Cognitive dissonance: the false good idea of changing your mind at the last moment

Death in Reunion! You are tired of overcrowded meetings, where 12 people are invited when 3 would have been more than enough. You were determined to start the momentum: none of your meetings would exceed 5 guests.

But that was before. Now you are organizing a meeting — and more specifically, adding participants. The essential participants are already on the list, you could stop there... What if your intention was misunderstood? Or worse, misperceived?

After all, everyone is free to manage their agenda as they like: if they are not bothered by spending too much time in meetings, it's up to them. The number of guests is increasing: another overcrowded meeting... Long live the reunion.

What's going on in your head: cognitive dissonance

Every action starts with an intention, formulated by your brain. However, sometimes our intentions coexist with antagonistic behaviors, that is, our actions go against our intentions. This state of tension, theorized by the American psychosociologist Léon Festinger, is called cognitive dissonance. Our brain will absolutely try to reduce this tension by seeking coherence. Thus, we will sometimes be pressured to change our behavior, and act in favor of our intention: If I intend to do that, then I do that. Unfortunately, we can also opt for the opposite choice, which is to abandon the original intention: if I don't do that, then I'm giving up on my intention to do it.

One of the factors that will push the brain towards this second option is the perceived difficulty of the action. This is what happened in the example described above: rather than having to take the time to justify the people you chose to invite into your meeting (and those you have De facto discarded), which would have been consistent with your intention, you decided to abandon your objective. And to protect you from a feeling of failure, your brain has removed possible actions from your control zone: so, if your team continues to have overcrowded, and therefore unproductive meetings, it's because The others do not make the effort to refuse these meetings, or even to organize them with fewer people directly.

Cognitive dissonance is a classic symptom when you make a resolution that takes you out of your comfort zone — and it can be a powerful lever for action. To encourage you to change your behavior rather than your intention, reinforce your action plan by making it public.

Les Nudges To the rescue: the power of public engagement

By sharing your commitment with one or more other people, you contribute to creating a social normal, that is to say, a behavior expected by all. So you can play on the social desirability bias from your colleagues, who will push them to change their behavior in order to do what is expected of them. Here, bias will act as a positive pressure: it will prevent you from giving up on your commitment... and will therefore push you in favor of taking action to stick to it!

So don't wait any longer: Share your proposal with your team

why ? Once you have shared your idea of limiting meetings to 5 participants with your entire team, you will stop being the sole bearer of the intention: you will have made it a new rule, even an optional one. As a result, at each new meeting, the organizer will seek to act in accordance with this intention (under penalty of slight cognitive dissonance!).

how ? Take advantage of a team meeting, or a meeting where as many people as possible participate, and formulate your proposal at the end: the idea of a more productive meeting will resonate with the meeting that has just ended, and you will therefore have every chance of getting a strong commitment!

By applying the Nudges presented in each of the 6 episodes of the series, you will have all the keys in hand to take action:

1. Define a Starter Step

2. Break down your end goal into small steps

3. Quantify your progress

4. Identify challenges and plan for their resolution

5. Formulate your action plan

6. Make it public!

Good start to action!

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