to England in the 1960s to find work, my grandmother never travelled outside Ireland. She refused to taste cucumber, even though my English aunt insisted on making cucumber sandwiches whenever she came to visit. Even after her doctor told her cigarettes wer
The Myth Of Significance
Lately, we have come to believe in the myth of significance. Put our faith in being chosen, becoming ‘the one’. Striving to be bigger, noticed or more than, while simultaneously recounting a narrative of never enough. In our minds, significance boasts a title, resides in a corner office, speaks from
Change Is A Human Act
We mistakenly believe that changemaking and persuasion are only about getting someone’s attention by creating awareness of an issue or option, and then presenting people with rational arguments that will convince them to make choices we find desirable. But both the science and what we witness in the
Bridging The Change Gap
We know that attention is the first essential step on the path to influencing others. We also know it’s not possible to inspire people to act or to create change with attention alone. There’s always a gap between gaining awareness, enabling action and gaining traction. You can buy attention, but you
Introducing The Story Compass
My new book, The Right Story publishes today. I can’t wait to hear how you’re using the new tools in the book to help you craft your messaging and engage more deeply with your customers. The Story Compass is one of those tools in the book. It’s designed to facilitate powerful, purposeful storytellin
Be A Powerful And Purposeful Storyteller
*The following post is an extract from my new book The Right Story.* Throughout history, the technology of the day has always influenced how its users communicate and share ideas. How we think about spreading ideas is shaped by the resources available to us. How we connect and persuade is affected b
The Stages Of Change
If you’ve ever tried to quit a bad habit or establish a new one, you know that change takes time. When it comes to creating change in our own lives, we cut ourselves some slack because we know that change is a process. And yet when it comes to our customers, we impatiently hurry them…
Hearts Before Minds
People are creatures of habit. You only have to look at the rituals in your day-to-day to see how patterns permeate life. Think about the things you do on rinse and repeat. The brands you always buy. The supermarket aisles you choose to walk down. The ones you avoid. We have come to believe the…
How Change Happens
The success of whatever we make, serve, sell or advocate for is dependent on creating and sustaining change. The same rules apply whether we’re trying to change perception or behaviour, get people to buy our software or stop using plastic straws. 7 Steps To Making Change Happen 1. Acknowledgement Th
The Forgotten Power Of The Single Interaction
On a recent trip to Waiheke Island with my husband, we stopped a bus that wasn’t going our way. The driver told us to hop on anyway, and he’d take us to where we could catch a bus that would get us to where we wanted to go. Then, wait for it—he radioed ahead to…
The Value Of Subtraction
We spent an estimated $85 billion on hair care in 2017. Sales of products to combat dry and damaged hair are on the rise because more women are using straightening irons to get the ‘perfect look’. We have eaten our way through a $500 billion fast food mountain, then paid $83 billion for gym membersh
The Benefits Of Adopting An Ostrich Mindset
Think about how many hours you’ve wasted this year worrying about how well your competitors are doing. The meetings where you focused on how to get ahead. The private angst when your numbers wobbled and theirs stayed steady. Can you name one time when your business gained an advantage by obsessing a
Change Making
The story changes the value. The value changes the perception. The perception changes the experience. The experience changes the outcome. The outcome changes the customer. The customer changes the story. Image by Matthias Ripp.
How We Drive Change
When we want to improve our diet we monitor what we eat and how much we exercise. When we want to change a toddler’s behaviour we look for opportunities to praise the good, instead of constantly shouting down the bad. We measure and reward the behaviour we want. In organisations, the things we measu
Changing Minds And The Decision Timeline
When was the last time you switched brands? The reality is we mostly make decisions on autopilot and we don’t often change our minds. When change happens it doesn’t happen in an instant—however hopeful we as marketers might be that it does. We know for example, that the transition to bottled water d
Two Important Characteristics Of Successful Innovations, Products And Services
Successful innovations always start with the customer’s story. The products and services people use AND keep coming back to, create a change in that story. There is life before the product or service existed and a different life after. And so if follows then, that we succeed by thinking less about w
The Best Brands Are Mirrors
The genius of the ‘Dove Sketches’ campaign wasn’t that it highlighted the issues women have around body image and beauty, it was that it held a mirror up to every one of us. It tapped into our collective vulnerability on a visceral level. Brands like Dove, Instagram, Harley-Davidson, Virgin, Nike, M
Your Biggest Obstacle
“Here’s what I’ve got.” Joe said, as he held out his product to me. It wasn’t just a product though. This was something that had consumed him and five figures of his hard earned cash for months. The market research he’d taken as a green light to get going a year earlier hadn’t paid off.…
