The Psychology of Now
A Guide to People’s Minds in 2020 for Leaders, Businesses, and Marketers
By Troy H. Campbell, PhD
Everything in business right now is about psychology.
Every question leaders have about how to motivate, persuade, and care for others is about psychology.
Every other question about how to maintain consumer bases, train, ideate, and make changes in a new distributed world is about psychology.
If you are going to be able find answers to any of these questions, you are going to have to understand the minds, feelings, and thoughts of people today — in short, you are going to need to understand “The Psychology of Now.”
The Guide
“The Psychology of Now” is a simple guide to help you in modern times, whenever you are planning for your employees, your consumers, or even for yourself. It was created by Ian Tingen and myself, two behavioral scientists.
In short, the 2020 “Psychology of Now” states that people’s current psychology is characterized by three unmet needs: the need for structure, the need for connection, and the need for positive emotions.
Structure, connection, and positive emotions are three basic human needs people always have. Yet, at the moment, these needs are higher than normal because these needs are unmet and are threatened by the current world.
As people’s familiar structures, connections, and positive emotional experiences have all changed, people’s psychology is being dominated by these active needs. In modern times, any effort inside a business or any effort done for consumers will likely only succeed if it properly engages with at least one of these current psychological needs.
The Three Needs + Basic Actions
Need for Structure - When everything’s uncertain, make things simple, certain, and predictable.
Need for Connection - When everyone’s apart, make it easy for people to connect positively and meaningfully.
Need for Positive Emotions - When everyone’s not getting their favorite positive experiences, make things that bring people at least one positive feeling, such as laugher, contentment, engagement, joy, or achievement.
Science and Caveats
As a scientist, I have to make a few caveats and address a few questions.
First, does this simple guide cover all the relevant science? No.
Second, would this guide ever get published in the scientific journals I traditionally publish in? No, absolutely never.
But, mostly importantly, is this a useful starting point to help guide actions? Yes, and that’s the point.
So if you want more on the deep science of these three needs, visit these links on structure, connection, and emotions, or contact us at OYF. If you want ideas on how to address these needs through specific actions, read and watch on.
Videos are from the Distributed Work Toolkit.
The Psychology of Now: Applied to Business Needs
Ideation in the Distributed Workplace
Often in the past, ideation’s magical chaos worked because everyone was in the same room together. When we move apart, we need to make a lot of effort to maintain those magical emotions and connections, and also to create more structure than we needed in person. So, use these Psychology of Now based techniques.
Structure: Start With A Foundation — Begin all ideations with a “start with” foundation that anchors everything. As a scientist, I like to “Start With Science,” where I bring a few powerful effects identified in science (e.g., research on solution aversion, social norms) or best practices (e.g., Disney’s portals, destiny narratives) and then have people build on the structure of those foundations.
Connection: Get Personal — Whenever sourcing examples to spark ideas or clarify conversations, encourage people to use personal examples and stories.
Emotion: Take A Walk — Have people walk to parks and safe places away from their homes while on the phone. At OYF, we call this technique “Shark Walk,” because sharks need keep moving to survive.
Training in the Distributed Workplace
Good training has always been hard, but when we are apart, structures, connections, and emotional engagement become very different and often very difficult. So, use these Psychology of Now based techniques.
Structure: Start With the Ending — With in-person content, you can start with a mystery and unstructured conversation. With virtual content, begin by telling the audience what the story is and then follow that story.
Connection: Get Physical — Unite virtually through the physical by having everyone have the same objects in their hands or eat the same food.
Emotion: Do A World’s Worst — The trainer does a “world’s worst” example of whatever you are teaching, like the world’s worst presenter or leader. Further, everyone can submit funny examples and ideas in the chat. It is silly, easy, involved, and everyone feels smarter than “the world’s worst.”
Virtual Meetings
Millions, if not billions, of people across the globe are complaining about conversing over video, as the same connections aren’t achieved with nonverbal cues, and the same emotional energy is not captured at lonely desks. Without powerful structure, everything can quickly become bad, boring, and useless. So, use these Psychology of Now based techniques.
Structure: Use Color/Advance — Give the audience control over the presenter, where they can ask for more “color” if they want more detail or to “advance” if they want to move on.
Connection: See Your Audience — Make sure to acknowledge your audience and understand where they are at because, remember, “being ignored feels the same as being hated.”
For Emotion: Have a Peak — You don’t need to make an entire meeting fun, but you can make it fun for five minutes. So have one “peak” moment, such as a story time, a game, or an ideation session.
Employee Morale in Modern Times
When we all are apart and many are genuinely suffering, what can be done when we don’t have the same structures, daily hallway connections, and even the simple emotions evoked by a good bagel break? Use these Psychology of Now based techniques.
Structure: Create Positive Anticipation — Give people things to look forward to, possibly by sending people a food item that you will then all “share” over a Friday meeting.
Connection: Start With What They Like — People connect best over things they already love, so find out what your employees like, whether it is “playing Fortnite,” “watching The Bachelor,” or “knitting and talking," and have a work-sponsored hour of that. If need be, you can vaguely tie it to work, like have them reflect on “two things we learned about teamwork” later.
Emotion: Don’t Try Your Best — Free people from being perfect by inviting them to “Don’t Try Your Best.” This means, at the very least, that people don’t have to make perfect slide decks; it means encouraging people to not let “perfect be the enemy of good enough.” At OYF, we often say, “Let’s start with a ‘Don’t Try Your Best’ and then go from there.”
Current Consumers and Marketing
Consumers’ structures, connections, and emotions have been under threat, and their habits are quickly changing. How do you understand who they are now and reach them about their needs? Use these Psychology of Now based techniques.
Structure: Build Anticipation — Give consumers things to look forward to. Right now, most people don’t have many things to look forward to, which denies them the joy and structure of positive anticipation. Give them certain things to look forward to, whether those are weekly deals or upcoming releases.
Connection: Start With Care — Worry less about impressing consumers and more about directly caring for consumers. Show that you “see your audience” and are listening to them by featuring your consumers and their opinions in your content.
Emotion: Delight — Delight consumers whenever you can. Most businesses have gone into bare bones mode, so making an effort to decorate the social distance line at a store or add a surprise treat inside a box can go a long way.
Dr. Troy H. Campbell offers “The Psychology of Now” trainings, talks, and consulting. At OYF, he is the chief scientist where he integrates “The Psychology of Now” into all of our current OYF services, including the Distributed Work Toolkit available here.
