Change the Default

Studies have shown that when you ask a question in a different way, or rather more specifically, you alter the default settings you get a different result. For example a study in the US has shown that when you change organ donor choices from “Opt in” to “Opt Out” you move participation levels from 40% to 80%. But (see this month’s Wired) this also has application in business. Amazon set defaults on your account so you can click once to buy for example. So powerful is this that it has been shown people would prefer to shop at Amazon than have to input their data again elsewhere, even if elsewhere is cheaper. The default of “One Click” is so powerful. In fact Amazon goes further and lures you in further by offering you free postage for a year if you pay c.£49.00, thus rendering you a more dedicated shopper - not only buying more but not going elsewhere in order for you to make the most of your free postage. Similarly Facebook sets various defaults on your account so that they collect a huge amount of data AND make it all available to advertisers (and in some cases everyone else too)! Lethargy and/or ignorance prevent people from amending these default settings.

So how can business more generally make use of this? How can we create choices for our customers so that using us is the default and/or the easier option than going somewhere else? It would be trite to answer that this simply comes down to excellent delivery and or keen prices so that our customer don’t want to go elsewhere. In my view “setting the default” goes much deeper than this and is also subliminal or not in any way obvious to the client. In other words certain standards, settings or modes of behaviour are established as the norm such that the client doesn’t even realise that they are being treated in a particular manner but it creates loyalty and higher spend.

Further to this there are other smaller settings you will have as a business that can be immediately altered to be the new "default" and quickly enhance your offering and/or return. I remember for example at a previous employer we had a clause referring to our rebate period, I recommended a new default, no rebate and moreover, don't mention it at all! Result was that clients hardly ever thought to ask about it. The new default was set.

This blog has been in gestation for some time and I have been trying to theorise the various applications of this but I felt it was time for me to just get it out there for others to apply.....

Microsoft and Facebook - the web numbers they finally wanted?

OK I might be somewhat behind the curve here but I note that Microsoft are making successful in roads in to the Web space.  Not that they haven’t tried this before of course or indeed had some success (Bing, X-Box Online etc) but they have failed to make the big impact that you would expect and given the amount of money they have thrown at it.  But then they have a pretty poor record of breaking out of their PC world – take for example to doomed Kin project.  The Facebook tie up is highly likely to be their breakthrough to the heady word of a fully integrated Microsoft on-line experience.

As per an earlier post a use Linked In quite a lot as a communication tool with candidates.  But recently (partly as I am searching for a VP Social Media for a major brand) I have been using Facebook to contact candidates.  Not only have I been getting a very high hit rate I have also been able to contact prospects and attach documents to my message.  They in turn have been able to reply with a Word document CV attached to the Facebook message. When you open the attachment it does so as a Microsoft Online App thus providing full online document management akin to Google Docs.  You then choose to download the document if you wish to your harddrive.  Linked In does not allow attachments via it’s messaging facility.  Add to this the approaching Skype / Microsoft deal and integrated Video chat in Facebook and it would seem that Microsoft have finally managed to make mega deals and expensive forays into the Web pay off – well assuming they find a way to monetise all this of course!

This means that Microsoft are a little way off the world that Google are moving towards with products like the Google Chromebook but now you can start to get a grip on the fact that it is now possible to run Microsoft and not need a hard-drive.  Cloud facilitates all of this of course and Microsoft’s Cloud service is yet to hit the big numbers but it does all seem to be coming together.

Fathers with Daughters and "That Horrendous Quote"

I had lunch recently with the awesome Exec Coach and friend Lee Chalmers and she quoted a particularly alarming statistic.  In fact when she sent me the relevant article the email was entitled “That Horrendous Quote”.  Well she is right because as a Father of an Infant School aged daughter it is indeed one of the most horrendous quotes I have ever encountered, in fact I believe it is one that challenges any father of girls to examine the way they are parenting. So here it is:  

"Twenty-five percent of young American women would rather win America's Next Top Model than the Nobel Peace Prize. Twenty-three percent would rather lose their ability to read than their figures". 

