The Nerdlist

Move on to the quick teaching bit.

OK, so economics.

I know some folks may have heard the new economics of attention, seen the economics bit, and then like, please don't make me do math, right? I don't I don't want that for myself.

So, What I would like us to do is start with A simple definition of what I mean when I say economics, OK? Economics is simply the study of resources and how they're allocated, OK? That's all that I mean, and that's all that is meant by economics.

Attention is a resource.

And so essentially what we are going to be talking about today, um, and I'm translating the title of this of this clinic, essentially what we're talking about today is attention and how it's allocated.

OK.

So, this is generally how people think attention works, right? First, you get visible, right? And generally, folks know what that entails, right? Like, you get visible in any manner of ways, maybe you're being interviewed on podcast, maybe you're doing social media, right, all that stuff.

You get visible, right? Then people notice, right? Um, and generally this is a little bit more nuanced than this, right? I'll give people credit for that, that, um, generally people say like, yeah, people will notice your thing when it's built for them, right? And When it'll help them meet the goal that they have, they'll pay attention to that thing, right? So, 1, you get visible, 2, people notice within these specific parameters, and then 3, people act on that thing that they've noticed, right? Um, and Essentially that means is that once they've noticed something and they realize or understand that it's helpful, they'll act on that information and their behavior will change, right? Now, here's the thing that I know to be true, is that this particular model of attention is pretty dangerous, and that's because it assumes attention and visibility are neutral.

What I mean by that is this.

First, this model assumes that when something is visible, it will be noticed.

That's the first assumption.

The second assumption is that when something is noticed, and we got a person joining us here.

The second assumption is that when something is noticed, it will activate behavior change.

It turns out none of those things are actually guaranteed.

And that's why this model of attention is so dangerous.

But this is the working model that most people have, right? Now here's how attention actually works.

You become visible, right? Um, and when I break this down further, You do things to become visible, right? And in doing those things, you generate what I call visibility potential, essentially, right? And when that visibility potential is actualized, it becomes attention, right? So, you become visible and you're Doing things, generating this this visibility potential, right? And once that visibility potential reaches a certain threshold, then you hit this next stage, if you're noticed, right? Something, usually an event, will activate somebody's notice.

And it will make you and your platform relevant to them.

Right? Essentially, what this means is that you have made it safely to the other side of their brain's filters, right? That's ultimately what it means to be Noticed initially, right? Then we have a few more steps than that final 3rd step that we saw before, right? Third step here is you're stored, right? What I mean by this is that you're stored in long-term memory.

And to help facilitate that, I want you to imagine that in our brains there is a galaxy of stars, OK? Your brand, your stuff is a constellation within this galaxy of stars.

And so that means that in this galaxy, right, there are clusters of stars that are sort of near each other and are connected to each other, and associated with each other, and there are some that are, you know, kind of off on their lonesome.

Your stuff is a constellation of stars that are associated with each other.

And hopefully When you were noticed, you were noticed in the right way, because that means that you're stored in the most relevant part of someone's long-term memory or this galaxy of stars, right? So that's step 3, you're stored in long-term memory.

Step 4, You help remind them.

That you're there.

And what this entails is refreshing people's memories of you and your thing.

This sounds pretty simple, but Due to some recent research, um, it's actually a a pretty complicated process where people go back and forth between this process of exploring and evaluating different options.

And I also want to be clear here that when they're evaluating and exploring these different options, they're not always the folks that you consider to be your peers.

Right? Sometimes somebody's option or the option that they're exploring or evaluating is doing nothing.

We're doing the same thing that they're still doing, right? So, there's this sort of messy middle where folks are exploring, evaluating, exploring, evaluating, going back and forth.

It's sort of like a um eternity loop, right? And then eventually, They decide to make a decision.

And in this place, hopefully if you've done your job correctly, you're remembered, right? And so when they are sitting down to make a decision, They pull up a short list of candidates, and they consider that shortlist, and they Make a call, right? And the goal is to be in that short list of candidates, right? That's what it means to be remembered.

Finally, they make their choice.

And that's super straightforward, right? They act, they make their decision.

