A small nudge to create stunning
team results
Could you boost your team’s creative
thinking just by passing around warm mugs of tea?
Responsible use of “nudges” – subtle
interventions that guide choices without restricting them – can be the key to
opening up creativity, innovation and great performance levels to individuals
and ultimately organizations.
We set up these ideas in two recent blog
posts about the technique of nudging to influence behavior and propel action.
To demonstrate how subtle nudges can have remarkable results, we employed the
concept of priming, bringing decision-makers into the right mindset for making
a particular decision through a nudge.
During a three-day gathering of 150-plus
senior executives at the McKinsey Executive Leadership Program in Australia, we
put it to the test.
We prepared a nudging experiment for the
audience before we introduced participants to the ideas around the predictable
irrationality of humans and the unconscious biases we carry, as well as the
nudging method.
The conference organizer, who was in on
the experiment, then came on stage and informed the executives their help was
needed to develop the leadership program further.
We split the executives into two groups,
and each group was asked to work in pairs to develop ideas for the 2019
Executive Leadership Program for 10 minutes. We considered the groups equally
talented and motivated with a similar intrinsic enthusiasm. But each received
different approaches to their instructions, and we also changed their
environment.
Group One received a warm, welcoming
appeal: A blue paper “Hello!” greeting, the message of “We need your help” and
ended with a “Thank you.” They were handed warm tea or coffee to drink and were
encouraged to offer drinks to others as well. These executives were asked to
put individual ideas on post-it notes using colored pencils.
Group Two members received bureaucratic
instructions, emphasizing to “Please adhere to these instructions during the
session on ideation” and that “You should ensure you are properly hydrated
during the session.” These executives were given white-lined paper to write
ideas “clearly listed and numbered on the page.” They were served ice water.
The results: The positively primed Group
One developed 70 completely new ideas that covered new territories, more than
twice the 32 fresh ideas of Group Two, whose members mainly focused on
structural or logistical improvements.
Specifically, Group One suggested
additional innovative speakers and innovative program formats. One pair
suggested holding a post-apocalytic simulation for teams; another recommended
an outdoor team-building activity such as a hike or water rafting. A third
proposed that participants face a real business challenge, during which teams
would run a business and provide feedback on the final day.
Group Two’s recommendations were more
mundane, including not scheduling too many speakers too quickly during the
program, making sure breakfast and lunch were put on the agenda, and ensuring
that teleconferences had tech support.
After discovering they had been guinea
pigs, participants were stunned and fascinated by the outcomes. “The
neuroscience of the change session blew me away,” said one executive, echoing
raves from others. Another executive exclaimed, “I was having so much fun…the
conversation and our crazy ideas kept flowing.”
Based on the experiment and the different
outcomes, we drew these key learnings:
1. Even
the most seasoned business professional can benefit from the positive effects
of nudging, in our case “priming.”
2. Small
changes in stimuli/environment can lead to appreciable differences in outcomes,
on records in our case, of a factor of 2x.
3. Organizations
are leaving potential insights and impact on the table by ignoring positive
nudges and the differing environments and elements that can foster greater
creativity.
Priming is just one nudge that can
influence behaviors. McKinsey maintains a database of 80-plus nudges and
150-plus interventions we can customize.
In a world where organizational
innovation, creativity and agility are key to long-term performance, a unique
approach to problem-solving is crucial for maintaining competitiveness in the
future. If you’re interested in learning more, give us a nudge.
By Julia Sperling Roland Dillon & Jennifer Tietz
https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/the-organization-blog/a-small-nudge-to-create-stunning-team-results?cid=other-eml-alt-mip-mck-oth-1811&hlkid=1d3824d14c1c424baae006fa4e079c57&hctky=1627601&hdpid=e5df3773-4693-4012-84bb-18a0614bc4e0
No comments:
Post a Comment