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

1. Keep it as short as possible.
Recognize the limited processing capacity of
people’s working memory. Keep the language as simple as possible. Take out
unnecessary detail or verbiage words.
2. Provide signposts.
If you have a lot of information to get across, help
people find their way through it with clear signposts. Say things like: “There
are three things I want to tell you…” and “Now, turning to the third point…”
Doing this means they’re not devoting as much mental energy to wondering
how much more you’re going to say.
3. Use sticky phrases.
Emma described her goal as replacing “chalk and
talk” with “independent learning,” and she spoke of her desire to help her
students be “thinkers, not regurgitators.” I found myself remembering those
phrases months after I talked to Emma. Using memorable language can even
get you a job under the right circumstances. Greg was sought out for his
current role on the strength of the company’s founder remembering a talk
Greg had given about “passion capital” five years earlier. The phrase had
stuck in the founder’s mind as a reminder of what Greg stood for.
4. Give concrete examples.
The more you can get beyond generalities and
give specific examples, the easier it is for people to grasp what you’re talking
about. People might nod when you say, “We need to be more respectful of
each other’s time,” but there’s an entirely different level of engagement when
you say, “For example, I’d like to suggest we start our meetings on schedule,
rather than waiting for the last person to turn up.”
5. Include a visual image to illustrate your point.
In 2012 the UK
government’s Behavioural Insights Team—a group dedicated to applying
behavioral science to public policy—was trying to reduce the number of
drivers who failed to pay their annual car tax. It was costing the government
millions each year in lost revenue. They first tried rewriting the government’s
standard warning letters in plainer English, with a simple header: “Pay your

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tax or lose your car.” This doubled the number of people who paid up in
response to the letter. But when the letter was brought to life with a picture of
the car in question (taken by a traffic camera), the number tripled.
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Source: Behavioural Insights Team
Why is a picture worth a thousand words (or so)? Because a huge part of the
brain specializes in visual processing. So if you’re able to use an image, you get
more of your audience’s brainpower engaged in chewing over your message.