Bottom Line up-front:
Ingvar Kamprad built IKEA, he asked people to help build his furniture and they built his fortune.
Let’s consider the billionaire’s genius idea, why it worked so well, and focus on tips for applying it to our own business and personal lives:
… think about how we package participation
… how to consciously design collaboration into our interactions
… the key concept is “together”
We can apply this thinking with customers, vendors, employees and even with our family to GET TO YES FASTER®.
The founder of IKEA passed away on Saturday.
Ingvar Kamprad was the IK in IKEA, the furniture store chain with 400 stores world-wide. He built IKEA by asking customers to help build his furniture.
The likelihood is high that you, like me, bought some furniture for your first apartment from IKEA. (I wonder how many young couples first realized that living together was gonna be hard halfway through building some IKEA piece…)
As a side note, Ingvar was ranked number 10 on a 2017 list of the world’s billionaires, net worth of $51.7 billion.
Not that money is the most important thing, but as old Zig used to say:
“it is reasonably close to oxygen.”
And it’s also a reasonable good indicator that he had some good ideas.
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The Wall St Journal reported that one of Ingvar’s best ideas was that furniture could be packaged for less money (shipped and warehoused) in disassembled form (what’s called “flat-packing”); and behavioral psychologists and scientific research tells us that an equally great concept was getting customers to participate in building the furniture themselves.
Ingvar’s genius idea was combining two powerful human biases, the desire to pay less and the desire to play a part.
WHY. Because “price always matters in the absence of any other reason” and “we take more ownership of those things we play a part in creating.” –Dean Minuto
Can we apply this genius idea to our own businesses and personal lives?
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THE PACKAGING OF “PARTICIPATION”
I know you are already doing this, but starting this week let’s all dig a little deeper on how we package participation into our processes.
Let’s brainstorm how we consciously design collaboration into our interactions with our customers, vendors, employees, even with our family.
Remember: People want to participate.
It starts early in life…
“ME DO it!” our Devon yelled almost as soon as she could talk.
Humans are wired for “we”.
There is Science behind “we”.
In a recent interview with Alex Mehr, Dr. Robert Cialdini (arguably the world’s most often-quoted living psychologist) talked in-depth about the concept of “unity”.
Dr. Cialdini referenced the importance of using words like: We. Us. Our. Together.
THE SCIENCE OF “TOGETHER”
We like to collaborate, and we like people who collaborate with us.
And we buy-into those things we play a part in creating.
The IKEA effect is the name scientists have coined for a specific cognitive bias (one of almost 200 that scientists have identified and which
Here are three short Tip Videos for you as reminders…
Cognitive biases are shortcuts that people use to make decisions, I call them “brain whispers”. The brain is always listening, looking, searching our environment for shortcuts to save energy.
And research into the IKEA effect shows that people place a disproportionately high value on furniture they partially created.
START SPEAKING “WE”
If we look for it we will find “we” messaging in many of the most famous quotes and documents in our history:
The Lord’s Prayer starts with “Our Father who art in Heaven…”
The Declaration of Independence almost immediately asserts “We hold these Truths to be self-evident…”
If we observe the world’s best salespeople we will note their skill in getting on the client’s side of the phone/table (…together with them) and inviting the client to participate in the process.
Loan Prospect: “What’s your interest rate?” (i.e. “What is the lowest price?”)
Mortgage Rep: “That’s exactly what we will find out together-do you have a pen handy?”
Members of the best Vistage Groups talk to each other using the language of “we”, because the best Vistage Chairs have framed a place of unity, of togetherness, a sense of “us” for their CEO members.
Watch the best Vistage Speakers when they present their Talks and see why they are rated as the best. Because they get people involved.
Humans are wired for “we”.
People want to participate.
Think about how to build more collaboration into your sales processes.
And I guarantee you and your Team will GET TO YES FASTER®.
(Click to view the calendar.)
The most effective and least expensive way would be to bring your Team to an open workshop event.
There are two open workshops coming up in San Diego.
And if you are interested in a private event in your city (a private Dallas or San Francisco area workshop is possible for February) check out my calendar and reach out to Sara and I today.
If I am already scheduled to be in your area in the months ahead we can save money and time for you by reserving a private workshop for your Team while I am in town.
I would love to share with your Team what science tells us
about how to help people decide faster–
and help them to apply the science
to optimize your business results.