This is how attention actually works.

And You can lose attention at any point during the sequence.

And when that happens, it's like they've Been flung off into space, and you have to capture them again and sort of begin the process.

Now, Here is what is semi-new, right? I said the new economics of attention.

What I just showed you is actually pretty cutting edge, but this is like bleeding edge stuff that we're gonna be talking about right now.

So here's what's new, OK? In this first stage, right, where you become visible and you're doing this thing that I call generating visibility potential, right? When you are under-recognized, and I'll explain what I mean by this in a second, when you are under-recognized, what that means is that you are getting less visibility potential for the work that you are doing.

To be visible.

And that's because visibility biases allocate attention away from you.

And so I'll pause here and explain what I mean by both of these new terms, right? Under recognition means that you are somebody that society has been conditioned to overlook and underappreciate as the status quo.

That's what it means.

And everybody in this room is an underrecognized person.

I can, I can tell that just by looking at you.

Visibility biases are the cause of under-recognition.

They are cognitive biases, they are learned brain chemistry, and visible scripts in our head, that contribute to our behavior.

And so what I'm saying here is that You are underrecognized because people have been conditioned to allocate their attention away from you.

So you can think of visibility biases as an acid.

That eats away at your visibility potential.

So just imagine yourself on a hamster wheel running, running, running, running, running, doing the work to be visible, building up visibility potential, just like everyone else has told you to do, right? Like this is the thing that you do, right? And then there's this other force, this acid, this corrosive force, that's eating away at that potential as you build it.

That is what it needs to be underrecognized, at least in part.

OK, so that's the first new thing here.

The second new thing.

When you are underrecognized, You are asked to contribute more resources than your peers would in order to navigate the sequence.

And in order to maintain attention of others through this sequence.

I call this the invisibility tax.

And just for definitional purposes, the invisibility tax is the extra bit of time, attention, money, energy, resources, but under recognized people are told or made to pay by society in order to be visible and in order to be as visible as their peers.

So this is what it looks like to be underrecognized, right? You're on the hamster wheel, generating visibility potential, right? Trying to reach that threshold that gets you noticed.

There are visibility biases, a corrosive force that's eating away at the visibility potential that you're working up.

But still, you work, work, work, work, work, work, work, you hit that threshold, you get noticed sometimes, right? Sometimes folks never are, and they continue on that hamster wheel and they're never noticed and they never realize that it's because of underrecognition, right? But for those of us who like Do our darndest, right? We hit this threshold, and we noticed.

Great, amazing, and then you begin your pathway through this sequence of attention.

And as you do at every step, you are asked to pay more.

Than other folks who are doing the same things.

Those are the new economics of attention.

So yes, attention is a resource.

And yes, it is allocated, um, 2 Everyone supposedly

Hey there, I'm Chloe Wangu, the brand scientist, and this is the midweek lab note coming at you not in the middle of the week.

Apologies.

Life is just lighting.

Um.

But I did want to.

Share the thoughts that I wanted to impart to you this week via video, honestly, because writing it up just didn't seem like the right medium, even though I tried several times um to make it so.

So the question maybe ironically, that um, Has been on my mind has been about engagement, right? How do we get people to engage? Right? Um.

How do we get people to show up? And I think that this is a question that is Underneath a lot of other questions that folks in our world are asking, especially when we think about resistance and the science of resistance and building towards a better future, and what it takes to shape that future.

So, um, I came across a study that sort of put to mind why this can be so hard.

Um, But first I have to take you back to a previous study that um I.

Found, read, found incredibly interesting and leveraged in an analysis that I wrote up about why your stable revenue has just dropped off a cliff, right? This is an old piece that I wrote.

I'll link it down below in case that's interesting to you.

Um, But the number one reason that I put um in that piece, which honestly sounds like it could have been written today, is brains, right? Brains.

Um, more specifically, the study that I mentioned, they We're able to demonstrate that economic instability is linked to unhealthy aging in the brain.

More specifically, economic instability impacts executive functioning.

If you want to know more details about that, I'll link the paper below and I'll also link, like I said, the piece that I wrote below so that you can see.

The translation essentially of that study.

