Rory Sutherland: Sweat the small stuff

Translator: Simon Bugge Jensen Reviewer: Anders Finn Jørgensen

Those of you who may remember me from TEDGlobal

Dem af jer, der husker mig fra TEDGlobal husker måske,

remember me asking a few questions

at jeg stillede nogle spørgsmål,

which still preoccupy me.

der stadig optager mig.

Et af dem var: Hvorfor er det nødvendigt at bruge

One of them was: Why is it necessary to spend

six billion pounds

6 milliarder pund

på at øge hastigheden på Eurostar-toget,

speeding up the Eurostar train

when, for about 10 percent of that money,

når man for omkring 10 procent af det beløb

you could have top supermodels, male and female,

kan få mandlige og kvindelige topmodeller

serving free Chateau Petrus to all the passengers

til at servere gratis Chateau Petrus til alle passagerer

for the entire duration of the journey?

under hele rejsen?

You'd still have five billion left in change,

Man ville stadig have fem milliarder pund tilbage

and people would ask for the trains to be slowed down.

og folk ville bede togene om at sagtne farten.

Now, you may remember me asking the question as well,

I husker måske jeg også stillede dette spørgsmål,

a very interesting observation,

en meget interessant betragtning,

that actually those strange little signs

at de mærkværdige små skilte,

that actually flash "35" at you,

der blinker "50" til dig

occasionally accompanying a little smiley face

efterfulgt af en glad smiley

or a frown,

eller sur smiley

according to whether you're within or outside the speed limit --

i forhold til om man overholder fartgrænsen eller ej -

those are actually more effective

så er disse faktisk mere effektive

at preventing road accidents than speed cameras,

i forhold til at forhindre trafikuheld end fotofælder,

which come with the actual threat

der indebærer en reel trussel

of real punishment.

om straf.

So there seems to be a strange disproportionality at work,

Efter min overbevisning ser der ud til at være en uoverensstemmelse

I think, in many areas of human problem solving,

indenfor mange områder af menneskelig problemløsning,

particularly those which involve human psychology,

særligt dem der involverer menneskelig psykologi,

which is: The tendency

kendetegnet ved: At tendensen for en organisation

of the organization or the institution

eller institution

is to deploy as much force as possible,

er at anvende så meget magt som muligt,

as much compulsion as possible,

så meget tvang som muligt,

whereas actually, the tendency of the person

hvorimod sandsynligheden for at en person

is to be almost influenced

vil blive påvirket i modsat retning

er omvendt proportionelt med hvor meget magt,

in absolute reverse proportion

to the amount of force being applied.

der bliver anvendt.

Der ser derfor ud til at være en uoverensstemmelse.

So there seems to be a complete disconnect here.

So what I'm asking for is the creation of a new job title --

Så det jeg beder om, er etableringen af en ny job titel -

I'll come to this a little later --

jeg vender tilbage til dette senere -

and perhaps the addition of a new word

og muligvis indførslen af et nyt ord

into the English language.

i det engelsk sprog.

Because it does seem to me that large organizations

Fordi for mig ser det ud som om store organisationer

including government, which is, of course, the largest organization of all,

inklusiv regeringen, der selvsagt er den største organisation af alle,

have actually become

er i virkeligheden blevet

completely disconnected

fuldstændig afsporet

i forhold til hvad der har betydning for folk.

with what actually matters to people.

Let me give you one example of this.

Lad mig give jer et eksempel på dette.

You may remember this as the AOL-Time Warner merger, okay,

I husker muligvis AOL-Time Warner sammenlægningen,

anset for på det tidspunkt at være

heralded at the time as the largest

single deal of all time.

den største enkeltstående aftale nogensinde.

It may still be, for all I know.

Det er den muligvis stadigvæk.

Now, all of you in this room, in one form or other,

Alle der er til stede i dette lokale er i et eller andet omfang

are probably customers of one or both

kunder hos enten den ene eller begge

of those organizations that merged.

de fusionerede virksomheder.

Just interested, did anybody notice anything different

Af ren interesse, bemærkede nogen så noget forandret

as a result of this at all?

som resultat af fusionen?

