I read HBR article about how the Queen's office of revenue increased its collection rate from 57% to 83% by employing some psychological techniques. Instead of threatening people to pay up or go to jail they told people that the whole town have paid taxes on time and you are the only one lagging behind. It worked. Amazing....
It makes sense because I can see how it applies to my life. Today a friend of my wife came with family to visit and see fall colors. They have similar family as our - husband, wife and son. Both husband and wife work - like my family. Husband works from home like my wife does. Same age, one kid of similar age. Result - we were fast to identify ourselves with one another. In such situations it is easy to get impressed with the other person and come to expect from the partner what other partner is doing in other marriage. A side effect of being too similar. So it goes that my wife's friend's husband was very good with kid's chores. I am not so good but more than make up on other fronts (my wife agrees). By the second day, my wife was upset on many things which she always passed on before. We had a small fight about it. I reminded her about this article and how it is very easy to get influenced by those surrounding us. By the end of the day, she realized her mistake and made up. I am glad that the article helped.
I learn from this episode how much people and place influence us. We, as human beings, are conformists. We are like water that takes the shape of the vessels it is poured in. Except in our case, we have a choice of vessels. The people we are with and structure we inhibit ultimately decides our destiny.
It makes sense because I can see how it applies to my life. Today a friend of my wife came with family to visit and see fall colors. They have similar family as our - husband, wife and son. Both husband and wife work - like my family. Husband works from home like my wife does. Same age, one kid of similar age. Result - we were fast to identify ourselves with one another. In such situations it is easy to get impressed with the other person and come to expect from the partner what other partner is doing in other marriage. A side effect of being too similar. So it goes that my wife's friend's husband was very good with kid's chores. I am not so good but more than make up on other fronts (my wife agrees). By the second day, my wife was upset on many things which she always passed on before. We had a small fight about it. I reminded her about this article and how it is very easy to get influenced by those surrounding us. By the end of the day, she realized her mistake and made up. I am glad that the article helped.
I learn from this episode how much people and place influence us. We, as human beings, are conformists. We are like water that takes the shape of the vessels it is poured in. Except in our case, we have a choice of vessels. The people we are with and structure we inhibit ultimately decides our destiny.
No comments:
Post a Comment