Um, so, for those of you who are sort of unfamiliar with executive functioning, there's a quick primer on it, right? It's responsible for key cognitive functions like planning, right? Making plans, um, cognitive control over our behaviors.

And so what that means is our ability to control our behaviors mentally, right? Um, Another thing is attentional control, so our ability to actively choose what we pay attention to.

That's something that's connected to executive functioning, um, our working memory.

And so that's essentially where our relevant memories are held as we are making a decision, right? Um, Our cognitive flexibility, so that's our ability to adapt our behavior and our thinking in response to the environment that's around us.

Um, and when you think of that overarching subject, there are a whole bunch of other sub-subjects that are really important that are connected to executive functioning that are Made Increasingly worse by economic instability.

Some of these include metacognition, so that's our ability to think about our own thoughts, like when you're trying to evaluate a strategy that you've come up with, um, our ability to regulate stress, our ability to debate, as in our ability to shift between actively listening, um, and rationally defending our ideas.

Our abilities to think outside the box, our abilities to empathize.

Do any of these things sound familiar? Right? So, The things that happen in the world around us are reflected in our cognitive landscape and our cognitive realities.

And those things have very real effects on our behavior and our capacity and capability to behave in the ways in which we You know, might prefer to.

Um, So that was the older study, and I think that came out in 2019.

It wasn't old at the time that I um wrote the piece, but it um and it's not even really technically that old now, but it's something that came.

To mind, when I thought about this question of how do we get people to engage? How do we get people to show up, right? I think the first answer to that question is understanding what we are asking people to step into and doing the best that we can to ensure that To ensure that what they're stepping into is not only worth it, but is something that will Um, how do I wanna put this? Something that they.

can actively see will see the future they're hoping to build.

Um, And do so in a way that they feel and know is worth it.

And so that's why I mentioned, I don't remember if it was last week or the week before that, you know, like, make this, make, make it fun, right? Like, what are the ways in which we're making this fun or something that we want to be a part of.

Um, what are the ways in which you are assessing, and this is a piece from even longer ago, assessing the resources that people have to bear, whether or not that's their time, their energy, their money.

And, and making sure that what we ask them to engage in falls within the resources that they believe they have, right? Um.

And so This also brought to mind some reading that I've been doing recently about the idea of influence and how largely we think about influence and building influence.

We are thinking of doing so, um, by crafting the perfect message, right? Crafting a message that is perfectly tailored.

To a specific target, right? That's kind of how we think about influence.

And in, in research too, right? This isn't just a everyday people like us thing, right? This is also something that's happening, um, with the scholars, um, and academics who are doing primary research, right? That largely the focus when it comes to building influence, especially interpersonal influence, has been around, OK, like the The actual message from the source of influence and the effect of that message on the target, right? Rather than on the interpersonal and then perhaps like intergroup dynamics um and rituals therein, um, themselves, right? So Understanding that influence isn't only about message to target and effect on target, right? Um, this is why This is why this second study that came to my attention, ended up connecting back to this first one, aside from obvious reasons, right? And it's this study that was done, and I think, I believe it's in 2022 that the study came out.

And it was about the effect of racial discrimination on structures in the brain, specifically white matter, right? And what they were able to demonstrate is that racial discrimination is independently related to Mm, what's, what's a non-jargony way to say this? To white parts of white matter in the brain, sort of Becoming more and more anemic.

Maybe that's a way to put it, right? So, um, wasting away, maybe that's another way to put it.

It's not correct, like, completely from a neuroscience, neurobiology perspective, but from like a lay perspective, that's generally what it is, right? Um, additionally, They were able to demonstrate that racial discrimination has an additive and distinctive effect on white matter structure, right? So, what that means is that, and here, let me actually pull up my notes, so I'm not just quoting this stuff from memory and so I don't get it wrong, right? So, what this means, cause white matter has a lot of Fingers and a lot of different pies, right? But What they were able to sort of assess or assume from the study is that the part of the brain whose morphology, and so, Morphology, for those who are unfamiliar.

The morphology of something is sort of its shape, right? Imagine you have like some twisted clay in your hands.

