Helping people is contagious, according to researchers.

1. You help Bob.
2. Bob helps Chuck.
3. Chuck helps Dikembe.

Want to build a more cooperative culture?

1. Help somebody.
2. Repeat.
3. Repeat.
4. Repeat.
5. Repeat.

Every time you help somebody? You're subconsciously compelling more people to help more people.

• It's as if you're adding more gasoline to the freakish fire, as cooperation exponentially grows with every good deed you do for others.

Cooperative team WIN.

Help somebody.

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• Your friends: open communication.
• Typical workplace: closed communication.

Office politics erupts.

People yell, scream, hate -- but then act all HEY HOW ARE YOU DOING TODAY stuff, while secretly hoping that today is the day that they fall of a cliff.

Booooooooooooooooooooo

To create an atmosphere of openness, try creating a culture where people aren't just working with their bosses/co-workers, but they're working with their best friends.

That makes communication open, honest, brutal -- and puts politics in back seats.

Instead of looking out for #1 (themselves), people start looking out for each other, helping each other, and making the company soar higher than a constipated ostrich high on Cheetos.

How to Create a Culture of Friends?

The familiarity/exposure principle:

• The more people see each other in different situations, the more they'll like each other.

The distinguishing variable between your best friends and your regular friends is that you see your best friends more.

1. I see Chuck more.
2. Therefore, I like Chuck more.

If Susie hates Bob, try this:

1. Play a game.
2. Put them on the same team.
3. Repeat until they become friends.

Exposure breaks down barriers.

Exposure strengthens friendships.

Google, for instance, helps their people bond over daily-meals/Friday-night-concerts/volunteering-activities/camping/ski-slopes/etc./etc./etc.

Don't have the resources? Try basketball games. Encourage weekend outings between peeps.

• Friendship culture.
• Friendship culture.
• Friendship culture.

The more you break down barriers between all team members, the more you'll make communication open, honest, and politics-free -- and work starts becoming a place where you bond together with your friends to help the people of this world (your customers).

WIN

Friends.

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• When peeps feel threatened, they seek safety by sticking to norms.
• When peeps feel safe, they strive for innovative-new-novel things.

That's according to a study by UCSD researchers (deVries, et. al).

WHAT?

Take Joe.

Joe = shy guy among strangers; yet, when he's with his close friends or family members, he's spontaneous/outgoing/confident/innovative.

His safe environment frees him to be more innovative.

• He doesn't hold back when something sucks.
• He brings his best ideas to the forefront.
• He takes initiative.

An environment that tells peeps: HEY, IT'S OKAY TO INNOVATE WE LOVE YOU HI FIVE, keeps people in a safe mindest, encouraging them to bring new ideas to management/your-business.

Survey most employees all over the free world about helping their companies improve, and they'll tell you: BUT I'LL GET FIRED OH NO, limiting their employers' potential.

They end up sucking like the suck of the suck suck suck.

BOOO

Make Your Environment Safe

To encourage innovation, build a safe environment.

Make your company feel as if it's one gigantic-happy-loving family; you'll tear down each team member's walls, and encourage them to help innovate/improve/rocccccckk.

WIN

Safety.

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When people expect a cure, their brains release freakish dopamine (the happy juices), combating pain -- and making them feel better.

1. Ever starved yourself for a few hours? OMGOMGOMGSOOOHUNGRYOMG
2. Then, when your bad self put something in the microwave, you started feeling better.

BAM! What happened?

1. Dopamine releases.
2. "I feel better."

Win.

Why do people feel better after talking to a doctor?

• Because they feel they expect a cure is on the way, regardless of the competence of that doctor in prescribing the correct medicine.

But get this, why do people feel even better after surgery?

Because, as Harvard Medical School's Ted J. Kaptchuk puts it, people expect even greater cures from surgery.

• The more that you expect pain relief, the more your brain releases dopamine, the more you combat pain.

Feel better.

Expect cures.

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• Bob goes to his office.
• "I'm feeling productive today! WOOOOHOOOO!" he tells his baadddd self.

In the past, upon entering his office:

• When he's surfed the Internet, his productivity dropped.
• When he's started working immediately, he became freakishly productive throughout the day.

Today, he's thinking:

• HEY! I'll surf the Internet AND be very productive.

So, he surfs the Internet upon entering the office before doing any work.

What happens?

He's not productive throughout the day.

He repeats the same habit tomorrow, thinking TODAY WILL BE DIFFERENT, but he suffers from the same results he's experienced in the past:

• When he chooses to surf the Internet as his first task, his productivity drops.

That is, he is statistically more likely to drain his productivity by choosing to surf the Internet as his first task than to start working immediately.

Peep business/life:

• We don't know what will happen in the future.
• But, we can choose actions that statistically favor the future we're seeking.

For instance, if an NFL coach knows that the opposing football team has a weak defensive line, and his team has one last play to gain 3 yards to win the game, he should choose to run the ball than throw because his team is statistically more likely to gain those 3 yards running than throwing.

You + Sales Example

Say:

• You've closed business 80% of the time doing X.
• You've closed business 60% of the time doing Y.

All other things being equal, you're likelier to close more future business doing X than doing Y, so you should keep doing X whenever possible.

Without a drastic change to something, results from your daily decisions will stay fairly consistent.

If Bob wants to get more things done, he should choose to work immediately over surfing the Internet when he enters his office because he's historically been more productive doing the former over the latter.

Do what statistically favors the results you want.

WIN

Statistically-good habits.

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Say your have a traditional commission structure for your salespeople:

1. 'You get commission per sale.'
2. 'You get bonuses if you sell more.'

What's the issue?

That incentive system promotes the let's-screw-over-the-customer-and-do-anything-to-get-the-sale mentality.

