Trizle

You're planning a trip with friends. What do you do?

1. Send a group email: "Hey Y'ALL! What do y'all want to do this year? Let's do something fun like last year! OH YEAH! OMG OMG OMG"
2. Take suggestions.
3. Decide as a group where to go this year.

If you prefer a different destination, you give your input.

What happens when you vote for the spot?

BAM: Everyone likes/is-committed-to the destination; everyone goes; everyone has a fun time with everybody else.

• One, united, common, agreed-upon decision.

No politics.

Everything out in the open.

It's how Google decides company decisions. It's how McKinsey does it.

Everyone has a say.

What traditionally happens in companies?

1. Executives decide on X.
2. Executives drag along everybody else to X. (It's akin to a few friends deciding on a vacation spot for the entire group before getting any input, reserving tickets, charging airfare, and expecting everyone to come along merrily.)
   
3. People become angry; politics arise; morale drops.

Because Billy Bob secretly prefers a different destination based on his front-line experiences dealing with his customers, he's not fully-committed to the executives strategies -- so his productivity drops.

You lose your ability to serve your customers to your company's fullest potential.

Another competitor, united among its peeps, comes along, takes your market share, and puts you into mediocrity.

YOU LOSE OH NO

Making important company decisions?

Group.

You have to complete a big project.

1. You're scared.
2. Fear causes you to procrastine.
3. You become productively SUCK.

How do you overcome your fear?

Instead of seeing the project as some life-threatening freakish event that will happen to your life if you don't successfully complete it, try this:

• Instead of focusing on building the project to make your clients/superiors/audience happy, imagine as if your building the project for your friends/family.

The project immediately becomes less threatening; you start to remove fear and self-doubt, and the work becomes fun/manageable/efficient because you're not draining your energy reserves due to high heart rates caused from stress.

• I will write a paper that excites my friends.
• I will complete a design that impresses my family.
• I will enthrall my friends/family with this projecct.

Eliminate fear. Remove self-doubt. Crush procrastination.

Become more productive.

Friends/family.

Peeps put themselves into groups:

• The jocks.
• The nerds.
• The goths.
• The yaddas.

When you're part of one group, you think of your group as being soooo freeeaaakishly much better than the other groups.

So, you talk about them  -- how you dislike their ways of doing things, how they talk, how they behave, how frickin ignorant they are.

Typical Business X

Take a typical business.

• Officers get sweet corner offices.
• Low-rung employees get shoddy benches.
• Salespeople get better food.
• IT team gets bread.

People start separating themselves into groups, increasing rivalry, closing communication, increasing HATER-ATION, and disrupting a cohesive and united business culture that could've changed the world -- but are now resorting to office politics.

How do you get a better business culture?

One way:

• Increase motherkuffin communication among everybody.
• If that means playing fun office games with everybody (like chair racing), play some games. Woooohoooo!
• Break down barriers among positions/roles.
• Have executives work in cubicles like everyone else.

Ensure that every member of your entire business is equally valued/cherished, and are part of one united team that's out to fight the world for your customers.

• The more people feel as part of Group X, the more people associate themselves to Group X.

Make Group X your entire company.

WIN4EVERYBODY

In-group.

Unexpected rewards give you hikes in your brain's dopamine, making you happier.

When you work on X, you get predictable results; when you get predictable results:

• You: I SO BORED I SO BORED

Well, you don't need to be so bored. HI FIVE 2 YA

Just try this:

• Tackle new problems everyday; the unexpected results/rewards you'll get from tackling a variety of problems gives you hikes in your dopamine, boosting your happiness levels with your work.

Managers + Work

Managers can make work TEH SUK when they assign the same, repetitive tasks each and everyday; since their workers know what to expect, work becomes boring boring boring.

BUT WE NEED PREDICTABILITY!

But get this:

• A kid plays Tetris over-and-over-and-over-and-over.

He does so because for every game that he plays, he doesn't know what scores he'll get; the game gives him unexpected rewards if he gets a high score, boosting his dopamine, making him get his jolts of happiness.

• Similarly, say if you make a game for a waitress/waiter (e.g., try to beat the % of tips you get from your orders; keep leader board, etc., etc.), work becomes FUN.

Does the waitress/waiter know what to expect today? OH NO. The unexpected rewards she'll start to get boosts her happiness juices, and increases her morale about work.

FUN.

The unexpected.

1. Present second best feature first.
2. ...
3. Present best feature last.

What happens? You make a great first impression, setting a good stage for the rest of your presentation -- and then, BAM:

• You top it with your best feature right before your prospect makes a decision to buy.

People normally remember the first and last impressions of X best; for instance:

• You typically know more about what happened at the beginning of a movie and the end of the movie than you do with the middle parts of the movie.

Last impressions, however, stick out in your mind more, influencing your feelings about the movie than any other parts.

If, for example, you loved the movie and the last parts sucked, you wouldn't like the film as much as you would if the movie sucked at the beginning but gave a great ending.

Pitches that end with your best offering/feature/benefit last give you the best chances at closing deals.

Second first. Best last.

1. You wake up.
2. You drink something super good.
3. You do your work.

YOU = SUCK.

Why do you suck?

Your brain runs on empty when you wake up.

1. You sleep.
2. Your brain consumes freakish energy because you're have your super-sweet-pleasant dreams about shiny cows and their mothers.
3. Your brain consumes all of your glucose.

"WHAT THE EFF IS A GLUCOSE?"

Glucose is sugar in your blood that acts as your brain's primary energy source.

• No sufficient glucose? Your brain impairs.
• Sufficient glucose? Your brain = optimized.