What you're feeling with your fingers and your palms, that's its morphology, right? So, the part of the brain whose morphology is known to be affected by things like early life adversity and PTSD, the That part of the brain was further deteriorated by racial discrimination, right? Another part of the brain that was known to support cognitive and emotional functions in the brain, like attention and executive functioning, which we just spoke about, right? Um, language and social cognition, right, all of these things.

These were also affected by racial discrimination, trauma responses as well, right? And so, all of the things that this study observed in the way that racial discrimination sort of deteriorated pieces and parts of white matter in the brain.

These were all observed after the study controlled for things like poverty, or other trauma exposures, or PTSD, right? So when all of those things were controlled for, they still saw an effect from racial discrimination.

Who, yeah.

So What does that mean for the question that I posed to us at the start? How do we get people to engage? How do we get people to show up? I think in order to answer that question, we have to ask the question, why people aren't showing up in the first place? Why are people not engaging or why are they opting out? Why are they disengaging, right? Why is it now that the new form of luxury, for example, um, looks more like, um, Cultivating a farm somewhere far off and having someone else take care of you, rather than, you know, being in the nitty gritty of stuff, being at the center of everything that's happening, right? Why does it feel like going away and opting out? is the new, the new luxury, the new thing that people are reaching for.

There's a reason for all of this, right? And that reason Exists in part in this cognitive landscape that I've sort of just illustrated for you with only these two papers, and there are plenty, plenty of papers, um, that contribute to this reality, right? That The environment has almost made it too painful to opt in.

And so, when you are asking people to engage, when you're asking people to show up, you're asking them to opt into an environment and a reality that is often painful for them and actively hostile and harmful.

And so that's something that we need to do with real intention and responsibility.

So, that's it from me for now.

Um, this is obviously a subject that I am really interested in, um, and I continuing to study.

Um, If you have thoughts, feelings, and questions, feel free to um share them with me, reply to this email.

Um, I will try to link every relevant, uh, piece that I've been reading that sort of contributed to my thinking today so that you can do your own thinking.

Um, Yeah.

That's it for me.

Thaksin

Hi there, I'm Chloe Wangu, and this is the midweek lab note.

So we interrupt your regularly scheduled program, uh, to bring you a sort of diagramming exercise, which I've done once before, and I do this when it makes more sense for me to um illustrate what I'm talking about than it does to talk it out or write it out.

Um, and it's the perfect time because this week's topic is polarization and the underlying mechanics of polarization, how it happens, why it happens.

Now, before I start all that, Quickly, um, why should we care about polarization? Well, given the fact that we are folks who are looking to have our ideas click, catch on and change behaviors, and given the fact that our ideas are all pro-social, social justice oriented, all around making the world a less poisonous place for us all to be.

Um, polarization is something that we have to pay very close attention to, because it is a dynamic that often interferes with um the motivational and mental calculus that is happening in and around the folks that we are looking to.

Ultimately influence.

So, with all that being said, let's get right into it.

Now, what you're seeing on the screen, um, is a network.

This is a network of people.

And all of these little nodes that you are seeing are people.

Just think of it this way.

This is all Heads up, very simplified, but um, it's simplified for the the purpose of being instructive.

Um, now, all the lines that are in between these nodes, those are relationships between the people, OK? So that's what we've got.

Now How does polarization happen or begin? Again, this is very simplified.

However, generally, it starts when an actor, and this might be an individual, this might be a group of individuals, when an actor calls out to a demographically or psychographically, or sometimes it's a combination of the two, but similar folks, right? Folks who are either demographically or psychographically similar to each other.

And gives them a sort of shared identity.

Sometimes they're calling them into community and sometimes that community is with each other, but not always, right? Now, For those who are unfamiliar, psychographics are really just the hobbies, affiliations, right? Do you prefer Hulu to Netflix? I see myself as an artist, right? Like things like that, right? Um, and the reason that it is demographically and psychographically similar folks, that this actor.

Calls out to.

Is because.

is because Groups that are demographically and or psychographically similar to each other.

Like within the group are frankly easier to manipulate.

So that's why that that choice is made.