So unless you happened to be a shareholder

Så medmindre i var aktieindehavere

of one or the other organizations

i et af selskaberne

eller en af forhandlerne eller advokaterne involveret i den helt sikkert meget lukrative aftale,

or one of the dealmakers or lawyers involved in the no-doubt lucrative activity,

you're actually engaging in a huge piece of activity

så har i engageret jer i en omfangsrig aktivitet,

that meant absolutely bugger-all to anybody, okay?

der har haft absolut ingen betydning for nogen af jer.

Omvendt, så har flere års arbejde med markedsføring lært mig,

By contrast, years of marketing have taught me

that if you actually want people to remember you

at hvis man have folk til at huske en

and to appreciate what you do,

og værdsætte det man laver,

the most potent things are actually very, very small.

så er de mest effektive ting faktisk de små ting.

This is from Virgin Atlantic upper-class,

Dette er fra Virgin Atlantics 1. klasse,

it's the cruet salt and pepper set.

det er et salt og peber-sæt.

Quite nice in itself, they're little, sort of, airplane things.

Ret fine i sig selv, de har form som små flyvemaskiner.

What's really, really sweet is every single person looking at these things

Hvad der er er rigtig, rigtig sødt er at alle personer der kigger på disse

has exactly the same mischievous thought,

har den samme drilske tanke som er;

which is, "I reckon I can heist these."

"Jeg tror jeg kan tage dem med".

However, you pick them up and underneath,

Men når man kigger i bunden af dem,

actually engraved in the metal, are the words,

er der indgraveret i metallet:

"Stolen from Virgin Atlantic Airways upper-class."

"Stjålet fra Virgin Atlantic 1. klasse".

(Laughter)

(Latter)

Now, years after

Her, flere år efter

you remember the strategic question

husker I det strategiske spørgsmål

of whether you're flying in a 777 or an Airbus,

om hvorvidt i fløj med en 777 eller en Airbus,

you remember those words and that experience.

så husker I de ord og den oplevelse.

Et lignende eksempel er fra et hotel i Stockholm, The Lydmar.

Similarly, this is from a hotel in Stockholm, the Lydmar.

Has anybody stayed there?

Er der nogen der har boet der?

It's the lift, it's a series of buttons in the lift.

Dette er elevatoren, der er en række knapper i elevatoren.

Nothing unusual about that at all,

Det er der ikke noget usædvanligt ved,

except that these are actually not the buttons that take you to an individual floor.

bortset fra at det ikke er knapper, der vil tage dig til en bestemt etage.

It starts with garage at the bottom, I suppose, appropriately,

Den starter med "garage" nederst antager jeg,

but it doesn't go up garage, grand floor, mezzanine, one, two, three, four.

men den går ikke op til stuen, 1., 2., 3., 4.

It actually says garage, funk, rhythm and blues.

I stedet kan man vælge "garage", "funk", "rhythm & blues".

Man står foran en række knapper, som man bruger til at vælge musikken i elevatoren.

You have a series of buttons. You actually choose your lift music.

My guess is that the cost of installing this in the lift

Mit bud er, at omkostningerne ved at installere dette i elevatoren

in the Lydmar Hotel in Stockholm

på Hotel Lydmar i Stockholm

is probably 500 to 1,000 pounds max.

er maksimalt omkring 500-1000 pund.

It's frankly more memorable

Det er ærlig talt mere mindeværdigt

than all those millions of hotels we've all stayed at

end alle de millioner af hoteller, som vi alle har boet på,

that tell you that your room has actually been recently renovated

der fortæller dig at dit værelse for nyligt er blevet renoveret

at a cost of 500,000 dollars,

for 500.000 dollars,

in order to make it resemble every other hotel room you've ever stayed in

for at få det til at ligne alle andre hotelværelser, man har boet i

in the entire course of your life.

gennem hele ens liv.

Nuvel, dette er trivielle eksempler fra markedsførings-industrien.

Now, these are trivial marketing examples, I accept.

But I was at a TED event recently and Esther Duflo,

Men jeg var til et TED arrangement for nyligt og Esther Duflo,

probably one of the leading experts in,

der er en af de førende eksperter i

effectively, the eradication of poverty in the developing world,

effektivt at udrydde fattigdom i U-landene,

actually spoke.

holdt foredrag.

