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Summary: Job Search Lessons From "Sway" By Ori and Rom Brafman
Comment: Who knew that financial compensation had the same effect on the brain as snorting a line of cocaine? After reading "Sway" you know this, as well as a number of other surprising facts. This must-read is subtitled The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior. While it isn't a career coaching book its lessons are applicable to jobseekers:
Hot dog company Nathan's couldn't get people to try their hot dogs so they paid doctors to eat it. If doctors liked it, then they must be okay for the common folk, and hot dog sales took off. This is how the Brafmans demonstrate value attribution. Jobseekers, think about who is giving you referrals and recommendations. Get a highly regarded person in your corner and let value attribution work for you.
My heart is still in my mouth regarding the story of the toddler who died after doctors in the ER repeatedly missed her symptoms. Diagnosis bias caused them to overlook what the symptoms could mean and instead see only what they had predetermined. Jobseekers, if you've already diagnosed your search as beyond repair, then it is. You will see only what is wrong. You will be too easily discouraged. You will miss opportunities that do arise. Change your search first and foremost by changing your thinking.
Anecdotes from politics, sports, business and everyday life teach other lessons in commitment, loss aversion, the chameleon effect and more. Jobseekers, you don't want to go down a road that's not working just because that's what you've always done (commitment). You also don't want to play it so safe that you don't take enough chances to win the job (loss aversion). Finally, the chameleon effect warns us that we take on the characteristics that others ascribe to us. So jobseekers, in this often tumultuous job market, keep company with people who believe in you so you live up to their high expectations. Avoid the naysayers, lest they convince you to be less than you truly can be.
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Summary: Definitely swayed by Sway
Comment: I have read some great books the past few months. One of these is Sway: The Irresistible Pull Of Irrational Behavior by Ori and Rom Brafman.
Having loved The Starfish and the Spider, I was curious as to how SWAY would live up to its touted, will change the way you think about the way you think.
Essentially SWAY is a book that seeks to identify the unseen forces that sway us in our decision making. What was fascinating is how vulnerable we all are to these psychological forces. What I often consider "rational, reasoned, logical thinking" is, admittedly, more often than not, my own "blind spots" influencing the way I think and reason.
For anyone dealing with people, ministry, organizations, church work, etc. this book will be an eye-opener. All of us tend to think of others as irrational in their behavior and thinking. But few of us believe we ourselves are influenced by these same factors. Sway helped me understand some of the deeply-rooted psychological forces at work influencing the choices I make. What often passes as "God's will" or the "right thing" is frequently more the irresistible pull of one of these hidden forces at work upon our thinking and reasoning.
"We're all susceptible to the sway of irrational behaviors. But by better understanding the seductive pull of these forces, we'll be less likely to fall victim to them in the future."
Some of the forces that sway us and are backed with fascinating real life stories and research:
loss aversion: how we overreact to perceived losses...our natural tendency to avoid the pain of loss distorts our thinking
commitment: strong resolve to stay the course to the way we have been doing things for years and our inability to react to superior strategies
value attribution: our tendency to imbue someone or something with certain qualities based on perceived value, rather than on objective data...once we attribute a certain value to a person or thing, it dramatically alters our perceptions of subsequent information
diagnosis bias: our propensity to label people, ideas, or things based on our initial opinions of them and our inability to reconsider those judgments once we've made them
chameleon effect: when we brand or label people they take on the characteristics of the diagnosis
fairness: and the great lengths to which we'll go to defend it...when it comes to fairness it's the process not the outcome that causes us to react irrationally...how important it is for people to feel they have a voice when it comes to the issue of fairness
group conformity: depends on unanimity for its power...the temptation to align ourselves with everyone else...a lone dissenter is enough to break the spell and "give permission" to break ranks with others in the group
