Social media makes it increasingly easier to put aside life's difficult tasks. AHC's Peter Nicholas ponders if schemes can harness its power for pension communications.
I managed to get a few things done today, but I didn't get my pension sorted. Everything is online, it's pretty easy to do, I'm capable of doing it, but did I do it? No.
All I had to do was follow a web link from an email I'd received, remember my password, or if need be go through the process of getting another password. Even that's not difficult; it's online and takes less than a minute. What I intended to do was update my details and make one change to my investment mix (I've been intending to do it for months now).
Clearly there were more important things to do! So what did I actually do?
First of all I found time to check Facebook. (Never seem to forget my login details there). It's always good to see what my friends are doing in Australia and even more interesting to see what my kids are doing (I really must talk to them about their privacy settings.) I "Liked" a few updates, wished Karin Happy Birthday, made a comment about Greg's win at the races and added to the banter about Cameron's wedding photos. Then I switched to LinkedIn. Again, no problem remembering my login details. Always interesting to see who's been viewing my profile. Accepted two invitations to connect, checked to see who has changed jobs (every day there's a surprise), read a couple of news feeds, (nice update from Richard Branson on business pitches). Then to Twitter feeds...
With every 'click' my pension update dropped further and further down my To Do List.
In reality it's not my fault, it's the way my brain is wired. Actually it's the way we are all wired. Nobel Prize-winning behavioural theorist Daniel Kahneman describes the brain as having two complimentary systems, which he creatively calls 'System 1' and 'System 2'. According to Kahneman, our 'System 1' subconscious reacts and makes decisions automatically for a variety of sound evolutionary reasons and does so with little effort or indeed understanding on our behalf. Our 'System2' conscious meanwhile is involved in all our deeper thinking, but is also inherently lazy and would rather do nothing if an instant judgement is available from System 1.
When asked a difficult question the brain will often subconsciously 'flip' the question so that, while only subtly different, it is considerably easier to answer. 'How happy are you with your life these days?' is actually a tough question; it involves deep thinking. Being lazy, the System 2 brain instantaneously reframes it to an easier question 'How is my mood right now?' which is easily answered by System 1. In the same way the question, 'How do I best prepare for my retirement?' is a complex question. The subconscious simply assesses, 'is there anything I need to do about it today? No. So my social media habit is satisfied while my retirement needs remain on the 'To do' list.
It raises the question of how growing social media habits can be leveraged in pension communication. Do you have a digital strategy for your member communication?
At the end of the day I'm left wondering what the employees at Facebook and LinkedIn do to waste time at work...
Written by Peter Nicholas, managing director/CEO, AHC
peter.nicholas@ahc.com