And she came across a similar example

Og hun kom med et lignende eksempel

of something that fascinated me

på noget der fascinerede mig,

as being something which, in a business context or a government context,

der i en forretnings-kontekst eller statslig kontekst,

would simply be so trivial a solution

ville være så triviel en løsning,

as to seem embarrassing.

at man ville skamme sig over den.

It was simply to encourage the inoculation of children

Det handlede om at opfordre til vaccination af børn

by, not only making it a social event --

ikke bare ved at gøre det til et socialt arrangement -

I think good use of behavioral economics in that,

jeg synes det er fornuftig brug af adfærdsøkonomi,

if you turn up with several other mothers

at hvis man møder frem med flere andre mødre

to have your child inoculated,

for at få sit barn vaccineret,

your sense of confidence is much greater than if you turn up alone.

så er ens selvtillid meget større, end hvis man møder frem alene.

But secondly, to incentivize that inoculation

Derudover at gøre det attraktivt at blive vaccineret

by giving a kilo of lentils to everybody who participated.

ved at give et kilo linser til alle der deltager.

Det er en meget lille ting.

It's a tiny, tiny thing.

If you're a senior person at UNESCO

Hvis du er en højtstående person i UNESCO

og en tilfældig person spørger, "Hvad foretager i jer

and someone says, "So what are you doing

to eradicate world poverty?"

for at udrydde fattigdom i verden?"

you're not really confident standing up there

så vil man ikke rigtig føle sig selvsikker ved at stå frem

saying, "I've got it cracked; it's the lentils," are you?

og fortælle, "Jeg har løst den, det handler om linser", vel?

Pga. vores egen storladne selvopfattelse

Our own sense of self-aggrandizement

feels that big important problems

har vi den forestilling om, at store problemer,

need to have big important, and most of all, expensive

kræver store, og vigtigst af alt,

dyre løsninger.

solutions attached to them.

Alligevel, så viser adfærdsøkonomi gang på gang,

And yet, what behavioral economics shows time after time after time

at for menneskelig adfærd og forandring af adfærd

is in human behavioral and behavioral change

there's a very, very strong disproportionality at work,

er der et meget, meget stærkt misforhold til stede,

that actually what changes our behavior

så det der rent faktisk ændrer vores adfærd

and what changes our attitude to things

og som ændrer vores holdning til ting

is not actually proportionate to the degree

ikke er proportionelle med

of expense entailed,

de medførte omkostninger

or the degree of force that's applied.

eller den grad af magt, der er anvendt.

But everything about institutions

Men alt omkring organisationer

makes them uncomfortable

gør dem ukomfortable

with that disproportionality.

med det skæve forhold.

So what happens in an institution

Det der sker i en organisation er,

is the very person who has the power to solve the problem

at den person, der har magten til at løse problemet

also has a very, very large budget.

samtidig har et meget, meget stort budget.

And once you have a very, very large budget,

Og når man har et meget, meget stort budget,

you actually look for expensive things to spend it on.

så leder man efter dyre ting at bruge det på.

Hvad der fuldstændig mangler er en gruppe mennesker,

What is completely lacking is a class of people

who have immense amounts of power, but no money at all.

der har uovertruffen magt men ingen penge.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

It's those people I'd quite like to create

Det er den slags mennesker, jeg gerne vil skabe

in the world going forward.

fremover.

Now, here's another thing that happens,

Her er et andet eksempel,

som jeg somme tider refererer til som "Terminal 5-syndromet",

which is what I call sometimes "Terminal 5 syndrome,"

which is that big, expensive things

det er, at store dyre ting,

get big, highly-intelligent attention,

får stor intelligent opmærksomhed.

and they're great, and Terminal 5 is absolutely magnificent,

Terminal 5 er helt igennem fantastisk.

indtil man dykker ned i detaljen, brugervenligheden,

until you get down to the small detail, the usability,

which is the signage,

hvilket er skiltningen

which is catastrophic.

som er katastrofalt.

You come out of "Arrive" at the airport, and you follow

Man kommer ud til til ankomsthallen i lufthavnen og man følger

a big yellow sign that says "Trains" and it's in front of you.

et stort gult skilt, hvor der står "Tog" foran dig.

So you walk for another hundred yards,

Man går herefter 100 meter,

expecting perhaps another sign,

med den forventning om at se et nyt skilt,

that might courteously be yellow, in front of you and saying "Trains."

der formentlig vil være gult og som vil være foran en, hvor der står "Tog".

