Idea of the day: Using social media to send a global distress signal

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Dan

This is a great, simple idea which could help solve a really serious problem.

The Natalia project is named after Russian human rights defender Natalia Estimerova who was abducted and murdered in 2009. The problem such campaigners face is difficulty in communicating their plight with the wider world; the regimes that they are protesting against often control access to media channels and suppress any negative stories, making it tough to let the world know that injustice is being done. Specifically, it means the individuals themselves are often at great risk from being silenced.

So the idea is to give such campaigners a physical ‘assault alarm’ that activates either when pushed or when forcibly removed. This triggers messages out to pre-designated contacts using mobile & social channels, and those contacts in turn are then able to spread the news.

It’s a wonderfully simple idea to create essentially continuous media scrutiny & thus make these protesters safer. Here is a really short video that explains a little more, and here’s their Facebook page.

(Via Adverblog).

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Book Review: Decisive by Chip & Dan Heath

Posted on May 3, 2013 by binns

You must read this book. The traditional recommendation email from @awalshy arrives in my inbox . . .

A book about process you say? Count me in . . .

And yet you should be counting yourselves in, because Decisive is not only a book about process, it is THE book on it. A book about not only how important process is (trust me, the proof here takes next to no time to read), but a book with handy cut out and keep guide to how to get better decisions out of process (well not quite, the cut out and keep element is on their website – )

You can get the first chapter for free on their website (linked above) as well – how many people do you know giving away part of what they do (there is a lesson here in the old Freemium model) . . .

Anyhow, the book talks you through what they are calling the WRAP framework.

1) Widen your options

2) Reality test your assumptions

3) Attain some distance before deciding

4) Prepare to be wrong

Each section has practical examples and ways of achieving the required input to your decision. Among my many favourite are the “Vanishing options test” (you cant pick this option you love, where do you go next – good for audiences i think), multi tracking (thinking AND not OR – read this book for more on that ) , spark constructive disagreement (Daniel Pink in To Sell is Human talks about writing yourself a rejection letter), consider the opposite, 10/10/10 (think about how you’ll feel in 10 minutes, 10 months and 10 years about the decision), run a pre-mortem and pre-parade and set a trip wire (what is going to make sure you dont carry on regardless of what experience is showing you . . . )

Anyway, it would be remiss of me to give it all away here. Buy it, read it. Its definitely worth the time, you’ll come out with some great tricks for the planning season.

 

Posted in Brilliance from the big wide world, Words from the wise | 1 Comment

What i learnt at TedxLBS: Simona Botti & choice freedom

Posted on April 30, 2013 by binns

Simona said something very simple for those of us interested in behavioural change stuff

1) Choice freedom does not always improve subjective wellbeing

2) Choice freedom influences subjective wellbeing when control and responsibility are involved

3) People still choose / like to choose

Simona then offered a point of view about all those brands running “choose” based activation campaigns – suggesting maybe that it was a little much . . . put that in your pipe and

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What i learnt at TedxLBS: Gabrielle Adams

Posted on April 30, 2013 by binns

Gabrielle is assistant prof of organisational behaviour at LBS

Her talk was entitled “When cheating would make you a cheater”

It was about the massive difference between using a verb and using a noun in certain contexts.

She cites lots of examples and research, most simply summed up as

Vote is less effective than be a voter

Donate is less effective than be a donor

All of this is down to the difference between behaviours and identity. The nouns effectively ask “do you feel like you are this kind of person” – making the answer of “no” into something that would be judged in social context (often by yourself)

For those behaviour change focused folks and clients, this is really interesting – play with it

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What i learnt at TedxLBS: The afternoon sessions – Shoshana Clark Stewart

Posted on April 30, 2013 by binns

This was the talk of the day, easily – standing ovation

It was a story of transforming a part of Kabul, what he charity has achieved and how it achieved it . . .

The simple lesson was this: There are no rules and no lessons – you just need energy and passion

good, interesting, contrarian point of view to more process oriented folks

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