Welcome back to “Irresistible Communication”.

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Two minutes, one insight

on how to find better

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words

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.

Speaker 3: Did you know that most door close buttons

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in US elevators don't actually work?

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That's a true story.

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For regulatory reasons, doors

need to be open for a minimum

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time to allow people to get in.

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To comply, many buttons have been

disabled or use a timer that makes them

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basically useless because when the timer

expires, the doors will close anyway.

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Psychologists call this placebo buttons.

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And the funny thing about placebo

buttons is that people still press them.

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Why?

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Perhaps because it feels good.

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It feels like you are doing something.

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You are in control,

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even when nothing really happens.

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And isn't that exactly how

some organizations work?

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They have all these buttons to

press that have zero effect.

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The meetings, the reviews, the reports,

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all of which give you the

illusion of progress, but too

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often have no actual effect.

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But what's really interesting

is what happens next?

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People start having opinions about it.

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They develop tools to press

the button more effectively.

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They create templates and

procedures to increase efficiency.

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They even hold workshops

about button-pressing.

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They write guidelines.

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And still, the door doesn't move an inch.

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But you are already in the trap because

the better you get at pressing a

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non-functioning button, the harder it

becomes to admit that it was, well,

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never functioning in the first place.

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Actual progress only starts when

someone dares to ask, “what if this

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button doesn't do anything at all?

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Maybe we shouldn't get

better at pressing it.”

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That moment of clarity can feel

uncomfortable, but it is also the

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only way to stop wasting energy on

placebo progress and start lighting

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a path that actually opens doors.

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Keep lighting the path.