No, no, no, the next one is actually blue, to your left,

Men nej, det næste er derimod blåt og hænger til venstre,

and says "Heathrow Express."

og der står "Heathrow Express"

I mean, it could almost be rather like that scene from the film "Airplane."

Jeg mener, det kunne næsten være som den scene fra filmen "Airplane"

A yellow sign? That's exactly what they'll be expecting.

Et gult skilt. Det er præcist hvad man vil forvente.

Actually, what happens in the world increasingly --

Men faktisk, det der sker i stigende grad rundt om i verden,

now, all credit to the British Airport Authority.

i øvrigt takket være Britisk Airport Authority.

I spoke about this before,

Jeg har talt om dette før,

and a brilliant person got in touch with me and said, "Okay, what can you do?"

og en genial person kontaktede mig og sagde. "Ok, hvad kan man gøre?"

So I did come up with five suggestions, which they are actually actioning.

Så jeg fandt på fem tiltag, som de faktisk vil benytte.

One of them also being,

Et af dem er også -

although logically it's quite a good idea

selvom logisk set er det en god ide

to have a lift with no up and down button in it,

at have en elevator uden op eller ned-knapper.

if it only serves two floors,

men hvis den kun kører mellem to etager,

it's actually bloody terrifying, okay?

så er det faktisk ret skræmmende.

Fordi når dørene lukker,

Because when the door closes

og man ikke kan gøre noget,

and there's nothing for you to do,

you've actually just stepped into a Hammer film.

så er man faktisk trådt ind i en Hammer-film

(Laughter)

(Latter)

So these questions ... what is happening in the world

Disse spørgsmål - hvad der sker i verdenen er,

is the big stuff, actually,

at de store ting

is done magnificently well.

bliver udført utrolig godt.

But the small stuff, what you might call the user interface,

Men de små ting, hvad man ville kalde brugerflade,

is done spectacularly badly.

er udført særdeles dårligt.

But also, there seems to be a complete sort of gridlock

Men samtidig lader det til, at det er gået i hårdknude

in terms of solving these small solutions.

med at komme med løsninger på små problemstillinger.

Because the people who can actually solve them

Fordi de personer, der rent faktisk kan løse dem,

actually are too powerful and too preoccupied

er for magtfulde og for optagede af

with something they think of as "strategy" to actually solve them.

noget de betragter som strategi til at løse dem.

Jeg prøvede denne øvelse for nylig, da jeg talte om banker.

I tried this exercise recently, talking about banking.

They said, "Can we do an advertising campaign?

De sagde, "Kan vi lave en reklame-kampagne?

What can we do and encourage more online banking?"

Hvad kan vi gøre for at opfordre folk til at benytte netbank noget mere?

I said, "It's really, really easy."

Jeg sagde, "Det er meget, meget enkelt."

I said, "When people login to their online bank

"Når folk logger ind på deres netbank,

there are lots and lots of things they'd probably quite like to look at.

er der rigtig mange ting de gerne ville kigge på.

The last thing in the world you ever want to see is your balance."

Det sidste i verden man vil se på er sin saldo."

I've got friends who actually

Jeg har venner, der faktisk

never use their own bank cash machines

aldrig bruger deres egen banks hæveautomater,

because there's the risk that it might display

fordi der er risiko for at den muligvis viser

their balance on the screen.

deres saldo på skærmen.

Why would you willingly expose yourself to bad news?

Hvorfor vil man frivilligt modtage dårlige nyheder?

Okay, you simply wouldn't.

Det vil man ganske enkelt ikke.

I said, "If you make, actually, 'Tell me my balance.'

Så jeg sagde: "Hvis I laver "Vis min saldo"

If you make that an option rather than the default,

som en mulighed og ikke bare bliver vist som standard,

you'll find twice as many people log on to online banking,

så vil I opleve dobbelt så mange personer logge ind på deres netbank

and they do it three times as often."

og de vil gøre det tre gange så ofte.

Let's face it, most of us -- how many of you

Lad os være ærligt, de fleste af os - hvor mange af jer

actually check your balance before you remove cash from a cash machine?

checker jeres saldo før i hæver penge fra en hæveautomat?

