Selfish, Scared and Stupid

Why do ideas fail? Even good ones?

Why are environmental scientists unable to engage the general public despite overwhelming peer agreement. strong data and the factthat the future of all humanity is hanging in the balance?

Why has gender equality, an idea with implict value, faltered with women paid only 77[ in the male dollar with 3% board representation for over fifty years?

Why are so many new products relegated to clearance sales, how is it that so many great sales people fall short of their monthly targetsand what are leaders doing that they now face unprecedented levels of disengagement?

And that's just during working hours! In our personal lives: parents feel more alienated from their children, our partners now view uswith a look that says, "I am disappointed in you as a human being," and we all seem rather incapable of dealing with ourselves withanything more than the kind of withering judgement John Cleese reserved for Manuel on Fawlty Towers. The problem is, we are all selfish, scared and stupid.

Now we know what you're thinking: "Geez ... tell us what you rea lly think!!!" After all, we've all enjoyed decades of having the smoke blown up our backsides by self-help gurus with massive teeth claiming we are all "unique snowflakes filled with the spirit of pure potentiality." But that's part of the problem. Most of us suffer from positive bias - that is we live with a distorted view of reality. We act as if we are all generous, bold and intelligent, and as a result we adopt hope as a strategy, we shun criticism as pessimism and at the first sign of negativity, we get our ostrich on and bury our head in the sand, or else, pump our fists in the air and recite cheery affirmations laced with doubt and desperation. And the truth is, being selfish, scared and stupid has played a critical role in our species' survival.

The point is, we don't design for failure, we design our organisations, our teams, our systems, our products, relationships and lives such that they can only succeed under perfect. laboratory-like conditions. Anything less than perfect often means catastophe. In "Selfish Scared Stupid," we demonstrate that to increase your chances of success in life, to get people to buy and to buy-in, you should instead design for reality and appeal to people's selfish, scared and stupid instincts.