Hoh Kim has been a guest blogger for Influence PEOPLE since I began the Influencers from Around the World series more than five years ago. I met Hoh when we went through the Cialdini certification training together. At the time Hoh had his MA but it’s with great pleasure I can now say Hoh now has his doctorate, as well! Hoh received his Ph.D. in Culture Technology from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology; his dissertation title was “Psychological and neural influences of public apology on audience responses in corporate crisis situations.” I know you’ll enjoy his post on the paradox of “the bridge of life.”
Brian Ahearn, CMCT® Chief Influence Officer influencePEOPLE Helping You Learn to Hear “Yes”.Paradox of “The Bridge of Life”On September 1, 2015, Seoul city metropolitan government announced that they would discontinue “The Bridge of Life” which was established in August 2012 by cooperation between Seoul city metropolitan government and Samsung Life Insurance. Cheil Communication, the largest advertising agency in Korea, a subsidiary firm of Samsung Group, developed the idea. The idea and project received positive spotlights from both local and international media. “The bridge of life” received more than 30 international awards including Titanium Lion winner at Cannes Lions and Clio Awards in 2013. What is the bridge of life? It is an interactive storytelling bridge and as you walk across the bridge, the bridge talks to you. Click here to watch a short video.For your information, Korea has unfortunately been the number one country among OECD (The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) in terms of the number of suicides for more than a decade. Mapo Bridge is one of the 31 bridges crossing Han River in Seoul, and it has a notorious nickname — “the bridge for suicide” — as more people tried suicide on this bridge than any other in Seoul. That’s why city government made the bridge of life. What were the results? In 2012, 15 people “tried” suicide on the Mapo Bridge. Then, “the bridge of life” was established. Surprisingly 93 people “tried” suicide on the bridge. There is an argument. In 2012, 60% of the people who “tried” suicide on the Mapo Bridge were saved, but in 2013, 94.6% (85 out of 93) was saved from the suicide attempts. In 2014, 184 people “tried” suicide on the bridge (I don’t have the number of people who survived in that year). Regardless, the survival rate, it was clear that many more people tried suicide in “the bridge of life.”What was the problem? A possible explanation can come from “side effects” of social proof principle. When Dr. Cialdini explained the principle of social proof – i.e., people follow the lead of many/similar others – he warned to be careful not to use it with negative information. Even though I have lived in Seoul for more than 40 years, I came to know the fact that more people tried suicide on the Mapo Bridge than any other bridge in Seoul through the “Bridge of Life” campaign. I think the side effect of social proof influenced the surge of suicide trials on the bridge. However, to be honest, when I first heard about the campaign around 2013 from TV News, I thought the idea of the bridge was fascinating, and could not predict the side effect of the social proof principle. What are the lessons out of it? Two things. First, when we design a campaign, we have to look at closely at whether there are any side effects of the campaign. How can we do that? The “red team” from the American soap opera “Newsroom” might help. Red team is a sort of Devil’s advocate. Red team intentionally attacks an idea so that we can cross check whether there is any downside of a project. Second, the Bridge of Life project was a persuasion project where the campaign tried to influence to reduce actual suicide and suicide attempts. When there is any persuasion project, the best reference would be six principles of influence by Dr. Cialdini as he reviewed influence psychology of more than 60 years and found six universal principles. By applying and checking against the principles, you can create a better persuasion campaign and avoid any pitfall of the campaign. When I first heard about the Bridge of Life, I should have carefully thought about the campaign against the principles, both their applications and side effects. 
Hoh Kim, Ph.D.Founder, Head Coach & Lead Facilitator, THE LAB hE-mail: [email protected] Home: www.THELABh.com
Influencers from Around the World – “Tiny Habits” and Principle of Consistency
The April “Influencers from Around the World” post comes to us from Seoul, South Korea, thanks to my good friend Hoh Kim. Hoh and I earned our Cialdini Method Certified Trainer® designations together in 2008. Hoh is an incredibly intelligent individual and an expert when it comes to ethical influence. I encourage you to check out his website, The Lab h, and his blog, Cool Communications. Hoh is also on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter so reach out to connect with him.