Og I er endda ganske rige i forhold til resten af verden.

And you're pretty rich by the standards of the world at large.

Now, interesting that no single person does that,

Det interessante ved det er, at ingen mennesker gør det,

or at least can admit to being so anal as to do it.

eller i det mindste kan indrømme at være så nidkær at gøre det.

But what's interesting about that suggestion

Det der var interessant ved det forslag var,

was that, to implement that suggestion wouldn't cost 10 million pounds;

at implementere det forslag ikke engang ville koste 10 millioner pund;

it wouldn't involve large amounts of expenditure;

det ville ikke medføre store omkostninger,

it would actually cost about 50 quid.

det ville koste omkring 50 pund.

And yet, it never happens.

Og alligevel sker det aldrig.

Because there's a fundamental disconnect, as I said,

Fordi, som jeg sagde, er der en fundamental uoverensstemmelse

that actually, the people with the power

at de folk med magt

want to do big expensive things.

vil lave store dyre løsninger.

And there's to some extent a big strategy myth

Og der er i et vist omfang en myte omkring store strategier,

that's prevalent in business now.

der er dominerende i forretningsverdenen for tiden.

And if you think about it, it's very, very important

Og hvis man tænker over det, så er det meget meget vigtigt

that the strategy myth is maintained.

at den myte bliver fastholdt.

Because, if the board of directors convince everybody

Fordi, hvis bestyrelsen overbeviser alle om,

that the success of any organization

at succesen i en hvilken som helst organisation

is almost entirely dependent on the decisions made by the board of directors,

næsten udelukkende er afhængig af beslutningerne foretaget af bestyrelsen,

it makes the disparity in salaries

så er det med til at retfærdiggøre

slightly more justifiable

forskellen i lønnen,

i forhold til hvis man faktisk anerkendte at meget anerkendelse for en virksomheds succes

than if you actually acknowledge that quite a lot of the credit for a company's success

might actually lie somewhere else,

muligvis skyldes noget andet,

in small pieces of tactical activity.

i små taktiske tiltag.

Men det der rent faktisk sker -

But what is happening is that effectively --

and the invention of the spreadsheet hasn't helped this;

og opfindelsen af regnearket har ikke hjulpet på det,

lots of things haven't helped this --

mange ting har ikke hjulpet på det -

business and government suffers from a kind of physics envy.

forretning og regeringer lider af en form for fysisk misundelse.

It wants the world to be the kind of place where

De vil have at verden er et sted,

the input and the change are proportionate.

hvor indsatsen og forandringen er proportionale.

It's a kind of mechanistic world

Det er en form for en mekanisk verden,

that we'd all love to live in

som vi alle ville elske at leve i,

where, effectively, it sits very nicely on spreadsheets,

hvor alting er opstillet i regneark,

everything is numerically expressible,

alt er muligt at gøre op i tal

and the amount you spend on something is proportionate

og det beløb man bruger på noget er proportionelt

to the scale of your success.

med graden af succes.

That's the world people actually want.

Det er den verden som folk ønsker.

In truth, we do live in a world that science can understand.

Sandheden er, at vi lever i en verden som videnskaben kan forstå.

Unfortunately, the science is probably closer to being climatology

Uheldigvis minder videnskaben mere om klimatologi

in that in many cases,

eftersom i mange tilfælde

very, very small changes

kan meget små ændringer

can have disproportionately huge effects,

have uforholdsmæssigt stor betydning.

and equally, vast areas of activity, enormous mergers,

og ligeledes kan store store aktiviteter, såsom store fusioner,

can actually accomplish absolutely bugger-all.

opnå ingen som helst betydning.

But it's very, very uncomfortable for us

Men det er meget, meget ukomfortabelt for os

to actually acknowledge that we're living in such a world.

at anerkende, at vi lever i sådan en verden.

But what I'm saying is we could just make things

Det jeg siger er, at vi kunne gøre tingene

a little bit better for ourselves

en smule bedre for os selv,

if we looked at it in this very simple four-way approach.

hvis vi så på det, på denne simple 4-vejs tilgang.

That is actually strategy, and I'm not denying that strategy has a role.

Her er strategi og jeg siger ikke at strategi ikke har noget betydning,

You know, there are cases where you spend quite a lot of money

Der findes mange eksempler på, hvor man bruger rigtig mange penge

and you accomplish quite a lot.

og man opnår ganske meget.

