Ripple by Jez Groom and April Vellacott
“Creativity thrives when isolated things come together”
3 Main Messages
Anyone who works with people needs to know how to apply behavioural sciences
Collaborate with people who aren’t like you to stimulate creativity
“Our decisions are influenced by choice architecture”
Anyone with small children will testify to the pull of ‘pester power’ and shops long ago learned that weak-willed people like me will pick up and purchase little items like post-its, hair bands, or chocolate lollies while winding my way to the counter. Those who work in retail have long studied the art of choice-architecture; they know to place everyday items like bread and milk way back in the dark corner of the store so that you will be attracted to a multitude of other items on your walk there and back. IKEA is genius at this and I have never yet left a store without spending a minimum of $50.
We are being manipulated daily by those looking to sell us something. But what if we could use these techniques for positive purposes: to reduce crime, save people money and improve health conditions? Ripple is a book that explores and explains the behavioural sciences behind such successful schemes.
Groom and Vellacott have both studied and worked in behavioural science for years and, in this book, they share some of their techniques and give step-by-step guides for how to implement them in the workplace. Their stories and explanations are fun, interesting and so easy to read that I found myself devouring this book in a day and have genuinely improved the way I work as a result of the lessons I have learned.
The book builds on concepts covered in Nudge by Thaler and Sunstein and gives examples of how each of the authors have used behavioural science to reduce criminal reoffending, encourage people to save money, shop online, wash their hands and prevent pickpocketing.
As an educator, the story which had the most significance for me was how they encouraged safe practices on a building site through reward schemes and by changing the lunchroom. through painting the walls pink and making the space light, cool and filled with plants, they reduced levels of testosterone and people felt calmer and more relaxed so their behaviour was better as a result. Perhaps this is something every school lunch hall could consider mirroring!?
Groom and Vellacott take us through the steps to engage others in these practices and get everyone on board. When helping to tackle levels of obesity in Mexico, they used the transtheoretical model of the ‘5 Stages of Change’ that people go through when changing their behaviour, which consist of:
Precontemplation
Contemplation
Preparation
Action
Maintenance
They then used a variety of nudge techniques, from TV shows to Evoluplates (plates with rings on to indicate appropriate portion sizes for children) to tackle the problem successfully at each stage.
When approached to help companies sell more SIM cards in South Africa, they gathered together a diverse groups of people to come up with as many ideas as possible by applying the ‘MINDSPACE’ framework:
Messenger
Incentives
Norms
Defaults
Salience
Priming
Affect
Commitment
Ego
By working through each principle in turn (returning to ‘Incentives’ at the end, as these are often fiscal) they were able to come up with a marketing solution that they hadn’t previously considered and which proved to be very successful.
Each of the techniques that they use and procedures that they follow could easily be adapted to any line of work. Many of the suggestions in this book, such as the rewriting of a letter promoting TESCO online shopping, are blindingly obvious when explained, but subtle and clever in their effectiveness. Simply by changing the wording of your final question to encourage a ‘yes’, rather than a ‘no’ can have a small positive mental impact.
While I would recommend this book to anyone dealing with the public or leading a company, my only hope is that those at IKEA don’t read this, or I may never leave!
