Creative or goal-oriented?

There is a simple and effective means of classifying participants in focus groups that has many uses. It is also valuable for determining what sorts of responses you wish to get out of certain types of people.

Are you highly creative or goal-focussed?

There is a very simple means in any group of people by which we can determine with some reasonable degree of accuracy who is ‘creative’ and who is more attuned to be ‘managers’.

This method was developed about ten years ago by the American Psychological Association, and has been used in thousands of circumstances - with pretty good accuracy.

We ask people to tell us which to tell us which of the following shapes they like the most.

Respondents are shown the following shapes on paper:

SQUARE

CIRCLE

TRIANGLE

SQUIGGLE

If you picked the square you are classified as a ‘Thinker’ - you prefer stable environments. You like to have clear directions. You will work until you drop on a project. You are very uncomfortable about floating around aimlessly, and you seek order and consistency. You are not initially creative , but will develop creative thoughts when encouraged. You will follow through on everything you do.
 

If you chose the circle your key characteristic is ‘Harmonious’ - friendly, slow to react, extroverted, creative. You will go out on many limbs for your beliefs and principles. You are not at all systematic, and you are quite a time-waster - procrastinating and putting off decisions. You are a big talker, not a speedy doer.
 

People who like the triangle tend to be very goal-oriented. These people like to sit at the head of the table in meetings. They are accomplished and highly motivated by success. Ambitious, and skilled. They do not get bogged down by details - seeing the big picture - macro not micro. They will design steps to solutions, won’t dither around or wander off the subject.
 

People who like the squiggle the most disdain regularity and details. They tend to be off-the-wall creative. They are loud and outspoken - vociferous. They have wildly unstructured ideas which are often unsound - but they sure are thought provoking. They are genuinely inventive. If you want creative thinking these are the ones who will provide it in spades. They also tend to be disruptive and will barge off in odd directions if not kept in check.
 

The uses of this simple test are many - it is especially good in focus groups when we wish to split the groups into two and have participants devise plans for brands or new products. It is also useful when recruiting /setting up groups where certain types of thinking might be more beneficial.
 

If you would like any more information, or wish to discuss this matter please contact me:

Mark de Teliga 0410 463 643/ markdeteliga@gmail.com

Sources: American Psychological Association Journal May 1997

Choice Overload

There is a school of thought that we are suffering from choice overload. Some recent psychological research has shown that, whilst counterintuitive, we might be better off seeking ‘good enough’ from our decisions rather than ‘the besť; we might also be better off if we lowered our expectations about the results of our decisions.
 

According to the American Psychological Association, if you seek and accept only the best you are a maximizer. If, on the other hand, you are prepared to settle for something good enough, you are termed a satisficer. Take the case of a maximizer shopping for a new dress - she will seek only the best and at the best price, so she will have the daunting task ahead of her whereby she has to visit many, many stores, check price after price before she makes a decision. Whilst she might not visit every store, she will aspire to reach the perfect decision. She may also be nagged by doubts after the purchase that she could have done better. To a maximizer, a satisficer will appear less discriminating, settling for mediocrity. The satisficer might be just as discriminating, but will be happier with her selection than the maximizer. The point is, too much choice can lead to misery for many people. 

A Nobel Prize-winning psychologist named Herbert Simon introduced the notion of satisficing in the 1950’s. He said that the cost of maximizing (in terms of time, money and anguish) meant that satisficing was actually the best strategy for humans faced with the explosion in choices available. Imagine his thoughts today!  
 

Here is a simple test to determine maximizing vs. satsficing developed by the APA. Write a number from 1 (completely disagree) to 7 (completely agree) next to each question. Add up your score. If it is 65 or higher you are a maximizer. If it is 40 or lower you are a satisficer. Many thousands of people have been surveyed using this test, no differences exist between males and females; the highest score was 75; the lowest 25; the mean was 50. 

Next report will explore this subject more fully.

Maximization Scale.

1.Whenever I’m faced with a choice, I try to imagine what all the other possibilities are, even ones that aren’t present at the moment.

2. No matter how satisfied I am with my job, iťs only right for me to be on the lookout for better opportunities.

3.When I am in the car listening to the radio, I often check other stations to see if something better is playing, even if I am relatively satisfied with what I’m listening to.

4.When I watch TV, I channel surf, often scanning through the available options even while attempting to watch one program.

5.I treat relationships like clothing: I expect to try a lot on before finding the perfect fit.

6.I often find it difficult to shop for a gift for a friend.

7.Renting videos is really difficult. I’m always struggling to pick the best one.

8.When shopping, I have a hard time finding clothing I really love.

9.I’m a big fan of lists that attempt to rank things (best movies; best singers; best athletes; best novels; etc).

10.I find that writing is very difficult. even if iťs a letter to a friend, because iťs so hard to word things right. I often do several drafts of even simple things.

11.I never settle for second best.