And I'd be wrong to dis that completely.

Og det ville være forkert af mig at negligere det.

Moving over, we come, of course, to consultancy.

Når vi bevæger os til venstre kommer vi selvfølgelig til rådgivning.

(Laughter)

(Latter)

Jeg synes ikke det var særlig pænt af Accenture

I thought it was very indecent of Accenture

to ditch Tiger Woods in such

at droppe Tiger Woods

a sort of hurried and hasty way.

på sådan en forhastet måde.

I mean, Tiger surely was actually obeying the Accenture model.

Jeg mener, Tiger forholdt sig faktisk til Accenture-modellen.

He developed an interesting outsourcing model for sexual services,

Han udviklede en interessant model til udlicitering af seksuelle ydelser,

(Laughter)

(Latter)

så den ikke længere var leveret af en monopolist.

no longer tied to a single monopoly provider,

I mange tilfælde at udlicitere tingene lokalt,

in many cases, sourcing things locally,

og selvfølgelig det at have evnen til at få leveret en til tre piger på et hvilket som helst tidspunkt,

and of course, the ability to have between one and three girls delivered at any time

led for better load-balancing.

der medfører en udjævning af arbejdsbelastningen.

So what Accenture suddenly found so unattractive about that, I'm not sure.

Så hvad Accenture pludselig syntes var så negativt, er jeg ikke klar over.

Then there are other things that don't cost much and achieve absolutely nothing.

Så er der andre ting, der ikke koster så meget og som man ikke opnår noget med.

That's called trivia.

Det kaldes pettitesser.

But there's a fourth thing.

Men der er også en fjerde ting.

And the fundamental problem is we don't actually have a word for this stuff.

Og det fundamentale problem er, at vi faktisk ikke har et ord for det.

We don't know what to call it.

Vi ved ikke hvad vi skal kalde det.

And actually we don't spend nearly enough money

Og vi bruger slet ikke nok penge på

looking for those things,

at finde disse løsninger,

looking for those tiny things that may or may not work,

finde frem til de små ting, der måske eller måske ikke vil virke,

but which, if they do work,

men som hvis de virker,

can have a success absolutely out of proportion

kan medføre en succes, der langt overstiger

to their expense, their efforts

de omkostninger, de anstrengelser

and the disruption they cause.

og forstyrrelser de medfører.

So the first thing I'd like

Det første jeg kunne tænke mig

is a competition -- to anybody watching this as a film --

er en konkurrence - til alle der ser dette som en film -

is to come up with a name for that stuff on the bottom right.

er at komme med et bud på et navn for alt det i nederste højre hjørne.

And the second thing, I think,

Det næste jeg kunne tænke mig

is that the world needs to have people in charge of that.

er at verden er nødt til at have folk med ansvar for det.

That's why I call for the "Chief Detail Officer."

Det er derfor jeg plæderer for "Chef for detaljer"

Every corporation should have one,

Alle virksomheder burde have en

and every government should have a Ministry of Detail.

og alle regeringer burde have et ministerium for detaljer.

The people who actually have no money,

De personer, der ikke har nogen penge,

who have no extravagant budget,

der ikke har noget ekstravagant budget,

but who realize that actually

men som indser,

at man muligvis opnår større succes med udbredelsen

you might achieve greater success in uptake

of a government program

af et regeringsprojekt

by actually doubling the level of benefits you pay,

ved at fordoble antallet af fordele man betaler for,

but you'll probably achieve exactly that same effect

men man vil formentlig opnå den nøjagtigt samme effekt

simply by redesigning the form

ved blot at omdesigne formen

and writing it in comprehensible English.

og skrive det på forståeligt engelsk.

And if actually we created a Ministry of Detail

Og hvis vi etablerede et ministerium for detaljer

and business actually had Chief Detail Officers,

og forretningsverdenen havde ledere med ansvar for detaljer,

then that fourth quadrant,

så vil den fjerde kvadrant,

which is so woefully neglected at the moment,

der er så voldsomt negligeret for øjeblikket,

might finally get the attention it deserves.

muligvis endelig få den opmærksomhed som den fortjener.

Thank you very much.

Mange tak.