So, that's the first thing that happens, right? Calls out to these demographically and or psychographically similar folks, gives them a shared identity, calls them into community.

Next, this actor plants ideas that alienates others that are outside of that demographically or psychographically similar group, so that those relationships break down, OK, so that those relationships dissolve.

And when that happens.

We enter a state of active polarization.

As you can see, we now have two distinct networks, 2 distinct groups.

Now the reason that.

These groups, especially this group that has been called out to and is now demographically and or psychographically homogeneous, right? The reason that this particular group is now so much easier to manipulate, right, this group here.

The reason it's so much easier to manipulate is because Their adoption thresholds are now easier to meet.

And adoption thresholds, this is a concept that I've introduced before.

I'll leave some resources below.

Um, I'll link them so that you can sort of either brush up if you're, um, if it's been a while and you don't remember the concept, or if it's new to you, so that you understand what that is, right? But their adoption thresholds are easier to meet when they are in this group that is now homogeneous in these ways, right? And The reason for that is because of the relationships that have broken down or dissolved.

Now remember that.

These ideas are meant to alienate folks who are demographically or psychographically distinct, right? Folks who are um For lack of a better word, diverse, right? It is meant to root out diversity of thought, opinion, experience, etc.

right? And the reason that that is a goal is because those perspectives, those relationships sort of serve as a BS check, frankly.

Um, aside from just enriching your life, right, if you are somebody who is the target of this kind of an idea that would, you know, Uh, cause you to act in a way that does not match the social norms that we collectively have, right? If you have a relationship with somebody whose experience is distinct or different from yours, um, then what that means is that they can relate to you the ways in which that idea does not square away with their experience.

And in doing so, if you are, if you have a relationship, if they're in your inner circle, in doing so, They help prevent that idea and the resulting behaviors from um being planted and and.

Happening essentially, right? So they serve as a sort of countervailing force, right? But once these relationships are dissolved, that countervailing force is gone.

And that's why disinformation and misinformation spread like wildfire.

In groups like this that are homogeneous in this very specific way.

Now, another thing that happens is that fear of disapproval, which is a key barrier to the adoption of a new behavior, um, especially a new behavior that shifts the status quo in any way, fear of social disapproval.

All but disappears, right? In this scenario, Concerns around legitimacy, which is what the literature tends to call fear of social disapproval, right? Um, not the best word, but it is what it is, right? Those fears disappear when everyone you know approves of the behavior or the idea in question, right? Now, usually, in order to overcome this barrier, this, you know, the concern of legitimacy, usually in order to overcome this, people will need to see lots of different kinds of people adopting the behavior in question.

Um, in fact, that's the advantage that social norms have, right? They seem legitimate because lots of different people have adopted that particular behavioral perspective, right? That changes when you have whole ecosystems of alternative realities and facts being developed to support and maintain these echo chambers.

And that's because those ecosystems and that echo chamber create the illusion of social approval.

One, that you don't have any reason to escape or to even doubt.

Now, additionally, It turns out that we as a society are growing increasingly intolerant of uncertainty, and that makes us increasingly vulnerable to what my friend, Elizabeth Weingarten, who just released a book and talks about this in this book, and I will link the book below because it's brilliant and blowing my mind.

We love a fellow applied behavioral science queen.

Um, It makes us especially vulnerable to what she calls charlatans of certainty.

And that's because we're not used to sitting with uncertainty, right? Given all the information, like the wealth of information that we now have at our fingertips, we're not practiced at sitting with uncertainty anymore, right? And so uncertainty itself causes us discomfort, discomfort that we kind of want to get rid of and do away with.

As much as possible as soon as possible.

And that discomfort makes us willing to invest, trust and believe in folks that we might not otherwise trust or invest in because they offer us certainty.

So, once you're in this echo chamber, Right? Once you're in this echo chamber, it's actually those charlatans of certainty that are maintaining that echo chamber and its hold on you.

And the relationships that would have served as a second check, as that BS check against that kind of manipulation, right? They are gone because they've been dissolved.

So what you get is a kind of perfect storm.

It's why I'm always saying that when it comes to resistance, we want to be doing two things.