BOO.

That is, if the seller doesn't sell, the seller doesn't get paid -- and so, s/he will pitch shoddy products even if clients don't benefit from those products.

1. Yes, short-term sales may rise in the short-term.
2. But, pitching and selling shoddy products destroys long-term/repeat sales (i.e., an unsatisfied client who buys crap products won't return, and won't send referrals), viciously decreasing the value of your company.

You end up with S.U.C.K.

How to Align Your Incentives

Align sales incentives that mutually promotes a win/win relationship between your company and your clients.

You'll start build long-term value for both parties.

McKinsey, for instance, only promotes those who consistently increase their customers' bottom-line.

A bad pay structure on its own:

1. 'You get commission per sale.'
2. 'You get bonuses if you sell more.'

A better pay structure that promotes win/win:

1. 'All sales come with money-back guarantees.'
2. 'You get commission per successful sale, meaning you get the commission if the client is 100% satisfied with the purchase after X days/months.'

COME UP WITH YOUR OWN YAY

Win.

Win/win incentives.

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• You play a video game.
• You get an unexpected win.
• You = happy!

Now, imagine playing that same game with predictable results for hours/hours/hours/hours/hours.

The game starts to become boring/boring/boring/boring.

I SO BORED I SO BORED

The dopamine (the happy juices) in your brain skyrockets when you experience unexpected happiness, and becomes stagnant when you experience predictable results.

The skyrocketed dopamine addicts drug users to using more-and-more of those drugs; likewise, with anything else that gets you unexpected-happy-goodness, dopamine viciously attracts and addicts the person to the activity.

So How Does That Affect You?

Take gambling.

WUT WUT

Dopamine addicts gamblers with those unpredictable wins, so gamblers continue gambling to keep getting those unforeseen highs.

To the rational person, the gambler cumulatively loses money every time he puts in his chips; to the gambler's subconscious, however, he's addicted to those happy highs whenever he wins -- even if he knows he'll lose more money at the end of the day.

Think of yourself as having the gambler's tendency:

• Making profitable, habitual, boring everyday decisions won't get you the happy juices; therefore, you won't actively seek it.
• Making risky and unproven decisions does get you the happy juices, as your dopamine skyrockets with every unexpected gain, so your brain actively seeks the risky behavior.

Therefore, you're more prone to making disastrous mistakes that can end up destroying your business, instead of relying on the necessary-but-boring decisions that keep your company increasingly profitable.

OH NOES!

What to do?

1. Make sure you're executing the profitable/everyday/boring necessary decisions; if you can't, try delegating the responsibilities.
2. Risky behavior does increase innovation; scale it down, though, based on your risk tolerance (Google budgets 20% of engineering time on risky projects)
3. Channel your addiction to dopamine elsewhere if it's not beneficial to work, like playing a game rich with rewards (Warcraft!)

WIN LIKE ROCK STAR

Punch dopamine IN THE FACE.

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BAM: Your heart carries blood.

• Carrying thicker blood means your heart has to work harder.
• Carrying thinner/lighter/more-elastic blood means it doesn't have to work so hard, conserving more energy for you to expend energy in KICKING MAJOR ASS elsewhere.

(like rocking customers' lives! Yay! Hi five!)

Water thins your blood, giving you more energy.

You + Carrying Mud

Imagine you carrying a bag full of mud.

• It's initially heavy because of its freakish density.

Now, imagine you carrying a bag of mud that's mixed with water.

How does that bag compare to carrying the bag full of mud?

• It's lighter.
• It's easier to carry.
• You use less energy.

More importantly, you have more energy at the end to do anything else yo-boo-tay wants to do.

1. Mud is like yo blood.
2. Thin yo blood.
3. Get more energy.

Drink more water.

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You want to build the world's greatest sales force.

So, you start hiring the priciest consultants and contractors money could buy to tranform your entire sales organization: BUT DANG BAM: they don't.

So you're disappointed. You cry.

BUT DONT CRY IT'S OKAY HI FIVE

How to get revolutionary change?

Start improving one tiny thing about your sales organization.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Focus strictly on improving to achieve your revolutionary change; for instance:

• Find one way to download your leads faster.
• Find one way to keep in touch with prospects better.
• Find one way to help your customers order faster.
• Find one way to help the sales team collaborate better.
• Etc etc etc

Tiny. Bite-sized. Manageable. Quick.

Keep improving in bite-sized chunks, forever.

1. Revolutionary change doesn't happen overnight; seeking it further destroys what you've spent years/decades already building.
2. Instead, improve on every little aspect of X for the rest of your FAB days to "revolutionize" your sales force.

HEY THAT'S ONE MIGHTY FINE REVOLUTIONARY SALES FORCE THAT CAME OUT FROM NOWHERE, someone might say; but, they don't really know that the revolutionary change was a result of your endless improvements.

Hi five.

Improve a tiny thing. Repeat.

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Education.

But not just any education: education that helps you help others.

• A software developer helps businesses work more efficiently.
• A marketing consultant helps businesses bring in more customers.
• A trader allocates resources to the most efficient companies.
• A chef helps people eat healthier.
• An investment banker helps businesses preserve cash to keep operations running.
• A professional athlete entertains lots of people.
• An interior designer helps people live happier.
• etc., etc., etc., etc., etc.

A primary difference between high earners and low earners is that high earners have more knowledge on how to provide value to others, resulting in higher pay for providing that value.

Have a freakish competitor who is taking away your customers? Find better ways than the competitor to help your customers.

BUT HOW DO I DO THAT?

Get knowledge.

• Ask customers about problems.
• Get research reports.
• Read books.  Lots of 'em.
• Get mentors to help you help others.

SHWIN

Knowledge that helps.

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