Glucose carries the energy your brain needs through your bloodstream; because your brain's neurons act like a bunch of beeyotches and are too stubborn and too stuck-up to carry the glucose (F YOU NEURONS), your blood picks up the slack and carry your glucose to empower your brain.

When you wake up, your glucose levels are depleted. What to do?

BIG BREAKFAST

Restore your glucose levels with a hearty, delicious, good meal.

Two ways of getting sugar to your bloodstream:

1. Super sugary foods (like candy), a.k.a. high-glycemic foods.
2. Less sugary foods (like oatmeal), a.k.a. low-glycemic foods.

Now, if you eat super sugary foods, sugar will go through your bloodstream SUPER-FAST, like it just slapped your momma.

So, you'll deplete your glucose quickly, and you have to make up for the depletion by eating more-and-more-and-more -- that, friends, is how you end up FAT.

Now, if you don't want to be fat, try less sugary foods, whose sugars will travel through your bloodstream much more gradually, and give you more sustained energy throughout the rest of your fabulous day.

WIN4EVA

Glucose.

Expectations of X alter our happiness in experiencing X.

• If we expect a drink to be good, we're likelier to conclude the drink is good after tasting it.
• If we expect the drink to SUCCCCCCCKK, we're likelier to conclude that the drink sucks after tasting it.

For instance, in a study by researchers from Baylor College of Medicine, the study's participants preferred Pepsi over Coke when blind-tested; yet, when told what they would be tasting beforehand, the participants said that Coke tasted better.

WHAT THE HECK DOES THAT MEAN?

The presentation of your products matters as much as the quality of your products.

• A $5 cup of coffee wouldn't taste so well at a typical fast-food restaurant.
• A $5 cup of coffee with fancy names, fancy packaging, attractive decor, nestled in affluent surroundings, sold by friendly and attractive sellers, would taste much, much better.

If customers expect your item to suck, they'll likelier conclude THIS ITEM = TEH SUCK; however, if they expect your item to be good, you'll likelier end up with happy, happy, happy customers.

As much as you work on perfecting the quality of your product, try perfecting how you present that product to generate happier customers.

Presentation tips?

Some ways to alter expectations for the better:

1. List testimonials.
2. Make good decor.
3. Sweet packaging.
4. Principled, attractive design.
5. Stories about the origin of the item.
6. Twitter followers; Facebook fans.
7. Fancy names.
8. Etc., etc., etc.

Expect well. Experience well.

Present well.

Helping people is contagious, according to researchers.

1. You help Bob.
2. Bob helps Chuck.
3. Chuck helps Dikembe.

Want to build a more cooperative culture?

1. Help somebody.
2. Repeat.
3. Repeat.
4. Repeat.
5. Repeat.

Every time you help somebody? You're subconsciously compelling more people to help more people.

• It's as if you're adding more gasoline to the freakish fire, as cooperation exponentially grows with every good deed you do for others.

Cooperative team WIN.

Help somebody.

• Your friends: open communication.
• Typical workplace: closed communication.

Office politics erupts.

People yell, scream, hate -- but then act all HEY HOW ARE YOU DOING TODAY stuff, while secretly hoping that today is the day that they fall of a cliff.

Booooooooooooooooooooo

To create an atmosphere of openness, try creating a culture where people aren't just working with their bosses/co-workers, but they're working with their best friends.

That makes communication open, honest, brutal -- and puts politics in back seats.

Instead of looking out for ^1 (themselves), people start looking out for each other, helping each other, and making the company soar higher than a constipated ostrich high on Cheetos.

How to Create a Culture of Friends?

The familiarity/exposure principle:

• The more people see each other in different situations, the more they'll like each other.

The distinguishing variable between your best friends and your regular friends is that you see your best friends more.

1. I see Chuck more.
2. Therefore, I like Chuck more.

If Susie hates Bob, try this:

1. Play a game.
2. Put them on the same team.
3. Repeat until they become friends.

Exposure breaks down barriers.

Exposure strengthens friendships.

Google, for instance, helps their people bond over daily-meals/Friday-night-concerts/volunteering-activities/camping/ski-slopes/etc./etc./etc.

Don't have the resources? Try basketball games. Encourage weekend outings between peeps.

• Friendship culture.
• Friendship culture.
• Friendship culture.

The more you break down barriers between all team members, the more you'll make communication open, honest, and politics-free -- and work starts becoming a place where you bond together with your friends to help the people of this world (your customers).

WIN

Friends.

• When peeps feel threatened, they seek safety by sticking to norms.
• When peeps feel safe, they strive for innovative-new-novel things.

That's according to a study by UCSD researchers (deVries, et. al).

WHAT?

Take Joe.

Joe = shy guy among strangers; yet, when he's with his close friends or family members, he's spontaneous/outgoing/confident/innovative.

His safe environment frees him to be more innovative.

• He doesn't hold back when something sucks.
• He brings his best ideas to the forefront.
• He takes initiative.

An environment that tells peeps: HEY, IT'S OKAY TO INNOVATE WE LOVE YOU HI FIVE, keeps people in a safe mindest, encouraging them to bring new ideas to management/your-business.

Survey most employees all over the free world about helping their companies improve, and they'll tell you: BUT I'LL GET FIRED OH NO, limiting their employers' potential.

They end up sucking like the suck of the suck suck suck.

BOOO

Make Your Environment Safe

To encourage innovation, build a safe environment.

Make your company feel as if it's one gigantic-happy-loving family; you'll tear down each team member's walls, and encourage them to help innovate/improve/rocccccckk.

WIN

Safety.