Greetings!
The Right Frame of Mind
According to The Economist, Ara Norenzayan
"conducted experiments using what is known as
the dictator game. . . .Participants receive
a sum of money - Dr. Norenzayan set it at $10
- and are asked if they would like to share
it with another player." In the basic version
of this old game, people tend to keep most of
the money for themselves. He "tweaked the
game by introducing the idea of God." Half
the subjects unscrambled sentences containing
religious words such as God, spirit, divine
and so forth prior to playing the dictator
game. The players who were primed with
so-called religious terms gave $4.22 on
average whereas other players left $1.84.
(The Economist March 22, 2008.)
The Economist asked an interesting question.
What if people were primed with more secular
words that might have prompted them to behave
in an altruistic manner? So, that got me
wondering. Are there things we could do at
the beginning of major changes to get people
in the "right" frame-of-mind for what was to
come. For instance, thinking about things
like cooperation, hope, teamwork,
volunteerism, and so forth.
The experiment described above only asked
people to unscramble sentences. No fanfares,
extolling, or preaching. So please note that
I am not suggesting motivational speakers or
tired old do-it-for-the-Gipper bromides that
executives tend to trot out from time to time.
The designers of FutureSearch (a change
process that involves a fairly large number
of people) purposely begin events the night
before any "real work" takes place. They
believe, as I do, that just starting the
event, gets people thinking about the work at
hand. So by the time the real work begins,
people have already chewed on the ideas. . .
. What if we added something akin to
unscrambling sentences to an introductory
meeting? (I am not suggesting that we
actually unscramble sentences, but something
that might serve the same end.) Could
something this simple help get people focused
on the spirit needed to support the intense
work of change?
Sincerely,
Rick Maurer
Maurer & Associates
phone:
703-525-7074
