's Key Ideas from The Diary of a CEO
by Steven Bartlett

Instead work together against a problem.

Begin response by identifying commonalities - beliefs, ideas. Gets you on the same page

Listen so they feel heard and respond so they feel understood.

Make bridges to comprehension through connection

You need to show subjectively true evidence to change someone's mind. The most powerful is first person evidence (observed by the senses of the person)

If we trust someone's authority on a subject, we are likely to adopt their belief

Create/identify a local example for the non-believer to see it for themselves (e.g. localised impacts of climate change)

Four factors

- current evidence + confidence in it

- new evidence + confidence in it

We work with confirmation bias, searching for information that confirms our current beliefs

It is much easier to influence someone if they like the new idea better. Tell them they're good looking, they'll take it onboard.

Don't fight the old evidence, instead focus on implanting new evidence and highlight the positive impact this evidence will have on them.

Asking someone to explain or analyse the details of their beliefs will cause them to lose conviction and make them easy to sway.

Instead of trying to debunk an idea, raise all the benefits of your idea that outweigh their idea.

This works for poor self esteem. Get them to explain their limiting belief till they lose conviction

Doing the thing you fear, repeatedly, is the best way to conquer fear

Step out of the comfort zone into a space that challenges the limiting belief. Growth zone, achievable - going past it into the panic zone will reinforce and create new negative evidence.

Growth happens when you start doing the things you aren't qualified to do.

People love music, not CDs. Make it easier to access

Cognitive dissonance is worst when it undermines our identity or threatens us. When your thoughts conflict with your behaviour.

Listen, learn, adapt. Don't be rigid and arrogant. Listen to the market.

Innovation inherently should look weird, feel unconventional, sound wrong, stupid, illegal. Innovation puts ego, status, identities and jobs at stake

Rate of Change is accelerating. Get ahead

When a friend makes a mistake, the friend remains a friend and the mistake remains a mistake

Two conflicting things can be true at the same time

Why do I hold these beliefs? Am I avoiding it because I don't understand?

Run towards ideas that make you uncomfortable

Are you better off than you were 4 years ago? Instead of "you're worse"

Questions illicit thought - an active response.

Turn your statement into a Question - instead of please recycle, will you recycle?

Needs to be a yes or no question. No room for justification or excuses

The yes needs to bring the responder closer to who they want to be (identity). Personal and social ambitions.

Start the question with "will" to imply ownership. Stronger than can/could/would as it implies immediate action

Cognitive Dissonance can be used as a tool - remind them of the person they want to be and the path required

Your beliefs create your thoughts, which create feelings and in turn actions which evidence our self story.

Think you can do it and then do it.

Prove to yourself that you have the mental fortitude

Your thoughts limit your ability.

Cue, response, reward

Replace one if the factors. Remove the cue, change the response or change the reward

Brain associates action with reward. Give it a better action to focus on.

The car goes where you look. Focusing on stopping the behaviour acts to reinforce it. Instead focus on the behaviour you want to replace it with (action)

Sleep more. You need a stress free baseline and it is hard to function without sleep.

Willpower is a muscle that tires. Focus on changing one habit at a time.

If your health goes, so does everything else. Eat well, drink well, exercise lots, sleep lots.

Your body needs to last longer than every other thing in your life

Pull Marketing - do something slightly crazy and you'll never have to spend on marketing. E.g. the big blue slide

Ensure that this absurdity promotes your values. The blue slide silently promoted fun, youth, disruption, innovation.

Creates a brand through absurdity. Theseare the aspects your customers will talk about.

Tesla has $0 marketing spend, it's all PR

Its hard to measure ROI from Absurd marketing, so many avoid the risk.

Founders are more fun to work with, open to risk and have more financial control and conviction to brand value vs CEOs

Make it illogical, costly, inefficient, nonsensical.

Habituation is the body's ability to block out unimportant information

Our brain gets used to information and eventually tunes it out to be able to deal with new stimulus. Songs tend to drop off at the same speed that they became popular

New things grab our attention but we like things we're familiar with (multiple exposures already) Optimal level of exposure?

It's why musicians remix their songs and sample classics.

Customers become desensitised to marketing terms e.g. black Friday. Use terminology that is unexpected and unusual

Tell stories in a non-repetitive and unconventional way

Reciprocity - people will help you if they think you've done something for the

"If you've ever enjoyed our videos, please subscribe"

Promise of a future reward - the bigger the channel gets, the biggest guests we can bring on.

Strong marketing calls for love or hatred. You need to use your words and actions to cut through and beat the filter of habituation.

Hate is a signal you're doing something right

Make people feel something. Indifference is not profitable.

Bypass the semantic satiation effect by doing something different that cuts through our filters

If you piss off 80%, the other 20% will love you.

Diminishing returns. If something works, it'll become popular and eventually become the norm. Habituation see rule 11. Keep innovating

A small investment that drastically improves perception.

Its cheaper to invest in perception than reality.

- make the work stand out. Colour/brightness/timing for visibility

- interaction with customers

- element of performance

"The assessment and final snip after a haircut" - creates the feeling of attention to detail

The peak (best/worst) and the end of the experience are the moments we remember, not an averaging of the experience.

Ensure you make the ending memorable and enjoyable/exciting. The finale!

Idle unhappiness - busy people are happy, even if it is pointless busyness.

Give them something to do or to distract them while they wait - "preview clips, free appetiser, T Rex game in chrome, watch the car animation on uber"

Operational Transparency builds trust. Give arrival time estimates, price breakdowns and quick updates to stay in the good books.

Uncertainty Anxiety from lack of comms is worse than the negative outcome. It's not about faster delivery, it's about knowing when the pizza will arrive.

Goal Gradient we speed up the closer we get to our goal (perceived goal). Profile completeness bar or coffee loyalty card encourage more customer interaction

Make the process enjoyable. Don't make the trains faster, make the WiFi better so it doesn't feel as long

Placebo makes you feel in control, like a product is working etc - eucalyptus to make tingling feeling in hand soap or an elevator close button that doesn't work

McDonald's self serve Checkout increased sales 10percent - knowing how many orders are ahead of your ticket number, visually seeing photos of products vs just the name, novelty/fun of touchscreen, avoiding shame through the privacy

Webjet slows down the search process to make it seem like it searched more thoroughly even tho it has the info instantly. Red bull makes the drink taste worse so you feel it has a medicinal value, Betty Crocker cakes removed the egg from the premade cake mix to make the home cook feel like they put in more effort.