First off forget the words "American" we know this affects us all.  So who is responsible for the environment where our daughters are told that pink is best, being a princess is a positive aspiration and looks are more important that your thoughts?  The Rolling Stones said “.... after all. It was you and me” and it is indeed all of us, it is society that has done it and will continue to do it too.  The only hope we have is to give our girls extra focus support and attention and help them to understand that “being Woman” is actually a very cool thing indeed or as my daughter put it at the weekend “I am powerful because I am a Girl”.  In fact my daughter is quite an exceptional person, clearly I am bias, but she does seem different to some other girls – refusing to wear a dress to her Nephews wedding, being the only Girl at her school who managed an exception to the uniform policy of “no shorts” for girls and passionately spurning anything Pink.  In fact I am not sure where this has come from, as I am not aware of specific things we have done as parents to create some of these outcomes, obviously we have done something

Now here comes the problem, my daughter’s positive attitude, strength of mind and clarity of purpose is leading to her being labelled as a “tomboy”.  It infuriates me and also highlights just how ingrained sexism is and how up against it our young girls are.  The message they are being given is “conform to our vision as to what little girls should be like or we will label you as other”.  It is not her peer group that does this alone but rather genuine and very well meaning Teachers, Playgroup workers and other Parents – in fact any adult who feels in a position to comment.  Rather like the carte blanche right right people feel they have to touch an expectant mothers belly, everyone feels they have the right to pass comment on a  child’s behaviour.

So what now?  Well I don’t have all the answers but what I do know is that responsible "Fathers of Daughters" carry a burden probably more complex and onerous than any generation before them.  We are in an age where "Woman as sex object" is so engrained in our culture that it is impossible for our daughters not to be measured by it.  We are no longer the sole bread winner who swans off and leaves all this complex stuff to the Women either – at least I hope you don’t.  My view is that it is time for us to man up, get real and feminise our thinking.  Teach our daughters what is great about being a women, build positive dreams for them, point them to positive role-models (ditch the Models) and make sure that the stuff we are feeding them is congruent with what we want for them.  In sum let’s stop parenting little girls and start taking care of the future Woman.  Now all we have to do is give thought to what we do about the changing world that our Sons face.

Living Authenticly Online

I have recently signed up to Branchout a Facebook application that is in essence a new take on Linked In.  I signed up because I felt I should – it’s take up has been rapid – and because Linked In has been an essential tool for me for years.  I guess I am worried I might miss out if I don’t join.  But it has made me feel uncomfortable.  To date I have tried to compartmentalise my on-line life.  Linked In is essentially my Professional realm, Facebook is for friends, Foursquare a mix, Twitter: I have two different accounts, I game via platforms such as Empire Avenue and there are countless other platforms I comment on and/or rant to!

It is exhausting keeping so many compartmentalised worlds!  Moreover the whole thing can’t possibly be sustainable.  As my good friend Tony Fish (my online Soothsayer) warns our Digital Footprint is so vulnerable and ultimately uncontrollable anyway, but he might take umbrage to such a flippant summary of his view.  My Facebook security is only as good as the security my Facebook connections apply and I cannot stop someone from tagging me for example and I certainly can’t stop every security oversight such as a friend forgetting to log off from a shared computer in a Cafe or whatever.

Add to this, as a friend pointed out to me today, there are some conversations and or views we hold that we would never wish to see online.  The problem is of course that we cannot be certain that present company can be relied on not to voraciously blog our inflammatory views or comments!

This leads me to believe that the only answer is to be fully Authentic online.  No more “Facebook Tim”, “Linked In Tim” and so forth, just Tim.   So while I do not expect to be boring my Linked In network with my review of The Vaccines gig or School Reunion photos nor do I propose discussing a Core Networks with my family, I do not think there is any place for a view and/or comment that I could not comfortably share with any Network.  If I don’t choose such a position the internet will choose it for me in time anyway.