"The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials."
–Chinese proverb
Sales concept…
If you put an animal in an inescapable environment and give it electric shocks with no predictability, it’ll eventually give up trying to escape. Later, take that same animal, put it into a similar environment (but one that’s escapable) and give it electric shocks — it won’t even try to escape.
Sometimes, it can happen with people. It’s called “learned helplessness.”
Sales check….
Any areas where you and your team have stopped trying (or try, but with little commitment) because prior repeated failures and/ or a perceived inability to succeed has trained you not to try? In prospecting and customer contact efforts? In motivating and improving team attitudes and cooperation? With customer care improvement initiatives?
If so, what can you start doing today to minimize any “learned helplessness” that may have set in?
Email this concept to your colleagues and learn a little more about the person behind it.
Sam Parker says:
KI… I think one of the important ways to minimize any learned helplessness is to remind ourselves to learn from past experiences (rather than to be limited by them) as we consider new approaches to solving similar challenges.
I’m challenged with periods of LH. This approach is helpful to me and to remember the fundamental truth that sometimes it’s the next push (or next 10 pushes) that can get us there.
28 August 2009
KDI says:
I agree with the above statement-’learned helplessness”, but you left little explanation
of how to break the habits that caused the “lack of committment!
Any suggestions?
KI
27 August 2009