Or Is It?

I recently completed two posts and I used the expression ‘or is it?’ in both. That got me thinking about some reading that I’ve done recently on the subject of decision making.

We are often confronted with situations in which we are called upon to make a decision. Our decisions frequently look like binary choices. That is, we pick one of two choices. We either choose to do something, or we choose to do something else.

My posts spoke about two choices. Different choices, but essentially two choices in each case.

Why do we so often get fixated on the ‘EITHER/OR’ choice? Why don’t we pause long enough to consider that the best choice might be the ‘AND’ choice? In other words, why don’t we choose to do both?

I am not trying to suggest that the ‘AND’ choice is the best. But, if others are impacted by our decision making, then considering ‘AND’ demonstrates some sensitivity towards others. This in turn could lead to more creative thinking on the part of others because they feel that their input is being listened to and is being considered.

Who knows, perhaps making the ‘AND’ choice will open up opportunities that simply would not have been possible otherwise.

BIZBUZZ: Restak, Richard; The Naked Brain

This is episode 8 of BIZBUZZ.

I stimulate conversations to challenge business owners to consider new possibilities and to Act Boldly.  The following video highlights some of the content from Richard Restak’s book The Naked Brain that grabbed my attention.

Hi, I’m Gary Brown a FocalPoint business coach.

Welcome to BIZ BUZZ.

I’ve chosen to comment on The Naked Brain, a book written by Richard Restak that deals essentially with the subject of emotion and logic.

I’d like to make three observations from the book that I feel are worth considering.

The first deals with verbal communication.  Restak contends that tone of voice is the most revealing of all sensory channels when it comes to detecting a speaker’s true feelings or beliefs.  Is our listening active enough that we pick up tone of voice?  Perhaps more importantly, do we pay attention to it?

My next observation deals with customer loyalty.  Restak states that customer loyalty has a profound emotional component.  He underscores the significance of this statement by indicating that a 5% increase in the number of loyal customers will, on average, increase your profit per customer by 25 to 100%.  That is very dramatic!

My final comment deals with some Gallup research that is presented in the book.  Gallup found that people stay loyal to brands that engage their trust and their affection.  The limbic part of our brain controls our emotions.  Are we reaching that emotional level with our customers?  Are they merely satisfied with our products & services or are they genuinely happy?

That’s it for The Naked Brain.

Your comments are always welcome.

Stay tuned for more BIZ BUZZ.