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Book Review
INFLUENCE RATING
Why We Make Mistakes (Joseph Hallinan, 2009)
By Victor Antonio, Sales Influence
The book should come with a warning label: WARNING: Due to the graphic cognitive nature of this book, your confidence in your ability to be "totally" confident in your answers going forward may be undermined.
Hallinan’s
book is a disturbingly fascinating tour through the lambrynth
of frailties in human cognition. Or
to put it in the vernacular a la Zig Ziglar, we do a lot of
"Stink’n think’n" and we don't even know it at times.
We have biases and we don’t know it.
And even when we do know about our tendency, we find it hard to
correct
My biggest 'Ah-Ha!' moment from the book was on test taking studies. Since I can remember, the school system has indoctrinated me with the test-taking rule, ‘go with your first answer, it’s usually the right one’. Not according to Hallinan. Based on nearly 80 years of research (spanning 30 studies) on answer changes from wrong-to-right conclude that most people who ‘do change’ their answers improve their test scores. That tip alone would’ve bumped my scores up in college.
Here’s
another nugget in the book, 70% of stock investors stick with their stock
choice even after knowing they might be wrong.
Why? It’s in the
book, I won’t spoil it for you. Part
of the reason for our cognitive handicap has to do with our overly taxed
memory. Hallinan notes
that 30% forgot password in just one week and 65% forgot password after 3
months. Halinan makes a very
insightful point when he addresses how our memories are “reconstruction
not a reproduction”. In
other words, hindsight really isn't 20/20 and our current image of
the past is more than likely a convenient reconstruction and not a
reproduction of what really happened.
Hallinan says, “In remembering our own actions, we all tend to
wear rose-colored glasses.” The
book follows this line of thinking by emphasizing that our ability to
remember things can be greatly influenced and improved by
reconstructing the context of the actual experience. For example, scuba
divers were ask to learned a list of words while underwater while another
group was ask to learn the list on dry land.
Both groups were able to better recall the words on that list when
they were either back in the water or on dry land.
Or as Hallinan states it, "Those who learned wet remembered
when wet. Those who learned
dry remembered when dry." I
could go on but there is just so much packed into this book that it’s
dizzying. This is one of the
few times I actually suffered from ‘Hmmmm...’ overload from reading a
book. There
are a few sections on anchoring, reframing and context influencing
that can be applied to the sales process.
But the majority of the book is a smorgasbord of insight and
illumination into how the brain works (or doesn’t).
This book
shines a harsh and honest light on how our brain, our cognitive engine, sputters
and often times is running on low idle.
This book is chock full of fascinating studies and examples of the human thinking condition and pound-for-pound is one of the best I’ve ever read. If your brain needs some stretching, this book will do it for you. But remember, as Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. stated, “Man's mind, stretched by a new idea, never goes back to its original dimensions.” Prepare to be stretched and relieved of your rose-colored glasses.
"Finding the Why in Buy"
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Copyright © 2009 by Victor Antonio. All rights reserved. This article MAY be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, as long as the author’s name, website and email address are included as part of the article’s body. All inquiries, including information on electronic licensing, should be directed to Victor Antonio at info@victorantonio.com. Home | Sales Trainer Bio | Sales Training Videos | Training Testimonials | Sales Training Programs | Sales Articles | Contact Us |
Did
you know that human error Is responsible for 70% plane crashes, 90% car
wrecks, 90% workplace accidents.