How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life pdfdrive com

ANTICIPATION!)

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Think about the last article you remember reading. What made it stick in your
mind? Chances are that there was something that surprised or tickled you. That’s
an interesting thing about the brain’s automatic spam filter. It tends to block
information that people don’t already agree with, but you can get through the
filter with something that feels novel or intriguing. As I mentioned in The
Science Essentials, these qualities delight the brain’s reward system, perhaps
because they speak to our social nature. It feels good to be able to tell others that
we saw something unusual or startling; it makes us feel that we’re offering
something of value to our tribe. UCLA neuroscientist Matt Lieberman conducted
a series of experiments showing that an idea is more likely to stick with listeners
if they can imagine themselves telling someone else about it. It turns out that this
is even more important than whether or not they even like the idea.
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 So a good
general guide on whether you’re getting people’s attention is to ask yourself:
“Are people going to feel like telling someone else what I told them?”
Greg is a crowdfunding entrepreneur who is creating new ways to raise money
for healthcare research. A large part of his job involves explaining his ideas to
potential investors and scientists, and he’s always been thoughtful about ways to
make his opening gambit as stimulating as possible. “I remind myself that it’s
like people who have headphones on. They can’t really hear me—unless I do
something that’s interesting enough to get their attention,” Greg says. “So
whether it’s a one-to-one meeting or a big speech, I try to make sure in the first
two minutes that they know they’re going to hear something a bit different, by
breaking whatever pattern they’re used to. For example, at conferences now, I’ll
often start by saying something like, ‘I totally understand that you’re not
listening to me, that your internal soundtrack is full of “Who is this guy? Why
would I support 
him
?” ’ After suffering through thirty-eight PowerPoint
presentations, they’re not expecting that, and it always gets a laugh. And bam,
they’re actually now listening.”
Greg remembers how one clever opener helped him develop a relationship
with a major bank for his crowdfunding project. “Rather than being pushy in
trying to persuade them to give us money, I told them, ‘Of course, you really
shouldn’t be involved with us. We’re disrupting the way that the financial sector
works, while you need to protect it.’ It was true, but the opposite of what they
were expecting me to say, and it got them interested enough to pay attention. We
had a very good conversation after that.”
That was a bold opening statement for Greg to put out there. But your

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communication doesn’t have to be as risky as that to get through people’s spam
filters. You just need to introduce a small dose of intrigue or novelty into what
you’re writing or saying. Here are a few options: