CANDLE PROBLEM

The candle problem or candle task, also known as Duncker's candle problem, is a cognitive performance test, measuring the influence of functional fixedness on a participant's problem solving capabilities. The one is given below:

You can now try this and later view the solution given below.

Many of the people who attempted the test explored other creative, but less efficient methods to achieve the goal. For example, some tried to tack the candle to the wall without using the thumbtack box, and others attempted to melt some of the candle’s wax and use it as an adhesive to stick the candle to the wall. Neither method works. However, if the task is presented with the tacks piled next to the box (rather than inside it), virtually all of the participants were shown to achieve the optimal solution, which is self-defined.

The solution is to empty the box of thumbtacks, put the candle into the box, use the thumbtacks to nail the box (with the candle in it) to the wall, and light the candle with the match. The concept of functional fixedness predicts that the participant will only see the box as a device to hold the thumbtacks and not immediately perceive it as a separate and functional component available to be used in solving the task.

As long as the task involved only mechanical skills, bonuses worked as they would be expected: the higher the pay, the better the performance. But once the task called for “even rudimentary cognitive skills,” a larger reward led to poor performance. “In eight or nine tasks we examined across the three experiments, higher incentives led to worst performance.” We find that the financial incentives can result in a negative impact for overall performance.

You can google out and find many such examples or problems and check your problem solving ability. Such exercises really do help to stretch your ability.

Thank you for your time.

TOP 10 LESSONS FROM HARRY POTTER

Harry Potter  books  make up the popular  series written by J.K.Rowling. The book has been made into movies by Warner Bros. Pictures. These are some lessons from Harry Potter film cast.

1. HARRY POTTER 

2. HERMIONE GRANGER

3. FRED AND GEORGE

4. LUNA LOVEGOOD

5  NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM

6. DRACO MALFOY

  

7. HAGRID

8. DOLORES UMBRIDGE

9. PERCY WEASLEY

10. SNAPE

THE SECRETS FROM THE SCIENCE OF PERSUASION-3

5) LIKING

Our 5^th universal principle of influence is the principle of LIKING. People prefer to say yes to those whom they like. The Persuasion science tells us that there are 3 important factors.

i)                We like people who are SIMILAR to us

ii)              We like people who pay us COMPLIMENTS

iii)            We like people who CO-OPERATE with us towards mutual goals

As more and more interactions we are having takes place online, it might be worth wondering whether these factors can be employed effectively in online negotiations.

In a series of negotiation studies carried out between MBA students of the well-known business schools, 1^st group were told TIME=MONEY, so get straight down to business. In this group around 55% were able to come to an agreement. A 2^nd group, however, were told before you begin negotiating, exchange some personal information with each other, identify similarities you share in common and then begin negotiating. In this group 90% of them were able to come to a successful and agreeable outcome.

So to harness this powerful principle of liking, be sure to look for every such similarity that you share with others and genuine compliments you can give before you get down to business.

6) CONSENSUS

The 6^th and final principle of persuasion is CONSENSUS. Especially when they aren’t certain, people will look to the actions and behaviors of others to determine their own.

You may have noticed often at hotels that a small card in the bathrooms that attempt to persuade to reuse their towels and linens. Most do this by drawing a guest attention to the benefits that the reuse can have on environmental protection. It turns out to be a pretty effective strategy leading to around 35% compliance but could there be an even more effective way? Well it turns out that about 75% of people who check into a hotel for 4 nights or longer will reuse their towels at some point during their stay. So what would happen if we take a lesson from the principle of consensus and simply include that information on the card and said, “75% of our guests reuse their towels at sometime during their stay. So please do so as well”. It turns out that when we do this, towel use rises by 26%. Now imagine that next time you stay in the hotel you saw one of these signals, you picked it up and read the following message – “75% of people who have stayed in this room have reused their towels”. What would you think? Well you might think, “I hope they are not the same towels” and like most people you probably think that this sign will have no influence on you behavior whatsoever. But it turns out that change in just few words on a sign to honestly point out what comparable previous guests had done was this single most effective message leading to 33% increase in reuse.

 So these are some shortcuts of persuasion which can drastically change your life.

Thank you for your time. You can suggest any thing on which we can discuss upon.

THE SECRETS FROM THE SCIENCE OF PERSUASION-2

Hey folks, let us discuss about the other shortcuts for science of persuasion

3) AUTHORITY

Our 3^rd universal principle of influence is the principle of AUTHORITY. It is the idea that people follow the lead of credible knowledgeable experts.

Physiotherapists, for an instance, are able to persuade more their patients to comply with recommended exercise programs if they display the medical diploma of the wall of their consulting rooms.

People are likely to give more change for a parking meter to a complete stranger if that requester wears uniform rather than casual clothes.

According to science it is important to signal to others what makes you a credible knowledgeable authority before you make your influence attempt. Of course this thing can present many problems. You can hardly go around telling potential customers how brilliant you are. But can certainly arrange someone who can do it for you. And surprisingly the science tells us that it doesn’t seems to matter if the person who introduces you is not any connected to you but also like to prosper from the introduction themselves.

One group of real state agents were able to increase both, the number of property appraisals and the number of subsequent contracts that they wrote by arranging reception staffs who answered customer’s enquiries to first mention their colleagues quotation to the expertise. So customers interested letting properties were told, “Letting? Let me connect you to Mr. White who has experience of about 15 years in this area”. Customers who were interested in information of selling properties were told, “Speak to Mr. Brown, Head of Sales, who has over 20 years experience in selling properties”.

The impact of this expert introduction led to a 20% rise in the number of appointments and a 15% increase in the number of signed contracts. Its not bad for a small change informed from a persuasion science that was both ethical and cost less to implement.

4) CONSISTENCY

The 4^th universal principle of persuasion is CONSISTENCY. People like to be consistent with the things they had previously said or done. Consistency is activated by looking for small initial commitments that can be made.

In one famous set of scientific studies, researchers found, rather unsurprisingly, that very few people would be willing to erect an unsightly wooden board in front of their lawn to support a drive safely campaign in their neighborhood. However, in a similar neighborhood close by 4 times as many home owners indicated that they would be willing to erect this unsightly boar. Why? Because 10 days previously they had agreed to place a small postcard in the front window of their home that signaled their support for drive safely campaign. That small card was the initial commitment that led to 400% increase in a much bigger but still consistent change.

So when seeking to influence using principle of consistency, the detective of influence looks for voluntary, active and public commitments and ideally gets those commitments in writing.

      For an instance, according to one recent scientific study, there were reduced missed appointments       at health centers by 18% simply by asking the patients rather than the staff to write down                     appointment details on the future appointment card.

Thank you for your time.

THE SECRETS FROM THE SCIENCE OF PERSUASION-1

Persuasion Power is the most important tool that you need to carry in your business world. Persuasive Power means convincing power, which is needed every now and then in our life. Don't you think so?

If you have it, you can win the world. But if you lack it, you can gain it back. Here I will try to estimate some Shortcuts fro the Science of Persuasion.

1) RECIPROCITY

The 1^st universal principle of influence is RECIPROCITY. Simply put people oblige to give back to other the foremost behavior, gift or service that they have received first.

If a friend invites you to their party, there’s an obligation that you should invite him/her in the future party that you are hosting. If a colleague does you a favor, then you owe that colleague a favor. So in the context of social obligation people are most likely to say yes to them.

Best demonstration of principle of reciprocity is the series of study that was conducted in the restaurants. So the next time you visit a restaurant, there is a good chance that waiter or waitress will be giving you a gift. Probably at the same time they will bring you a bill with a cookie or perhaps a simple mint. So here is the question. Does the giving of the mint have any influence over how much tip you are going to leave them? Most people will say ‘NO’. But that mint can make a surprising difference. In the scientific study it was found that giving customers 1 mint at the end of the meal can typically increase tip by around 3%. Interestingly if the gift is doubled i.e. if 2 mints are provided, gift don’t double; they quadruple. So around 14% increase in tip was found. Perhaps most interesting is the fact that if the waiter provides 1 mint, walks away from the table, pauses, turns back and says ‘For you nice people here’s an extra mint’; tips goes through the roof  and there was 23% increase in tip influence not by what is given but by how it was given.

So the key to the principle of persuasion is to be the first to give and what you give must be personalized and unexpected.

  

2) SCARCITY

The 2^nd universal principle of persuasion is SCARCITY. People want more of those things they can have less of.

British Airways announced in 2003 that they will be no longer operating twice daily London – New-York flight because it had become uneconomical to run. Sales the very next day took off. Nothing had changed about the flight; it certainly didn’t fly any faster, the services suddenly didn’t get better and the air fair didn’t drop. It had simply become a scare resource and a result people wanted it more.

So when it comes to effectively persuading others using the scarcity principle, the science is clear. Its not enough simply to tell people about the benefits they will gain if they choose your product and services, you will also need to point out what’s unique about your product and what they stand to loose if they fail to consider your proposal.

     

Thank you for your time. We will shortly have a look over other shortcuts too.

MARSHMALLOW CHALLEGE

We always talk about crisis management. Why is crisis management so important???? Puzzled, right?

We will talk about it with the help of a MARSHMALLOW CHALLEGE, which is a design challenge. The challenges are very simple and one of them is presented here. Challenge: The team of four have to build tallest free standing structure within 8 minutes. The apparatus provided was 20 sticks of spaghetti, one yard tape, one yard string and one marshmallow. The only condition was the marshmallow has to be on top.

Well it seems very simple but actually it’s pretty hard because it forces people to collaborate very quickly. This interesting idea was once incorporated in the design workshop and there was the huge success. 70 different design workshops were conducted with students, graduates, designers, architects, etc. The deep lesson came out of this about the nature of collaboration.

Normally most of the people started by orienting themselves to the task, they spend some time planning, organizing, sketching the layouts, etc. They spent majority of the time assembling the sticks to build in the ever growing structure. And finally at the end someone takes up the marshmallow and gently put it on top. They stand back and admire their work but this Ta-Da moment turns to Oh-Oh moment when the structure collapses soon because of the weight of the marshmallow.

Survey along the world answered the 2 most interesting questions. 1^st is who consistently performs poor and were caught in the clutches of Oh-Oh moments most of the time? The answer is Recent School Business Graduates. They produced really lame structures. Shocked???

2^nd one is yet to be answered. The 2^nd question is who consistently performs well and enjoyed Ta-Da moments most of the time?  And the answer is Kinder Garden students. They were not only able to produce most tallest but also more interesting structures. Analysis id shown in figure below.

So, now the question is how come? Why? What is about them? The reason for this is business students are trained to find a single right plan. Then they execute on it and finally when they put marshmallow on top, it’s a crisis. But the kinder garden students start with the marshmallow and then they built successive prototypes by always keeping the marshmallow at the top. So they get iterative feedbacks of what workas and what doesn’t work.

So this is an essence of collaboration. It is an iterative method consisting of steps prototype, refine, prototype, refine, continuously. 

Why to spent time to conduct this marshmallow challenge? It helps to identify the hidden assumption i.e it helps the team to identify the marshmallow in the project. Every project has its own marshmallow.

In nutshell, take up one idea. Make that one idea your life. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, and every part of your body be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.

Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know there is something inside you that is GREATER than any obstacle.

Thank you for your time. If you are more interested you can visit marshmallowchallenge.com

FAMOUS FAILURES

After Being Cut Basketball Team, He Went Home, Locked Himself In His Room And Cried.

MICHAEL JORDAN – 6 Times NBA Champion, 5 Time NBA MVP & 4 Time NBA All-Star

He Wasn’t Able To Speak Until He Was Almost 4 Years Old And His Teachers Said He Would “Never Amount Too Much”

ALBERT EINSTEIN – Theoretical Physicist & Nobel Prize Winner

Was Demoted From Her Job as a News Anchor Because She Wasn’t Fit For Television

OPRAH WINFREY – Host Of a Multi-Award-Winning Talk Show & the Most Influential Woman in the World

Fired From A Newspaper For “Lacking Imagination” And “Having No Original Ideas”

WALT DISNEY – Creator of Mickey Mouse & Winner of 22 Academy Awards

At Age 11 He Was Cut From His Team After Being Diagnosed With A Growth Hormone Deficiency, Which Made Him Smaller In Stature Than Most Kids His Age.

LIONEL MESSI – 3 Time FIFA World Player of the Year

At 30 Years Old He Was Left Devastated and Depressed After Being Unceremoniously Removed From the Company He Started

STEVE JOBS – Co-Founder Of Apple Inc. & Co-Founder of Pixar Animation Studio

A High School Dropout, Whose Personal Struggle With Drugs And Poverty Culminated In An Unsuccessful Suicide Attempt

EMINEM – 13 Times Grammy Award Winner, Sold Out 90 Million Albums Worldwide

A T3acher Told He Was “Too Stupid To Learn Anything” And That He Should Go Into A Field Where He “Might Succeed By Virtue Of His Pleasant Personality”

THOMAS EDISON – Inventor of the Incandescent Light Bulb

Rejected By Decca Recording Studios, Who Said “We Don’t Like Their Sound… They Have No Future In Show Business”

THE BEATLES – The Most Commercially Successful and Critically Acclaimed Band In History

His First Book Was Rejected By 27 Publishers

DR. SEUSS – Best-Selling Children Author in History

His Fiancé Died, Failed In Business, Had A Nervous Breakdown and Was Defeated In 8 Elections.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN – 16^th President of the United States

IF YOU’VE NEVER FAILED

YOU’VE NEVER TRIED ANYTHING NEW.

This is the power of SELF-BELIEF.

GO NOT TO THE TEMPLE

Go not to the temple to put flowers upon the feet of God,

First fill your own house with the fragrance of love.

Go not to the temple to light candle before the altar of God,

First remove the darkness of sin from your heart.

Go not to the temple to bow down your head in prayer,

First learn to bow in humanity before your fellowmen.

Go not to the temple to pray on bended knees,

First down to lift someone who is down-trodden.

Go not to the temple to ask for forgiveness for your sins,

First forgive from your heart those have sinned against you.