How to Get People to Do Things They Don't Want To

So, you're standing at the bottom of the stairs next to an escalator. Who wouldn't take the escalator? Well, what if it looked like this instead...

Give yourself a minute to look at the above picture again. It hasn't been PhotoShopped or manipulated in any other way. This is actually what it looks like. In fact, there's a great video on how and why they did this:

The Fun Theory is a project that has taken to changing the way people think about the things that they either don't want to do or things we don't really think about.

For instance, does it drive you nuts how some drivers blast right on through a stop sign? Well, one inventor suggests creating signs with video screens that display interesting facts while you wait your turn, encouraging drivers to stop and make things safer.

Tired of the trash on your streets or sidewalks? Another poster detailed information on his design of a Plinko-like trash receptacle where the refuse is dropped in and the user gets to play a game.

Fed up with riders who get away without paying for their bus rides? One group came up with the idea of giving paying riders a lottery ticket along with their transfers.

The Fun Theory's site is filled with a wide range of ideas. Some of them are truly inventive – and needed – while others remind you of what that drunk guy in college came up with during a kegger (and they even post their “designs” on something resembling a napkin...yikers.)

I love this idea of turning drudgery into something fun. I'm the first to admit that I can be an adult baby when it comes to things society or even just my family would love for me to do. For instance, only 33% of us attempt to wash our hands after using a public bathroom (I'm not saying I do this, but statistically speaking, it's likely I've done it at least once, along with all of you). Only 16% use actual soap. Ga-rossss. However, there's a inventive team who came up with the idea of turning simple soap into a game. This Pavlovian-type system includes four colorful levers on the top of the sink. One of them contains soap, of course, but the others either beep, or moo, or produce lightweight bubbles. When you strike liquid gold, a small crowd erupts in applause and cheers.

Kids are targets, too, with a few ideas. When I was a kid, it drove me nuts every time my stepdad turned around in the car before he would pull out and yank on our seat belts to make sure we were in good and tight. Half the time, we had either locked the clasp wrong or didn't have the belt tight enough. With one new invention on the website, there are seat belts that double as game or video screens. When the belt is properly installed, the screen is activated, entertaining young minds with educational shows or games.

Personally, I love the idea of taking a positive spin and finding fun and inviting ways to ask people to do things they might not think to do or just don't want to do. I think we can all recall an incident or two when we were kids when our parents tried to get us to do something, but we pushed back or refused. Think if they'd taken one of these creative approaches. We might have gotten in the habit of turning off the water while brushing our teeth (one idea is to have a sink that "explodes" when you go over your time limit) or we might have recycled our used cans (one suggestion convinces passersby to drop them in and turn them into game tokens.)

In Berkeley, CA, there's an ever-changing playground called Adventure Playground. It's a non-profit site where they take old boats or other leftover wood and allow the children to build their own massive forts and playhouses from the scraps. The key is that to participate, the children have to first either pick up ten pieces of trash or turn in five nails they've found on the ground. It works in two ways: 1) it keeps the place looking nice without adding additional help and 2) it teaches the kids that there's value for what they are getting (not to mention, it teaches them how to clean up without it seeming like it's the most horrible chore on the planet.)

The people at The Fun Theory are taking this idea and jacking it up a bit so that now the adults dig in and do the same.

Not all of the suggestions were about how to turn something that's a drudge into something delightful. Sometimes the suggestions were just fun in and of themselves. Like the slide stairs, pictured below:

(I saw this and thought "belated Christmas present to myself." Of course, knowing my house, it's more likely one of our cats would be sent down - unwillingly, mind you - before the screws were even set.)

This is a phenomenal movement towards encouraging people to do things they really ought to - like stopping at stop signs or quitting smoking - without shaking our fingers or making them feel bad. (and guilt only gets you so far. Just ask my grandma.) When it's made this fun, who wouldn't want to join in?

Now, if you don't mind, I'm off to wait for the UPS guy. I hear my slide is being delivered today and I have a cat to prepare.

copyright - All rights to the work posted on this site are retained by Cass Van Gelder. If you'd like to use some of my work, please ask. To do so, the permissions must be spelled out in writing...from me...I mean it. I have horribly mean cats; don't make me use them.

How Big is Your God?

I've been holding my tongue for the past couple of months while the walls of a sturdy structure were demolished, quite surprisingly. I don't think I can do that anymore.

The majority of people who know me and know me well, they know I am a Buddhist. In being so, though, I don't proselytize. My opinion is that we each chose the religion we relate to best. I guess that's why I'm struggling now watching two dear ones struggle. I hear them talk of this great relationship they have with God, but somehow their God is suddenly too small to help them.

I want to shake both of them - and yes, I do mean both of them because it takes two to let something you both committed to with your whole heart fall apart. I want to let them see what those around them see. I want them to come off this ever-faster-spinning merry-go-round and stand where they are. Stand solid and see what the problems are, not in the haze of gossipy whispers. Not with the past hugging their backs and dragging them down. Not with the pressure of doing for everyone and forgetting to do for themselves, the core, the most sacred part. I want them to stand still and listen…to see what they are doing.

They are not young in their faith, so it astounds me that they both have thrown their hands in the air. I’ve heard them both talk lovingly of the grace of their God, of how refreshed they fill in his presence, and how he has saved them over and over.  I’ve seen them reach out with their hearts, to fill them when they cannot fill it themselves. I have seen it cover them like a blanket to hide under, to recover and repair, like a tent on a bed that is an island in a house.

But now, they are letting each other slip away…and they are letting the most impressionable ones watch them, thinking their actions are benign, not realizing how every move to break apart their family is a rip that scars. It will never heal the way you think it will. And it’s not in your hearts alone, but in the ones watching you.

Yes, they do this with all their children watching, too. They do this while they tell their children that their God can solve all things. They do things while they convince their children that no matter what the problem, their God can walk them through it. They do this while they say their God will never give them more than they can handle.

And I watch them turn their God...their faith... their beliefs into something so small...so tiny...that the heart of bird would be cavernous in comparison.

Too often I see people casually give up on marriage as if it really were like TV sitcoms where the family disappears for five minutes during commercials and suddenly everyone is forgiven, everything is solved. They believe the fairy tales and the story books, though they've invested enough time in a real relationship to know better. Those of us on the other side of that commitment know that even when the love seems waning, you do not give up. Even when your partner stops paddling and you are left to do all the work, you do not give up. Even when he reaches for the door and wants to walk out, you don't let his hand casually slip through yours.

It's a miracle when two people find each other. When the rough patches come, faith may be what holds you together until you reach for each other again. It is not my faith. But you said it was yours. And now you say your God is too small to help you. When did this happen? When did you let it happen?

I wish you would find your way home – both of you. If for no one else, even if not for each other, then for the children’s lives who you have taken into your care. Let them know that when you took each other’s hands and said you would stand there, for each other and eventually for them, that you meant it. Your God is bigger than both of you, if you will let him.

copyright - All rights to the work posted on this site are retained by Cass Van Gelder. If you'd like to use some of my work, please ask. To do so, the permissions must be spelled out in writing...from me...I mean it. I have horribly mean cats; don't make me use them.