We want to be defending the social norms that keep us all safe, and that can often include breaking that illusion of social approval.

And the second thing that we want to do is we want to take the resistance underground, and that can often look like seeding and planting new ideas on the on the DL, you know.

But as you can see from everything that I've said so far, Things need to be happening in the correct sequence in order for them to take root, take hold, and to spread.

So, here's 3 things that you can take away from everything that I shared so far.

Number one, Social change in the direction of social justice will require that some of those who are trapped in these echo chambers, it'll require that some of those folks are freed from those echo chambers.

It's not necessarily all of these folks, but definitely some of them.

And There are some of us who are uniquely equipped to do this, um, and uniquely positioned to do this and want to do this, right? And there are others who are not, and that's completely OK, right? This is not your gifting or your ministry or whatever, you don't have to take this on.

Second thing, When it comes to folks who are in these echo chambers, their adoption thresholds might be higher when it comes to the ideas that you are looking to influence in them.

So you do need to be aware of how power and influence operate in the ecosystems and echo chambers that they're now a part of.

I personally do this with um stakeholder spectrums, which is an analysis that I do with my clients.

Finally, number 3, when it comes to building and exercising influence, we have to be very clear about the key behavior we're looking to make happen.

And even more importantly, we have to select that key behavior carefully and with intention.

Right? Because we've got to make sure that that key behavior accounts for polarization, like these dynamics that we've just spoken about and the mechanics that underlie them, and the ways in which polarization can alter the motivational calculus for folks who are inside these echo chambers, right? Um, so yeah, that's it.

That's our quick primer on polarization with three things that you can take away from it, um.

And if you have any questions about anything that I've said so far, any interesting tidbits, resources, things that you have noticed that either square away with this or don't square away with this, absolutely feel free to share them with me.

You know, data is my love language.

Um, but for now, that's all, um, and I will say, Talk soon

Hello, my friends, it is I Chloe above brand scientist and um I am coming to you with video now.

Um Just because I think illustrating what I wanna talk with you about this week might be easier.

Um So I know very mysterious.

Let's, let's dive right into it.

Welcome to the midweek lab note.

Um So, have you ever been in a position where you have done all the things? Right.

So whether or not it's, you know, you wrote the book, um you were on the big podcast, you did the TED Talk um Right? Like you've, you've done all of the things that are supposed to, you know, once you check them off, your ideas take off, right? Um And still hasn't worked out that way.

Well, there are a lot of reasons that this can be the case.

Tons of reasons, but one that's often overlooked or one that we don't often talk about is this one? Um And let's get a little bit more specific.

So let's say you have um let's say you've written the book, right? And it's a great book, maybe it's even an award winning book, right? Um But it hasn't led to the, like, the huge adoption of your idea that you were hoping to see.

Right.

Well, let's pretend, let's simplify the situation.

Right.

And let's pretend that this dot That I've just drawn is a person, um, and this is a person whom we would like to see, we'd like to see their behavior change.

Right? Whether or not in this case, it's, we want to see them by the book, right.

Um Or even beyond that, right? Like, you know, take what's in the book and um like apply it to their lives and like share it with others and you know what have you, right? Like maybe that's the behavior change we're looking for, right? Whatever it happens to be, it's this person that we're looking to see those things from right now, the reality of the situation is that this person is connected to other people, right? And those people are connected to yet other people so on and so forth, right? Um So they're connected to other people, right? OK.

Excuse me.

So, and let's say this is my, this is the person whose behavior change we're looking to have happen.

Now, how many people directly connected to that? One person need to also adopt this new behavior in order for this person to also adopt that new behavior.

What I'm describing right now is something called an adoption threshold, an adoption threshold is simply an estimation of how many neighbors in this network, right? Um, need to have their behavior change in a similar way.

Um, in order for this person to also change their behavior, now, an adoption threshold can be higher than average.

Um, in a number of scenarios.

Um, the first one is, um, like network location dependent.

I'll put it that way.

Right.

