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Speaker 1: Welcome to How I Work, a show about the tactics

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Speaker 1: used by leading innovators to get so much out of

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Speaker 1: their day.

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Speaker 2: I'm your host, doctor Amantha Imba.

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Speaker 1: I'm an organizational psychologist, the founder of innovation consultancy Inventium,

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Speaker 1: and I'm obsessed with finding.

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Speaker 2: Ways to optimize my work day.

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Speaker 1: Now, in today's mini episode, I want to talk about

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Speaker 1: three magic words that will help you create change. So

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Speaker 1: I wonder, have you ever tried to change your behavior?

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Speaker 1: I mean, of course you have.

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Speaker 2: Every day.

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Speaker 1: Millions of people worldwide try to eat less young food,

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Speaker 1: try to stick to an exercise regime, try to check

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Speaker 1: Facebook less often, and so on. And at work, chances

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Speaker 1: are you know someone whose company is undergoing a transformation

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Speaker 1: or a change program like it often feels like change

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Speaker 1: is the only constant. But change can be hard, and

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Speaker 1: when we recognize the need to change something, whether that

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Speaker 1: be our own behavior or the behavior within our workplace,

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Speaker 1: it can sometimes feel like an insurmountable challenge. So we

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Speaker 1: assume that to create a big change, we need a big,

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Speaker 1: complex solution. But what psychologists have demonstrated is the big

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Speaker 1: changes can actually be made by making small adjustments to

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Speaker 1: our behavior and in fact, there are actually three magic

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Speaker 1: words that can help us create huge change.

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Speaker 2: Now. One that I've.

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Speaker 1: Talked about on this podcast before is the impact of

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Speaker 1: using don't versus can't. So Marketing professor Vanessa Patrick investigated

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Speaker 1: the impact of the word can't versus don't, and she

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Speaker 1: suspected that the way that we talk to ourselves and

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Speaker 1: others actually impacts our ability to say no to temptation.

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Speaker 1: And let's face it, temptations are a big reason behind

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Speaker 1: why changing behavior is so hard. It's just so tempting

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Speaker 1: to do things as we've always done them. In one

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Speaker 1: of Patrick's experiments, one hundred and twenty university students were

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Speaker 1: recruited and asked about how relevant setting a relevant goal

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Speaker 1: setting was around healthy eating to them. So participants were

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Speaker 1: then taught about a strategy for managing unhealthy food temptations.

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Speaker 2: So one group was taught.

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Speaker 1: To say I can't eat X, whatever the case may be,

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Speaker 1: when presented with an unhealthy snack, and the other group

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Speaker 1: was taught to say I don't eat X. Participants were

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Speaker 1: then asked to turn their attention to a completely different

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Speaker 1: and irrelevant task, but when they got up to leave

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Speaker 1: the room, the crux of the experiment happened. They were

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Speaker 1: offered a choice of two snacks. One was a chocolate

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Speaker 1: bar and the other was a healthy granola bar. The

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Speaker 1: experiment is quietly noted which participants picked which bar. So

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Speaker 1: it turns out there was a very big difference between

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Speaker 1: the strategy people.

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Speaker 2: Were taught and the bar they picked.

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Speaker 1: Thirty nine percent of those who were taught to say

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Speaker 1: I can't eat X, when presented with a temptation, chose

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Speaker 1: the healthy granola bar. But in contrast, sixty four percent

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Speaker 1: of those and the I don't eat X group pick

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Speaker 1: the healthy granola bar. In other words, changing one simple

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Speaker 1: word increased the chance of selecting the healthy snack by

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Speaker 1: over fifty percent. Now, when the research has delve deeper

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Speaker 1: into this very significant effect, the reason they uncovered for

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Speaker 1: the huge shift in behavior was that those in the

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Speaker 1: I don't group felt more empowered to say no. So

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Speaker 1: saying you don't do something sounds like you're the one

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Speaker 1: in control of your choices, whereas saying you can't do

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Speaker 1: something sounds like someone else is calling the shots. So

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Speaker 1: if you're trying to break a habit or change something

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Speaker 1: about your behavior, use the word don't to improve your

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Speaker 1: chances of success by around fifty percent. Now, the second

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Speaker 1: magic word I want to talk about is the word because.

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Speaker 1: So in nineteen seventy eight, social psychologist Alan Langer from

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Speaker 1: Harvard I had a study in which participants had to

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Speaker 1: ask to jump to the front of the line to

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Speaker 1: use a photocopying machine. One group of participants were asked

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Speaker 1: to say, excuse me, I have five pages, May I

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Speaker 1: use the xerox machine. Langa found that this works sixty

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Speaker 1: percent of the time, and we're able to jump straight

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Speaker 1: to the head of the line. A second group were

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Speaker 1: asked to make the same requests, but to add the

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Speaker 1: words because I'm in a rush to the end of

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Speaker 1: their request. This addition increased the success rate by over

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Speaker 1: fifty percent so this time in comparison to sixty percent

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Speaker 1: instead ninety four percent of the time, these people jumped

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Speaker 1: to the front of the line, and all because they

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Speaker 1: gave a reason. So, if you're trying to change other

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Speaker 1: people's behavior, always use the word because to prompt you

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Speaker 1: to provide a reason. For example, if you're trying to

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Speaker 1: reduce the time you spend in your inbox, you might

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Speaker 1: say to your boss, I'm out of my inbox. For

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Speaker 1: a couple of hours today because I'm trying to get

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Speaker 1: some deep focused work done.

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Speaker 2: Now.

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Speaker 1: The final word I want to talk about is around willing.

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Speaker 2: So Professor Elizabeth Stoko.

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Speaker 1: From Low Lowborough, I'm not sure if I don't prodounce

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Speaker 1: that correctly University has spent thousands of hours in her

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Speaker 1: career reading transcripts of conversations to understand how to be

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Speaker 1: more persuasive. Her research uncovered a magic word that, when used,

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Speaker 1: makes people significantly more likely to say yes to what

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Speaker 1: is being asked of them. So, when people were asked

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Speaker 1: whether they were interested in an activity such as making

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Speaker 1: a presentation on a certain topic, they might answer yes

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Speaker 1: or no, But if the question was phrased, are you

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Speaker 1: willing to make a presentation on X? People were more

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Speaker 1: likely to say yes. Stoco also said that willing is

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Speaker 1: the best word to use when you're trying to turn

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Speaker 1: a no into a yes. So if you're trying to

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Speaker 1: change someone's behavior when at first they might be hesitant,

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Speaker 1: change your language and ask them if they would be

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Speaker 1: willing to try, you'll be far more.

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Speaker 2: Likely to turn the no into a yes.

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Speaker 1: So that is it for today's episode. I hope you

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Speaker 1: found it useful and I hope today maybe you'll incorporate

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Speaker 1: one of those three kind of magic words into your day.

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Speaker 1: And if you enjoyed this episode, and if you're enjoying

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Speaker 1: how I work, why not recommend the show to other people?

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Speaker 1: Because listeners recommending the show is exactly how this show

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Speaker 1: has managed to grow. And I think we're on about

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Speaker 1: a quarter of a million downloads so far, which is

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Speaker 1: quite exciting.

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Speaker 2: So please tell other people about the show if you're

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Speaker 2: enjoying it. And that is it for today's episode.