Nudge, Nudge it real good

Hello!

 

The above quote is used everywhere. Almost all business books I've read mention it in some form, and others can even build whole chapters around it. There must be something to it, however what can it give to us who use scrum?

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.

What does it mean? Plan or you fail, it's great to have a plan but if you have no idea on how to get to your goal, you are more than likely to not achieve your goals. Extrapolated on to the case of scrum and personal development, preparation includes writing the vision, the epics, the stories, creating, grooming and maintaining the backlog and the tasks. So I've prepared quite a bit, awesome.

However how can I give myself an even better chance, prepare further to help ensure I succeed? Maybe, I should give myself a 'nudge'?

Thaler, Richard H.; Sunstein, Cass R. (2008). Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness. Yale University Press. 

Nudge is a book I was introduced to at university on my Masters programme, however it is open and accessible to anyone. The theory and concepts behind 'nudges' is liberal paternalism. This means that whilst individuals are open to make any choice they want to, they can be influenced to perform an action. There are positive and negative nudges in daily lives, all with the hope to make you do something.

Nudges you may be aware of are wide and varied in scope, for example, supermarkets stocking sweets at the till area, to encourage you to make an impulse purchase. How about services offering a free month, such as Netflix requiring to take your credit card details? There is more to it than offering a free month and identifying you with a credit card, you've inserted your details and will require effort to remove them and stop the trial prior to the deadline and the money coming out. Amazon 'one-click' is another example, making it easier for you to buy will make you buy more and often. There are more positive nudges out there, including employers matching pension contributions to encourage employees to put more into their pension. 

When you boil this down you are left with a simple statement: Individuals are likely to choose the path of least resistance. Knowing this, we must prepare to counteract this. How?

Combining nudge theory and preparation to help me reach my goals I will be taking the following actions:

• Creating an eating plan
• If I want to lose weight I need to eat healthier - I will not completely deny myself any food but I'm going to make smarter choices in my weekly shop
• Subscribing to podcast services
• Entrepreneur on Fire updates daily
• Entreleadership updates fortnightly
• Subscribing to Audible.com to have a rolling library of audiobooks which will grow monthly
• Handmaid's Tale already downloaded, I also have an additional book credit ready to use
• Setting my alarm early to ensure I work out
• FitBit alarm and radio alarm clock
• Wearing my FitBit Charge HR and setting up challenges with co-workers who also use FitBit
• Step challenges
• FitBit will buzz when I hit 10,000 steps, on a lunch break I'll keep walking until I feel the buzz
• Keeping relevant apps to help me open on my phone in a prime position
• Podcasts, Audible, Headspace, Wunderlist
• Uploading the stories/tasks for this week on to a to do list on my phone (Wunderlist)

 Using these nudges to help me will put me in a positive frame of mind for attacking and devouring my goals!

Cheers for reading,
AT