So, depending on where you are in the network, um, your adoption threshold can be higher, right? Um, so if you're like an Oprah, right within the network, right, then your adoption threshold is likely going to be higher, right? Um than someone who is not an Oprah, right? So that's an example, right? That's one scenario where in an adoption threshold might be higher.

A second scenario where in an adoption threshold might be higher is if the idea that we're trying to get adopted is one that shifts the status quo in some way, right? So if you've got a status quo shifting idea and you're looking to have, you know, homeboy over here, adopt said thing um then their adoption threshold is going to be higher than it would have been had the idea not been a status quo shifting one.

OK.

So that's a second scenario where an adopted threshold would be higher, a third one.

And this is one that I don't always say explicitly, but I I should do a better job of explaining this explicitly.

And it's this when you are under recognized, the adoption threshold is almost always going higher.

And this is, this is where that frustration that unrecognized folks feel.

This is a tiny piece of where it comes from, right? Where they will look at themselves and where they have gotten with their own efforts and then they will see the discrepancy, the disparity between where they have gotten with their efforts and where someone who is not underrecognizing has gotten with the same efforts, right? This is part of why, because the adoption thresholds are different between those two people.

And so what that means is, you know, getting to the stakeholder and getting that stakeholders behavior to change has been a less arduous journey for that other person.

So those are three scenarios where in an adoption threshold might be higher than, than average or normal.

Um This is also why a circle of recognition is so important, right? This is why I keep stressing about a circle of recognition.

Um And that's because circle of recognition sort of works as an amplifier, right? So let's say now let's say now that this is you, right? And you're connected to this person who's connected to this person.

And right, so maybe no one who is direct, directly connected to this person over here, right? But like you've still got some, you've still got some interesting connections.

Um And you might even have like an in into this particular part of the network through the stakeholder, right? Um So your circles of recognition as a refresher, those are all the stakeholders that are required for your success, right? Who are required in order to make this behavior change over here happen, right? It's right.

Like this person over here, this person who are looking to see the behavior change happen with, they are your protagonist, right? That's your protagonist and then you have all the other stakeholder types and I'll link um a quick article below where I describe the different stakeholder types, right? But you've got your gatekeepers, you've got your mediators, you've got your advocates, you've got your champions, right? All of these different stakeholder types and what they do is they make it.

So by the time your idea gets to this person over here, you've met the adoption threshold, right? They, they work as sort of a a signal booster or an amplifier, right? Where, right? Your idea travels to this person and maybe this person shows it over here and also over here.

Um and then it goes over here and like, oh, OK, like that person's adoption threshold is met.

And so we've got to check over here and then over here to over here, right? And like, let's say that this person is also connected to this person, right? And so maybe their adoption threshold is more than just one.

You've got this person over here and you've also got this person over here and oop you've then met their adoption threshold.

And so by the time your idea gets to this person over here, we've met their adoption threshold.

That's what the circle of recognition allows us to do.

This is also why it's really important not just to have a circle of recognition and one that is sort of strategically placed in and around um your protagonists and the behavior changes that you're trying to have happen.

But also why it's really important to do things like mapping your network graphically like this, right? Um Because you can't be this strategic without sort of seeing everything in front of you like this.

So that's it from me very briefly, if you have any questions about this, feel free to reply to this email.

Um And I'm happy to answer adoption thresholds are really really key, there's sort of like an underlying mechanism around everything, right? Whether or not it's getting on to a stage that you really want to getting into a room.

Um That is really important for like whatever next level you've got going on, right? Adoption thresholds are present in all of those scenarios and more and so you want to be really aware of the situations where an adoption threshold is going to be higher and what you can do strategically to meet those adoption thresholds so that your ideas can spread.

And I know that folks are probably asking, well, why not just directly make this connection right here, right? Why not just directly make that connection, you know, what sometimes that works, sometimes it does.

But if you're facing the double whammy of having a higher adoption threshold, because um your idea is a status quo shifting one.

And also because you are under recognized, chances are really high that that direct path is not going to be the most effective, the safest or um the best for you, right? Um With the best use of the resources that you have.

So hopefully that's been helpful.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Um, there's a lot more that I can say on this topic, but I'll leave it here for now.

All right.

Talk soon