How do we get them to behave better over the long haul?

I decided to call an expert. Dan Pink is the bestselling author of numerous great books about human behavior, including:

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others

His latest project is a TV show that uses social science in fun ways to see how we can nudge people to do the right thing.

It’s called Crowd Control and it premieres November 24th on National Geographic at 9PM EST.

I wanted to see what Dan learned making the show and what we can use to get coworkers, spouses and children to behave better.

In this post you’re going to learn:

1. The one principle all behavior change hinges on.
2. Where guilt, shame and plane crashes fit into this.
3. Why the best way to get one person to change might involve 10 people.
4. Why your first instinct about how to change people is wrong.
5. The one technique that was so effective Dan now uses it to get his son to take out the trash.

I'm a first time visitor here, Adam, but where are the promised five points?

Did I miss something?

1. The one principle all behavior change hinges on.
2. Where guilt, shame and plane crashes fit into this.
3. Why the best way to get one person to change might involve 10 people.
4. Why your first instinct about how to change people is wrong.
5. The one technique that was so effective Dan now uses it to get his son to take out the trash.

Bob Cringely

Hi Bob! Welcome. 

The five points are in Eric Barker's article...

http://bakadesuyo.com/2014/11/how-to-deal-with-difficult-people/

...and I just quoted the part above to let myself and other people know what the article is about in case they are thinking about clicking through on the link in the box at the top of the page.

So Dan tried an experiment to get people’s attention and really show them why it was important.

Using high tech software he showed people what their face would look like years in the future if they didn’t use sunscreen.

When people saw their own faces aged, sun-damaged and wrinkled they were aghast. Some screamed.

Here’s a clip from the show.

Here’s Dan:

We had people who would come out of the booth after seeing that and immediately start applying sunscreen.

That got their attention.

We all spend 40% of the day on autopilot. Much of what we do every day is determined by habit and context, not by choice.

If change is going to happen we need to wake people up for a second so they see the problem.

(For more on how to work with difficult people, click here.)

There's a LOT more in Eric's article:

http://bakadesuyo.com/2014/11/how-to-deal-with-difficult-people/