Brian Ahearn, CMCT® Chief Influence Officer influencePEOPLE Helping You Learn to Hear “Yes”.”Tiny Habits” and Principle of ConsistencyMany of you may have heard about a recent bestseller, The small Big, by Steve Martin, Noah Goldstein, and Robert Cialdini. I recently co-translated this book into Korean language and it is now in Korean bookstores too. Big differences influencing others can come about from small changes. The “small big” principle also applies when I want to create a new habit. Recently, I participated in a program called “Tiny Habits for Work” by Liz Guthridge. Liz uses “tiny habit” methods created by Dr. B.J. Fogg. The program was interesting and quite useful. Let me introduce what I learned from the program about “tiny habits” as it may be quite useful for you too.When a new year starts, we normally think about creating a new habit such as to stop smoking, eat less, exercise more, read more, etc. Normally, in the first week of January, our motivation to try new things is quite high, but then doesn’t last long. Probably, by the end of January, we return to “normal state.” Motivation is not reliable, and you should not try things based solely on your motivation. So what we have to try are “tiny habits.” According to the handout of the program, tiny habit can be defined as follows: 1) you do at least once a day; 2) that takes you less than 30 seconds; 3) that requires little effort.Then, there is a recipe for tiny habits. You need to combine “anchor” behavior (which you already established and do every day) and new “tiny habits.” Liz recommended I come up with three tiny habits, and here they are:– AFTER my feet touch the floor, I will state my one big intention for the day.– AFTER I hang up the phone, I will take three deep breaths.– AFTER I lay down at night, I will think of one thing about work for which I’m grateful. Do you get the idea? You link new “tiny habits” to behaviors you naturally do every day. Some of the other examples given were, “After I get in the car, I will think of one thing I can do differently and better at work today” and “After I walk through the office door, I will smile at the first person I see.”Among the three tiny habits, the second tiny habit didn’t work well. I kept forgetting it. So, Liz shared an explanation with me. As I would take too many calls, it might be hard to do every time. That being the case, we looked to see if I could change to something I do once a day such as “AFTER I return to office from a lunch time…”While participating in this program, I thought about the principle of consistency. When influencing others, it often is useful to leverage small commitment. The tiny habit method is also in line with the “foot-in-the-door” technique. You start small (tiny habit), and if you can do the tiny habit continuously then you can move to a bigger habit. We are already into April so perhaps it is good time to reflect our New Year’s resolutions. If there’s something that didn’t work out as planned, perhaps you might be interested in trying the tiny habit. By the way, among the six principles of influence, the principle of consistency has an important difference from other five principles. It is about self-persuasion.
Hoh KimFounder, Head Coach & Lead Facilitator, THE LAB hAddress: THE LAB h, 15F. Kyobo Bldg. Jongno 1, Jongno, Seoul 110-714, KoreaE-mail: [email protected]: 82-2-2010-8828 Home: www.THELA
Influencers from Around the World – One Great Question to Ask: Lessons from Marshall Goldsmith and Patrick Lencioni
This month the “Influencers from Around the World” post comes all the way from South Korea thanks to Hoh Kim. Hoh and I met in Arizona early 2008 when we went through training together to earn our Cialdini Method Certified Trainer designations. To learn more about Hoh visit his website, The Lab h, and his blog, Cool Communications. You can also find Hoh on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Brian Ahearn, CMCT® Chief Influence Officer influencePEOPLE Helping You Learn to Hear “Yes”.One Great Question to Ask: Lessons from Marshall Goldsmith and Patrick LencioniHow you communicate your weaknesses can define whether you’re trustworthy or not, according to Robert Cialdini, Ph.D., the world’s foremost expert on the science of influence. Without trustworthiness, we cannot have true authority in the eyes of others. Many leadership experts also express a similar concept.Everyone talks about the importance of trust. But, do we know how to act to build trust as a leader? Patrick Lencioni, the author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, shared some excellent insight. According to Lencioni, when we use the word “trust,” it normally means “predictable trust.” For example; I know one of my team members will do a good job, as she or he has been a good performer in the past. However, Lencioni suggested that leaders should practice what he called “vulnerability-based trust.” Leaders cannot be strong in every aspect, which means they also have weaknesses. Leaders should first know what their weaknesses are, and they should feel comfortable disclosing them to their team. Leaders shouldn’t be defensive. Instead Lencioni wrote, “In essence, teammates must get comfortable being vulnerable with one another.”Everyone talks about the importance of feedback in developing people. However, Marshall Goldsmith, one of the noted experts in leadership development, emphasized the importance of “feedforward.” Feedback is about your behavior in the past and feedforward is about suggestions for the future behavior. Feedback is in the rear view mirror, while feedforward is looking into the windshield. To drive your car you have to pay attention to windshield, what lay ahead, not the rear view mirror, which only shows what is behind.We all have areas of improvement in our workplace. If you could choose one area for improvement over the next year, what will it be? Better listening? Faster decision-making? Better emotional management? Whatever it is, acknowledge your weaknesses to your team members. You won’t be seen as a loser. If you stay in your weaknesses you might be viewed as a loser but when you acknowledge a weakness candidly, and ask for feedforward from your members and colleagues, you will be seen as a more trustworthy individual. When you acknowledge weaknesses and ask for feedforward you make a public commitment to improve. By utilizing the principle of consistency, one of the Dr. Cialdini’s six principles of influence, you will have a better chance to actually experiencing progress.How do you ask for feedforward? Take the Marshall Goldsmith’s advice and simply say, “I want to be better at (listening, for example). How can I be a better listener?” If your colleagues suggest something, don’t defend yourself, just respond with a sincere, “Thank you.” As we approach the end of 2014, it is a good idea to practice feedforward with you wife, husband, or significant others. Do you want to be a better spouse? Let me share one of my secrets to be a better spouse. Once a year I ask to my wife, “Honey, how can I be a better husband? What can I do better to be a better husband?” So far, my wife has never asked me to buy her things like a diamond ring or luxury clothing or high-end handbags. She just loves to be asked.
Hoh Kim, CMCT® Founder, Head Coach & Lead Facilitator, THE LAB h www.THELABh.com