This is the ‘Win with Stories’ newsletter. It’s focused on helping founders, entrepreneurs and business owners. Every week I send an email with a business or life message wrapped in a short story. I also share one actionable tip to help you enhance your business storytelling skills.
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How to achieve your goals
Two college campuses in China were competing to donate more than the other. One was doing well, while the other was lagging behind.
Either of them had no information on how the other was doing.
The researchers had to ensure that the spirit of competition does not fizzle out in a week or two.
And they were successful in ensuring that it didn’t.
How did they manage this?
They realised that sustained motivation needs information or reference.
Hence, they placed a board in the losing campus that showcased the count of the winning campus. This motivated students to donate more than they were previously.
And when it came to the winning campus, they showcased their own score from the previous year. Their previous year score was higher, and that motivated students to continue donating
Interesting, isn’t it?
I paraphase this story narrated by Prof. Szu-chi Huang on the podcast ‘Think Fast, Talk Smart’. She is an associate professor of marketing at Stanford, and won the Teaching Excellence award at the institution in 2022.
Professor Huang talks about how to achieve your goals in the podcast conversation. She believes that we sometimes get our approach to achieving goals wrong.
Here are three things she suggests that we keep in mind:
- Start small: so rather than going for an audacious goal, break them down into micro goals. These can be achieved, and that which gives you the motivation to keep going forward
- Social support: make people aware of your goals, share your progress and building a support system. These things go a long way in helping you achieve what you set out to
- Journey mindset: The problem with goals is many people do not know what to do once they achieve them. That’s why Prof. Huang encourages the Journey Mindset as opposed to the goals-obsessed one. The Journey Mindset helps us focus on the next micro-goal while enjoying ourselves at work.
One communication tip for today:
Prof. Huang highlights the habit she calls ‘Information Avoidance’. In the beginning, we are enthusiastic and want to track how are we faring in comparison to others. But as things get difficult, we look the other way. We basically avoid information.
Prof. Huang’s advice is that when we avoid information is actually the time when we truly need it.
So, what’s the communication tip in this?
Use information as motivation
Competitor revenue, targets and research are all important pieces of information which if objectively acted upon can help you win. So access information and keep achieving your goals.
That’s it from me this week. Tell me one thing that will make you share this newsletter with friends and colleagues 🙂
If it’s already share-worthy, then please forward this to your network right away. Let’s all win with stories.
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