Placebo Effect on Trends
Hi, ✋
My name is Miguel Macedo Parente, and first of all, if you are taking your time to read this I also want to send you my thoughts and hopes that your family is well and safe in this COVID-19 period.
It’s kind of strange to write this because I have no idea who is reading it right now, but from the short 26 years that I have lived one of the few things that I have learned, it’s that indeed the Human Factor is one of the most critical players on the progress of the humanity.
I do not say it lightly, I actually hope that you had the ability to adapt to these new and unique circumstances and that you are able to maintain your mental and physical health.
As Lucius Annaeus Seneca, one of the most memorable stoic philosophers, once said — “Sometimes even to live is an act of courage” (here). 👴🏼
(…)
Back to the main topic… the purpose of this article it’s to brainstorm two concepts that I often see as understatement on their own, and I actually never seen being mixed.
Placebo Effect on Trends
I believe that everyone, it’s quite aware of what these two concepts mean individually, but either way, I will go through them separately:
Placebo Effect (here) -> usually it’s commonly related to medicine and medical treatments, where you are able to generate positive reactions and outcomes through “fake” treatments or pills. Basically, there are cases where the patient is made to believe that it’s been taken care with the appropriate medication when in fact it’s not… and this produces an irrational reaction where you actually can see synthoms of improvement on the patient.
For sure, one of the most fascinating aspects of medicine that it’s not quite well understood and if you want to look a little bit further on it — “demonstrates the surprising power of our mindsets, our thoughts, our beliefs, our expectations… to produce meaningful changes in the body“ — by Alia Crum (here).
&
Trends (here) -> the general direction into which something is changing, developing, or veering toward. And they are everywhere! Just look to the worlds largest data template Google (here): climate; stock market; fashion; sport; religion; social media; health; politics; art; science; food; economics; culture; sports; internet; philosophy; celebrities; technology, and the list go on and on …
Btw: it’s quite funny to think of something where this doesn’t apply, because the absence of a trend it’s itself a trend. 🤓😵
So, as you can see these two concepts are funny on their own (… or not! 😅) and why not to try to mix them up a little bit.
The Placebo Effect on Trend
It’s proven that we can observe substantial real changes through the placebo effect, something that it’s not “true” enables our mindset to set a new trend of progression.
This happens all the time in the corporate world: we hire consultants, and we implement new media campaigns, and try to adjust the routes of our strategic plans, have open-minded plans, etc.
And sometimes without really going through the real implementation of them, we notice an inflexion point in the trend of outcomes.
I always loved the story that one of my teachers in the university once told:
There was this industrial corporation that wanted to improve the performance of their workers on their factory. In that sense, they upgraded the lightning of the space and ran a Q&A to get the feel of the employees.
No surprise, they saw improvements on performance and also had good feedbacks from their workers.
Next week, they did it particularly different… They actually downgraded the lightning of the space and still ran a Q&A to get the feel of the employees.
This time the results were quite a surprise! They continued to saw improvements on performance and also had good feedbacks from their workers.
In the end: was not the “real” factor that enable the performance to boost and change trends of production, it was actually the “mental” (and not so much logic) factor that they cared for the employees well being asking them for the Q&A that allowed them to improve results.
Conclusion:
Being able to maneuver through “placebo effects” oriented actions may enhance positive business trends, with more cost efficient ratios that promote a more sustainable future. 📈 😉
[IMPORTANT] this doesn’t mean “easy manipulation”, and that we should look on the short term measures based on “personality ethic fake strategies” in order to improve outcomes. I do strongly believe, that the “ethic of character strategies” as a much bigger role in the long term.
You always have to start from a positive point where you look for sustainable shared growth and progress, otherwise the “placebo effect” will not take place.
The main key here, it’s in the details! Which sometimes enables you to put things on the right trend even without expecting it.
We have heard about it everywhere, among lifestyle concepts: ☝️
“Small actions can be like pebbles being thrown into a still lake, and ripples of hope cascade outwards and change the world” — by Barack Obama;
To more religious ones: 🙏
“We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop” — by Mother Teresa;
And even on mathematical theories: 🤓
“In chaos theory, is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state” — known as the “butterfly effect”;
So, what is the main key point?
The bottom line, it’s through innovative and proactive behaviors be willing to take the leap to break the old routine and try to find a new path to thrive. Be humble and have the courage to put you and your reality, in a new frame of unknown, aiming to adapt to new challenges and experiences. To Change!
This exercise will generate the experience that allows your mind to feel the “placebo effect” of a new trend and start behaving in a more efficient and positive way, even before you accomplish better results.
(Initiative + Experience) * “Placebo Effect” = New Trend
Happily ever after?
Yeah…. in the beginning I have advised you that would be like a brainstorm and one of the abstract ones! 🙈
But hopefully, it made you aware of the range of possibilities on the “placebo effect on trends” and inspired you to always take care of the details that may lead you into the right way.
The journey looks good and we will keep in touch! ✌️
<a href="https://medium.com/media/379bc3b8ee51cbe1eed8754358ba24ff/href">https://medium.com/media/379bc3b8ee51cbe1eed8754358ba24ff/href</a>
IMPORTANT: most of the images I use are from Muzli, and are used without any monetization purpose.