Uncategorized – Prakash Iyer

Netflix and the Zeigarnik Effect

Preeti Hoon — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 09:13:56 +0000

You pull out the key to open your house. You unlock the door and get inside. Then several hours later you’re looking for the key and wondering where it is. And you discover that you have left it behind on the door. Has this happened to you? To understand why it happens, let’s flashback to Bluma Zeigarnik, a Russian psychologist. One evening, Zeigarnik and her friends went out for dinner to a restaurant. They had a lovely meal. Guess what the highlight was? It was the service. More specifically, their waiter. He had an amazing memory. So as everybody placed their orders, he remembered every little detail, without writing anything down. He remembered who ordered what. And how they wanted it. Zeigarnik and her friends were all amazed by the waiter’s memory.

After the meal, they were driving back when Zeigarnik discovered that she had left her jacket behind in the restaurant. So she turned around, drove back to the restaurant and sought out that friendly waiter who she knew would be happy to help her locate her jacket. Imagine her horror though when she found the waiter, but the waiter didn’t even recognize her. What happened?

It got Zeigarnik thinking. And her research then showed how our brain tends to work. When a task is completed, our brain hits the delete button. And our memory gets wiped clean. Our short term memory struggles with space to retain information. So it keeps only the unfinished tasks alive. And the minute a task is completed it hits the delete button. And that’s why waiters at restaurants will remember every little detail of your order. But only until the bill is made. That’s why when we photocopy a document, we pick up the copy and walk away, leaving the original behind. This has come to be known as the Zeigarnik effect. A term that describes how our short-term memory deletes completed tasks. Fascinating, isn’t it?

The Zeigarnik effect might explain why at a bank’s ATM, you are now required to pull your card out before collecting the cash. They know Zeigarnik will be at play and once you collect the cash, the task is finished and good chance you will forget to take your card back.

It’s something we can all put to good use. Look at what Netflix does. You will find through all their serials, every episode ends tantalisingly. That 30-minute episode ends at a point where you will say ‘wow, what happens next’? You want to know, you want to come back. There is no closure at the end of that episode and that’s what brings us back all the time. Had there been closure, chances are we’d quickly forget about it. Maybe a powerful idea for all of us. If there is something you want to make sure remains alive, keep it just a bit unfinished. Writing a book? Make sure you end every writing session at a point of suspense or tension. Don’t resolve it. Don’t finish it. That will bring you back next day to writing again.

The Zeigarnik effect might also explain my favourite piece of communication advice. It’s this. Someone said that there are really two golden rules of communication: 1. Never tell everything at once. That’s it.

Ah, the Zeigarnik effect!

Pull That Andon Cord!

Preeti Hoon — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 07:06:53 +0000

You’ve probably heard about the Toyota Management System, and the LEAN principles that have transformed manufacturing processes around the world. But have you heard about the Andon Cord? Ah! That’s a story you must hear.

Turns out that in every Toyota plant around the world, there was a rope. The rope was called the Andon cord. And it had a very simple function. If a worker – any worker – saw something going wrong in the manufacturing process, he or she could just pull the Andon cord, and it would raise an alarm and bring the entire factory to a halt. Now, getting factories to stop production can be hugely expensive. But here was Toyota encouraging its workers to stop production if they had seen a defect. The logic was simple. It’s better to catch a problem early and solve it, rather than discover it later – after a lot of the damage had been done.

But that was not all. The Andon cord was Toyota’s way of empowering the team. Every single employee knew he had the power to stop the factory if he saw something amiss. Heck, he didn’t just have a right to pull the cord, he had an obligation to pull it if he found something was wrong. There was no fear of what the bosses would say. No worries on the losses that the stoppage might entail. In fact, once someone pulled the Andon cord – and production came to a standstill – the factory bosses would walk up to the person who had pulled the cord and thank him for helping the company identify a problem and prevent a bigger catastrophe.

Fascinating, isn’t it? If you think about it, the Andon cord was not just a quality improvement technique. It was a culture thing. The Andon cord unleashed a culture of empowerment – a culture where workers could take a call, and not have
to wait for instructions from their leaders. Netflix has its own version of the Andon cord. And Amazon too. If a customer service person at Amazon sees a problem with a product – or a seller – she can ‘pull the Andon cord’ – and stop the sale of that product. In an instant.

Maybe we all need to have the equivalent of an Andon cord in our organisations. A system where people call out problems and try and solve them – rather than a culture where everyone gets busy pushing the problem under the carpet, hoping no one will notice. Until the day when all hell breaks loose. The Andon cord creates a culture where you trust the people closest to the action to take the right call. And not a culture where everyone is waiting for the leader to tell them what to do. Empowerment makes superstars of seemingly ordinary folks – and teams begin to deliver results no one might have imagined.

Truth is, we need an Andon cord not just in our organisations, but in our lives too. If you see something going wrong in the world around you, don’t be a silent spectator. Pull the Andon cord. If you see a colleague or a friend doing something they shouldn’t be doing, pull the Andon cord. So next time you are sitting in a car and someone else isn’t belted up, you know what to do right? Pull the Andon cord.

Be like Ponting, Be like Langer!

eternityweb — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 05:59:02 +0000

HAPPY NEW YEAR! You’ve probably received several messages at the start of the year wishing you the usual ‘happy and prosperous new year’. Some folks might have wished you success and joy too. But if you look carefully, there’s something else a lot of people have been wishing each other this year: a healthy new year! Maybe it’s the events of the last couple of years that have brought good health right on top of our wish list.

Which is why you should hear about what happened in the commentary box in a recent test match between Australia and the West Indies in Perth. Ricky Ponting was in the commentary box. And as he talked about the action on the field, he felt a sudden, sharp pain in the chest. He started to feel a bit unwell, but since he was on air, he didn’t think too much about it. He stretched his arms, sat up a bit, gently rubbed his chest. The usual stuff we all do when we feel that tinge of discomfort before telling ourselves it’s no big deal.

When he finished his stint in the commentary box and walked back gingerly, he told his fellow commentator and long-time team mate Justin Langer about the chest pain he had felt. Langer quickly swung into action. He got in touch with a doctor on site, who checked Ponting out. Then they made arrangements to rush him to a hospital where Ponting was attended to by a team of specialists. Luckily for Ponting, no major problem was detected. All was well. Ponting was given the all-clear sign. And he was back in the commentary box the next day, ‘all shiny and new’.

You are probably thinking so what was that fuss all about? There was no problem right? Why the over-reaction? Fair questions. But I think there’s a lesson from Ponting we all need to learn. Ponting, who is 47 now, spoke about how people his age don’t easily open up about health issues. We want to maintain the tough guy image. So we dismiss that fleeting pain in the chest. We keep it to ourselves. But Ponting did the right thing. He spoke about his problems. He asked for help.

We should all be like Ponting. Talk about our problems. If you are feeling unwell, say it. If something is bothering you, speak it out. Hiding your problems from the world doesn’t do any good to you – or to anyone else. Be it a health issue, or a relationship challenge, or a problem at work. Talk to a friend. Being vulnerable is a sign of strength. Not a sign of weakness.

And we should be like Langer too. When a friend says he has a problem, do something about it. Don’t just say you should see a doc. Take him to one. Fast. I do think we all need to have a Langer around us. Someone who cares enough to take action to help us. Truth is, there is already a Langer close to each of us. Ready to help. But we aren’t telling him about our problems, our fears, our concerns.

Be like Ponting. If you have a problem, talk about it. Be like Langer too. When someone tells you about a problem, do whatever it takes to help. You will, won’t you?