The surprising science behind those meme motivational posters
You know those silly motivational posters that have turned into memes on TV shows?
Yes, these:
Well, it turns out they have some utility.
This research supports it:
The basic idea is that seeing images of success, or hearing about it, primes people to perform.
This suggests a few key changes you could make to your environment almost instantly with some effect.
Here are some examples:
When you walk into some athletics facilities, you see pictures of players posing, supposing to be intimidating or representing the "brand" of the team.
A better play?
Put up a picture of the team winning.
Most teams spend a lot of time talking about being a “family.”
That's nice.
But it won't boost wins… at least, not as much as it would to talk about mastery, growth, progress, success, or winning.
You can of course do both.
But most teams I work with spend relatively little time talking about growth and mastery and winning. Instead, they talk a lot about what people are doing wrong (priming for future mistakes) or gossiping.
If you spend that time talking about progress, improvement, mastery, success, and getting better — you’ll be surprised at how much more impactful that is than preaching “family first,” or any other cultural platitude.
If you want to leverage this in your own life, consider:
What can you put around your space to suggest success?
What can you talk more about on your team that promotes the behavior you want?