12.No matter what I do, I have the highest standards for myself.

13.I often fantasize about living in ways that are quite different from my actual life.

Young and out of time

Being ‘young’ today in Australia brings with it a great deal of pressure to perform, conform, be different, rage-against-the-machine, socialise and be successful - all at considerable cost both physically and emotionally.

Last month we conducted a survey of 1,200 respondents aged between 25 and 60 years of age. Asked whether they thought young people today were better off, worse off or about the same as they were when they were growing up, only 11% said better off; 61% said worse off; 12% said the same; 16% didn’t know. 

This is quite surprising in view of the relative affluence in which these young people are now growing up. When we looked at this 61% saying ‘worse off’ qualitatively we found that what most of these respondents were referring to was not financially related - they were referring to social, political and emotional factors. In fact, it was to the social and political issues that they were mostly referring.  

The sorts of issues that even some as young as 25 years believed are being faced by young people were the expectations of Australian society to perform - in career; in relationships; in community; in a society that these older people saw as increasingly hostile to the young. Why? For one reason, they saw that today’s pace of living is far greater than when they were growing up. They saw that Australia (like the rest of the world) is infected with a type of ‘hurry’ sickness. We now spend our lives rushing from task to task; meeting to meeting; appointment to appointment. 

So, it seems, the answer by 61% that young people growing up today have it worse off than in earlier times could be a reflection of just how anxious and rushed the respondents saw their own lives. When we ask people in our focus groups to tell us (apart from money) what do they want more of in their lives, the response is ‘time’ in over 90% of cases.

Did you know that the elevator button needing replacement most often is the ‘Door Close’? We are so impatient that new elevators can come fitted with a ‘psychological waiting time’ application whereby when you press the call button a program determines the closest car to you and then lights up the appropriate signal to let you know which one will be there. 

Young people suffer performance anxiety at a rate far greater than ever before. 

Although it can be argued that we Australians have always placed great importance upon career; relationships; education; health and so on, why now do so many people think it’s tougher these days? Answer: lack of time. Instead of helping better manage time, technology has caused the need to multi-task; forced the need for instant responses to SMS and emails; taken us to a point of never-ending, seamless communication. 

This accelerated pace is clearly visible in the big cities - young people are literally rushing off their feet to get things done - work, study, friendships, sex, drugs, parties, drinking and so on it goes. They feel the need to ‘perform’ at all these things far more acutely than ever before because there is so much more to do and get done. They rarely get time or take time to stop and smell the roses. This could be partly the reason that one in five suffer an emotional disorder requiring treatment before the age of 20 years of age. It could also account for the dramatic increase in the use of anti-depressants amongst the young over the past five years. It could account for the rise and rise of binge drinking and illicit drug use amongst teenagers (one in every three teens has ‘tried’ a form of illicit drug) - surely a sign that they are having difficulty coping. 

It’s hard to imagine that the pace of life is going to slow, so we need to be teaching our kids ways of coping without necessarily resorting to drugs or alcohol.

‘I’m going to kill myself. I should go to Paris and jump off the Eiffel Tower. You know, if I get the Concorde I could be dead three hours earlier. Wait a minute, with the time change I could be alive for six hours in New York but dead for three hours in Paris. I could get things done and also be dead.’ Woody Allen.

For more information please contact me on 0410 463 643 or markdeteliga@gmail.com

Adoption of Innovation

Adoption of innovation is generally very high in Australia. We adopted microwaves, mobile phones and television faster than did any other country.

Several studies have shown that innovation is adopted at varying rates throughout the market place.

Rates of adoption are normally distributed. 

Many studies have looked at the rate of adoption of innovations within markets - and lo and behold - it is normally distributed amongst the population. 

Innovators - 2.5%

Early Adopters - 13.5%

Early Majority - 34%

Late Majority - 34%

Laggards - 13.5%

Luddites - 2.5%

Innovators

Venturesome - very eager to try new ideas - acceptable if risk is daring - more cosmopolite social relationships - communicate with other innovators.

Early Adopters

Respectable - more integrated into the local social system - category contains greatest number of opinion leaders - are role models - the person to check with before using a new idea. 

Early Majority

Deliberate - adopt new ideas just prior to the average time - seldom hold leadership positions - deliberate for some time before adopting.

Late Majority

Sceptical - adopt new ideas just after the average time - adopting may be both an economic necessity and a reaction to network pressures - innovations approached cautiously.

Laggards

Traditional - the last members to adopt an innovation - most ‘localite’ in outlook - oriented in the past - suspicious of anything new.

Luddites

Backward - unlikely to adopt new ideas at any time - tend to be older people - rooted in the past - focus upon their own backyard and and nothing else - don’t believe new ideas work - the old ways are the best.

If you would like any more information, or wish to discuss this matter please contact me:

Mark de Teliga 0410 463 643/ markdeteliga@gmail.com