Regarding the Reticular Activating System – another friend, Craig Elias talks about it in slightly different terms on his blog Shift Selling: http://www.shiftselling.com/2008/04/29/trigger-events-and-selective-perception/

All interesting stuff.

Ian

Congrats on writing a thread that’s really got people engaged.

To Brad – the Crest study, and other similar ones for not-quite pharmaceutical products are promoted as if they’ve gone through huge studies.

The facts behind them are actually quite scary – often the sample they use is between 30-150 total respondents.

I can remember the facts behind one study, when you read the small print, said they’d asked something like 114 people. Not something I’d trust to base my judgement on.

The best advice for toothcare products? Ask your dentist!

Back on the topic of goals, early this week I decided to make my business 100% referral based by the end of the year.

To make it work in terms of keeping my diary full, I’d like this to build a large client bank plus a waiting list of clients for my services too.

I decided on the goal on Monday. On Tuesday, a client was asking me the best way to refer me.

Today, a client rang and told me that “I’ve got 3 3 clients for you, and I’m working on another one too.”

Meanwhile, at a new client today, just as I was leaving, I was told, “Oh, I’ve referred you to a friend in Oxford who could really use your help…”

I know on the face of it, that this may seem like coincidence. However, having done this for some time, I’ve never had so many referrals from so many people.

Clearly by having the goal on my mind, I’m oozing some kind of referral-magnet hormone that’s working!

I’ve seen this time and time again, in myself and especially in clients. I think it’s down to subconsciously positioning ourselves to achieve the goal if we’re really committed to it.

In psychology, they call it the Reticular Activating System. It’s the bit of our brains that guides us to see the things we’re looking for.

Interesting stuff,

Oh, and Sales Trainer – I’m surprised that your are so quick to dispel people who use facts when they talk. I like to make sure that some of their facts tie up with things I already know, then listen carefully to learn new stuff too.

It seems to me that an open mind is far more likely to learn and usefully apply new ideas than one that’s made it’s mind up based on a superficial rule with no real basis. Or have I misunderstood what you wrote (or perhaps over-reacted to a bit of sarcasm)?

Lee

Thanks for debunking this myth. I have been passing it on for years. Both embarrassed and relieved, I can now stop.

Ford

Fact: No one can say with 100% certainty that any survey provides statistics that are factual unless that survey includes the planet. Even if the Yale study were true, who is to say the in 1954 or at Cambridge, the people who did not write down goals did not put a whooping financial on the goal setters. What if someone wrote down the goal of curing the ill, would that effect the survey. You bet your northern soil.

Fact: Consultants, by and large, talk out of their backside. Why? Because they are used to people listening to them.

Fact: I am now spewing facts, therefore in accordance with fact #1, have been discredited.

Regarding your last point, I’ve just started reading Karl Albrecht’s “Practical Intelligence”. Among many great points, he talks about how society has many more “sheep thinkers” than “deep thinkers” – and that, sadly, the “sheep thinkers” are eaily manipulated because “they like having clear and simple answers, value having firm opinions, an are utterly convinced they think for themselves.”

I think this highlights a huge dilemma for educators and consultants. Do we inspire more confidence by being firmer in our statements (which means most people are more likely to take positive action as a result) or do we be more circumspect, allow people to make their own conculsions, but risk a weaker message and less action.

My experience is like yours – a firmer message has more chance of helping them. But essentially it’s manipulative. There may even be a chance (slim for us, I know ) that we’re actually wrong, and we’re misleading them. Perhaps their’s a better way. One that doen’t oversimplify in order to inspire. I wish I had such a method!

Ian

I really enjoyed your post, I like to research facts and data behind studies too and like you, have read up a little on Mehrabian’s study. However, I haven’t read up on the goals study – in fact, I was trained by “the world’s largest business coaching organisation” and they do state a lot of figures as facts.

Another “fact” that’s often stated is that 90% of franchises are successful after 5 years and that 80% of other startup businesses go bust within 12 months. On the face of it, it appears to make sense. However, if you do a bit of digging the numbers simply don’t exist to back up the study. I know – I’ve done the digging.

The best figures I could find come from the International Franchise Research Centre, a part of the University of Westminster in London if I recall correctly. They suggest that a franchise is marginally less likely to succeed over 6 years than a non-franchise business with similar funding. Makes interesting reading, if somewhat dry.

I think part of the challenge is that there is so much written these days that we have to accept some of it at face value and, while it’s good to say “I believe this figures to be accurate”, it doesn’t always make good educational content if we’re always qualifying what we say.

The idea of having goals in life as a positive way of achieving more than you could without is a great example of this. I didn’t know that there was no such study, although I have read the “facts” of the story in various articles and papers, including one from a large consultancy based in London.

There’s a whole industry based on the idea of getting clear goals and keeping yourself focussed on them. The concept of The Law of Attraction is precisely this idea of having a goal and thinking about it, in a positive way, on a frequent basis.

For me, the goal when working with a client or classroom full of clients is to educate and inspire them in order to achieve the results they desire. In the same way that believing in Father Christmas is something that gets kids motivated and excited, belief in the power of goals can help people achieve extra-ordinary things.

I don’t quote the stats as per the non-existant Harvard study, but I do make sure that clients have clear goals that excite and inspire them. Otherwise, it’s just a case of getting out of bed every day and turning the handle for “another day at the office”.

Hmm, I’m possibly rambling a bit here! I suppose in summary, I’m agreeing with the sentiment of your comments, but I’m not so quick to condemn useful presentations that help people to get more out of their lives than they currently are doing. Obviously I’d prefer facts, but vaguely saying “I believe in this and it might help you to go along with it too” isn’t going to inspire the same level of confidence as quoting specific figures.

Of course, if you’re trying to educate clients about stats, that’s the right thing to do.

On the other hand, if your role is to lift your client’s performance to a whole new level, then using figures you believe to be accurate without hedging your words around it has a better chance of helping them to help themselves. Of course, that’s just a personal belief

Thanks for a thought provoking blog entry, excellent stuff.

Cheers,

Lee Duncan
“People don’t go into business just to survive, but that’s what so many end up doing”