Sidetracked: Why Can’t We Stick to
the Plan?
In her new book, Sidetracked,
behavioral scientist and professor Francesca Gino explores the unexpected
forces that often keep people from following through with their plans, both
professional and personal.
Three different sets of forces
influence our decisions in ways we commonly fail to anticipate:
(1) forces from
within ourselves,
(2) forces from our relationships with others, and
(3) forces
from the outside world.
"The best-laid schemes of mice
and men go often awry." - Robert Burns, 1785
An entrepreneur starts a company with
plans to go public, but ultimately accepts a low-ball acquisition offer from a
competitor. A newlywed husband plans to spend 10 minutes in Whole Foods picking
up the ingredients for a romantic dinner, but ends up spending an hour
comparison shopping for organic dog food and craft beer. A college student
resolves to spend every Wednesday evening studying in the library, only to
spend most of that time watching reality TV. So what happened?
In her new book, Sidetracked: Why Our Decisions Get Derailed, and How We
Can Stick to the Plan , behavioral scientist and HBS Associate Professor
Francesca Gino explores the unexpected forces that often keep people from
following through with their plans. The book, based on years of colorful
experimental research, shows how we can be disastrously distracted by seemingly
innocuous factors — and how distractions can be avoided.
This excerpt from the book's
introduction describes how three different sets of forces sidetracked Gino's
husband during a recent trip to Dubai. - Carmen Nobel
Introduction:
What Gets Us Off Track
From Sidetracked: Why Our
Decisions Get Derailed, and How We Can Stick to the Plan
By Francesca Gino
On a sunny day a few years ago, my
husband, Greg, and I were wandering the streets of the Gold Souk in the old
part of Dubai. Both my sister, who was living in Dubai with her family, and my
travel guide had described the souk — a marketplace where you can buy products
ranging from fresh food and spices to handicrafts and even gold — as a
"must-see." Our plan for the afternoon was clear: Greg and I wanted
to have an enjoyable day and buy something authentic that would help us
remember the experience vividly once we were back home.
As we went from one tiny, packed
store to the next, we noticed that amid the traditional shops lining the souk's
enchanted streets were other shops filled with fake designer handbags and
knockoff designer clothing. Vendors ran after us, hawking "Nike"
shoes, "Versace" T-shirts, "Louis Vuitton" bags,
"Prada" wallets, and "Ray-Ban" sunglasses — all of them at
bargain prices, and all of them closely resembling the authentic products we
were familiar with from home.
One vendor was particularly
persistent. He convinced Greg to follow him to the back of his store, where the
two spent almost an hour haggling over "Rolex" and
"Panerai" watches — identical copies of the real thing. Greg thought
a fancy watch would make him look and feel good, and he doubted any of his
friends or colleagues would be able to tell the difference.
After quite a bit of negotiating,
Greg was ready to make a purchase: a copy of a Panerai Luminor Power Reserve
men's watch, which typically sells for about $7,000 in the United States. Greg
bought his perfect (in his mind) replica for just over $100.
He was thrilled, but his euphoria
over getting such a good deal was short-lived. By the time we got back to our
car, Greg said he couldn't help but feel a bit fake while wearing the watch.
Ironically, this was exactly the
the
opposite of our initial plan: having an authentic experience at the souk .
We set a new career path, we choose
a diet to follow, we make plans to save for retirement, we set a new direction
for the management team, or we promise to carefully research our next big
purchase. And yet, like Greg, you may have found yourself following a course of
action that took you completely off track — putting off your job search,
sabotaging your diet, spending too much on trivial items, and so on. In the
end, your outcome bore very little resemblance to your initial goal. Such
results can be discouraging, demoralizing, and baffling.
We have a rose-colored view of who
we are and what we do, and we aim to behave in ways that are consistent with
our self-image as capable, competent, helpful, and honest individuals. We care
about following through on our goals and wishes. And yet, even when we have
spent time developing our plans and are fully committed to our best intentions,
our decisions often veer off course in unexpected ways.
Greg set off to choose a souvenir
that would enhance our authentic experience abroad, but left the souk feeling
just the opposite — inauthentic and false. And Greg is not alone. I have observed
experienced managers plan carefully for their negotiations but end up with very
different deals than those they had planned because they were caught up
"in the heat of the moment." I've seen friends make plans to improve
their relationships but fail to follow them due to their inability to put
themselves in their partners' shoes. I have watched thoughtful managers
planning new incentive schemes to motivate their employees, only to find the
employees focused more on cheating the system than on working harder. And I
have also noted similar inconsistencies in my own behavior. Why do our plans so
often go astray, and how can we keep on track?
Over the last 10 years, I embarked
on a number of research projects that focused on answering just those questions.
In Sidetracked, I'll share my findings.
Three different sets of forces
influence our decisions in ways we commonly fail to anticipate:
(1) forces from
within ourselves,
(2) forces from our relationships with others, and
(3) forces
from the outside world.
Throughout Sidetracked, I will describe the results of
various studies examining the power of these forces and how they operate. I
will suggest that we can make more successful decisions by understanding these
forces and that we can learn to account for them as we set goals or clarify
plans of action. I will conclude each chapter by describing one principle for
you to consider to avoid getting sidetracked in the future.
Forces from within are factors that
reside in both our minds and our hearts, and exist because of the very nature
of being human. We will explore the accuracy (or lack thereof) of our beliefs
about our abilities and competence (chapter 1), the effects of our emotions on
unrelated decisions (chapter 2), and the consequences of having an (overly)
narrow focus when evaluating information and making decisions (chapter 3).
Forces from our relationships are
factors that characterize our relationships and interactions with others. We
are social human beings, but our bonds with others often derail our plans. In
the second part of the book, we will examine how this happens. I will discuss
the difficulty of putting ourselves in others' shoes (chapter 4), how sharing even
superficial features with others (such as having the same first name) colors
our viewpoint and decisions (chapter 5), and how we are affected by comparing
ourselves to others (chapter 6).
Finally, forces from the outside are
factors that characterize the context in which we operate and make decisions.
We will explore the effects of irrelevant information on our decisions (chapter
7), examine why subtle differences in the way a question is framed lead to
different solutions (chapter 8), and discuss how the structure of our
environment can cause us to veer off track (chapter 9).
To a certain extent, all these
forces were at play when Greg was deciding what to buy at the souk. Forces from
within made him concentrate on how wearing a Panerai (albeit a fake) would make
him feel, a prediction that turned out to be shortsighted and inaccurate.
Forces from his relationships made him focus on the fact that he would look
good relative to others, but at a much cheaper price; this focus may have
clouded his understanding of the power of wearing counterfeits. And forces from
the outside — the heady atmosphere of the souk — may have had an impact as
well.
Excerpted from Sidetracked: How
Decisions Get Derailed, and How We Can Stick to the Plan. Copyright 2013
Francesca Gino.http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/7141.html?wknews=02202713
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