We often hear things like: "People's hearts are scattered, and the current team is not good", "As long as the problem of 'people' is solved, everything will not be a problem" Is this really the case? Is it really all a "human" problem? Let's review the Stanford Prison Experiment.
In 1971, american psychologist Philip Zimbardo, in the underground laboratory of stanford University's Department of Psychology, randomly divided 24 physically and mentally healthy, age-like volunteers into two groups, one group playing prison guards and one group playing prisoners, to experience "prison life" together.
Everyone thought this experiment was very interesting, at the beginning it was all hip-hop, and they got along very well. It's good that the guards think they must be good and reasonable; the prisoners think it's a whole new life experience, and it feels good. They all feel that they are different "people".
But from day 2 onwards, the situation was beyond expectations. The prisoners began to adapt to this environment in the prison, disobeyed orders, did not want to live under surveillance, and tore off the number plates on their uniforms. In order to keep order in the prison, the prison guards locked up the troublemakers, prevented them from eating, and even undressed them. The contradictions quickly escalated in the confrontation, which can be described as "riot" and "suppression", and the two groups of personnel became more and more intolerant.
On day 3, day 4, day 5, the scene got out of control. The prisoners revolted more every day, and the prison guards continued to increase the intensity of the repression. The prison guards desperately abused the prisoners, began to beat them physically, and some prisoners lost their voices and cried bitterly, and even showed signs of mental illness. On day 6, the experiment was halted.
This was the Stanford prison experiment that shocked the entire psychological community.
The volunteers all knew that they were not real prison guards and prisoners, the two groups of people were also randomly checked, why the final result was so terrible, why did the prison guards want to abuse the prisoners, is it the problem of the "people" of the prison guards? People who used to be good have now become bad, and the problem is definitely not on the individual "people", change a group of people to go up, the result must be the same. It doesn't matter who these "people" are, what matters is that there is a super powerful force far greater than the "people" that governs the behavior of these people, and this force is the "connection" or "structure".
"People", it does not matter whether it is good or bad, what is important is the advantage or disadvantage of the "connection relationship" that connects the elements of each "person".
For example, if two children divide a melon, no matter who divides, the person who divides will definitely give himself a little more. Change the "connection relationship", let one child divide the melon seeds, and the other child choose the melon seeds first, so that the person who divides will definitely try to divide it equally in order to maximize his own interests.
You see, although children are innocent, "more possession" is our human genes. Ancient human beings because of lack of food, "more possession" of the human ancestors, he has a greater probability of survival, we are the descendants of this type of people, which is also the natural biological competition, the survival of the fittest choice. Putting oneself first is the law of survival, it is human nature, there is no right or wrong.
Entering a civilized society, we need more changes in "connection relationships" to enable human beings to use more powerful collective power to push the population to a higher level.
There are many examples of this "connection" change in business, such as the phenomenon of ripping off customers next to the train station and tourist attractions, while the commissary downstairs of your house will never sell you fakes. Because the commissary is a game with you many times, he hopes that you will come again next time; and the merchants of the railway stations and attractions know that he is a single game with you, and the maximization of interests this time is his pursuit, in exchange for you being a businessman, you may not be better than him. How do you turn the merchants next to the train station and tourist attractions into the same shops downstairs as yours, trustworthy? Meituan and Ctrip did it, and he put user evaluations on the platform, making his service effect change from a single game to a multiple game of national supervision.
To give another business example of changing the "connection relationship", your family is in Shanghai, you want to buy a beautiful table lamp in the Yiwu small commodity market, but you dare not give him money, because you are afraid that he will not deliver the goods if he receives the money, or the quality of the goods will not be good. At this time, Alipay appeared, and this change in "connection relationship" created a business myth.
Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said: "Never waste a good crisis", many times the pain points of society may be our chances of success. When we encounter a difficult problem, instead of thinking about it from the perspective of "people", we should ask ourselves more, is my "connection relationship" right? Is there a better way to motivate people at various points of the "connecting relationship".
We have all heard the story that one monk carries water to drink, two monks carry water to drink, and three monks have no water to drink. Did the monk go bad? With the change in the "connecting relationship", do you have a better way to get all three monks to drink, and look forward to your discussion with us in the message area.