Issue 5

Andrew Bass's Pragmatics Newsletter

Practical techniques and thought-provoking ideas

ISSUE Number Five. October 2007 

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In this issue:

• Article: The Right Response to the Wrong Situation (under 4 minutes reading time)
• Links to items of interest
• Learning Opportunity - Don't Just Present - Call For Action!

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The Right Response to the Wrong Situation

Have you ever found yourself trying to put the kettle into the fridge, thinking that you were actually replacing the milk? Perhaps you even noticed the kettle wouldn't fit before you realised why, and so tried to jam the thing in harder? Psychologists call this an 'action slip' (the classic book is The Psychology of Everyday Things by Donald Norman). Another example would be taking off the lid of a can and throwing the can away. 

The essence of the action slip is doing the right thing at the wrong time. The mental mechanism that underlies it the same that a fencer, boxer or bowler tries to exploit: training their opponent into a particular response, and then taking advantage of the resulting blindspot to land a successful attack. The loser becomes conditioned to a skilled, comfortable pattern and doesn't notice they are trying to apply it in the wrong situation.

Here are some examples of analogous problems in business:

• Relying solely on continuous improvement to the detriment of innovation: getting better and better at delivering something while failing to notice that people are getting less and less interested in buying it (e.g. The Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) made the market-leading VAX minicomputers but didn't adjust to people migrating to networks of cheap desktop PCs).
• Trying to repeat past successes that are well past their sell by date: Jaguar based the visual design of the S-type on the classic Mark II, ending up with something that looked nice (if too much like the similarly-inspired Rover 75), but was outclassed in the eyes of many by a dazzling modern Mercedes or BMW. Let's hope the fantastic-looking new XF works out better. 
• Not noticing that one's power base has eroded: Staff departments such as HR and IT, used to dictating the way the rest of a company deals with them, rigidly repeat bureaucratic procedures until they find themselves being outsourced.
• Relying on outdated cultural assumptions: Many in the traditional professions who grew up during the deferential post-WW2 period have been slow to recognise that 21st century clients are neither intimidated nor impressed by status or professional trappings and have no compunction about shopping around and negotiating hard on fees.