Dean Millson

Impulse Control Through Journaling

• If something is upsetting, Ryan Holiday suggests writing it down and examining what happened and who caused it.


• Then, reflect on your reaction, including your words and feelings, and consider whether it improved the situation.


• Remember Marcus Aurelius's teaching: you have power over your mind, not external events,

Kantar shows that differentiation is key to younger brands, but distinctiveness for older brands , generalizing our research showing the importance of sticking to your positioning. Second, emerging markets see a greater importance of differentiation. As Manoli ponders, distinctiveness may suffice for habitual buying , while differentiation is

Jurgen Klopp (JNK) came to Liverpool FC with his idea for high-intensity, “Heavy Metal Football.” But the whole club had to conspire with him to make it a winning formula on the pitch. Culture-changing ideas rely on conspiracy. The vision of an individual is only half an idea until it becomes the vision of a team.

Strategies are culture-changing

had an ad agency principal client once leave a voicemail message for a prospect who had negotiated in good faith then let the last two messages go unanswered. My client’s message to him was, “I’ve left you a few messages now and not heard back from you. If this is how we’re communicating now, I’m wondering what’s it going to be like if we actually

Reward- and punishment-superresponse tendency Liking / loving tendency Disliking / hating tendency Doubt-avoidance tendency Inconsistency-avoidance tendency Curiosity tendency Kantian fairness tendency Envy / jealousy tendency Reciprocation tendency Influence-from-mere-association tendency Simple, pain-avoiding psychological denial Excessive

Cognitive Scripts

• Psychologists have discovered that people follow cognitive scripts that dictate behavior in specific situations.


• Anne-Laure Le Cunff illustrates this with an example of a dentist asking a patient to open their mouth in the waiting room, which feels strange because it violates the expected script.


• People have many such scripts in

Repeat, Don't Diversify

• Share one core message consistently instead of diluting your efforts with numerous messages.


• Repetition builds familiarity and increases the likelihood of being remembered, similar to Coca-Cola's strategy.

During the early days of the pandemic I got obsessed with the way that politicians and pundits would stumble over the government's apparently excellent slogan 'Stay home. Protect the NHS. Save lives'. I eventually learned that it's because ears and brains have been trained (or are neurologically predisposed) to expect a list of three like this to