Ep 277 | Opt Out to Make it Easier to Participate

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick and welcome to the No Days Off Podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Just a quick reminder, if you like all that we are sharing here at the No Days Off Podcast, the number one way you can repay us for whatever inspiration or guidance we may have provided is to share your favorite episodes with your peers, with your friends, those that you think could benefit from some of the things that we talk about. So I would really appreciate you sharing the No Days Off podcast and spreading the word and spreading the No Days Off, just message and influence. It would mean the world to me. On that note, let's get into today's subject. Today I want to talk about opting in. Now it sounds like a weird subject. It kind of is. I'm not even quite sure how to title this one, but every one of us, whether we're running a business or running a family, running a peer group, whatever it may be, we are looking to, to influence. We're looking to lead. We are of course looking to get buy-in. As a leader, you are casting a vision, you are giving a direction, and you want buy-in and you want support. Well, I want to talk around something I recently came across, actually a couple studies I recently came across. That I think we all should be thinking about and figuring out how to leverage this new knowledge so as to get buy-in or support for different things that we're selling or positioning, you know, to get a team moving in a certain direction. Okay. So here's the, here's the first study I'd like to talk around. There is, there was analysis done on European countries. That had opt-in versus opt-out opportunities around, of all things, organ donation. So when you unfortunately pass, right, as many of us know here in the US, uh, if you're, if you're listening in the US, which most of our listeners are, you have the ability to opt into donating your organs post-death. Now, I think it varies by state, but usually it's, you know, you got to opt in by signing something or signing something specific on your license or checking a box. So over in Europe, many European countries have these opt-in policies. And so to be a potential donor, a person must take some form of action. There's some barrier to entry. They have to do something like signing the back of their license. Without that signature, the person's organs can't be used for maybe someone in need. So in other European, European countries though, the default is actually reversed. Individuals are assumed to be willing donors, but have the option to indicate, usually again with a simple signature, that they're unwilling to donate. They're unwilling to do so. So in other words, they have to opt out of the donation program. So again, to recap, in some countries you've got to opt in. In some countries, you have to opt out. Now, here's what happened. It's pretty fascinating. In the countries where you could opt in, where you had to opt in for organ donation, in those countries, and it was Germany, it was the UK, in this study, it was Netherlands and Denmark. In those 4 countries, all 4 of those countries, Germany had a 12% opt-in rate, UK had a 17% opt-in rate. The Netherlands had a 27% opt-in rate, the highest, and Denmark had a 4% opt-in rate. So in Germany, for example, 12% of all people that wanted to donate their organs because they know it's a good thing or they feel like it's a good thing, because they had to opt in, there was a 12% opt-in. Now check this out. In Austria, Belgium, France, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, and Sweden. These are all countries where instead of having to opt in for organ donation, you simply have to opt out. And those 4 countries— I'm sorry, those 4 countries— in those 7 countries, the, the opt-out rate, right, the opt-out rate was 15% or so. In other words, 85% in fact participated in organ donation. So in the countries where you had to opt out of organ donation, 85%. In the countries where you had to opt in to organ donation, it was basically 10-15%. So what am I trying to share here? What am I trying to explain? The participation rates in the opt-in and opt-out countries differed dramatically. Although public opinion polls reveal that there's similar enthusiasm in all of these countries for organ donation, like they're all different countries, but they all believe that organ donation is a great thing. The participation rates close to 100% nearly all the opt-out countries, but average only 15% all the opt-in countries. Think about that. Everybody wanted to do it. but just the simple approach to it impacted whether or not it occurred by 5 or 6x. So the bottom line is if people already want to do something like donating their organs, it's not wise to spend a lot of time or energy or money trying to increase their motivation. Just make the behavior, behavior easier to perform. Make the path from good intentions to effective action a bit, a bit clearer. Make the behavior on the same note that you want to discourage a bit harder. It's crazy to think around this, but just changing the direction by which this is going to go increased or changed the participation by 5x. Now in a similar study, I'll be a little quicker in this description. 401(k), same exact sort of thing. Companies offer 401(k)s, which is a forced savings. Many people think this is a great thing. Like, I want to force savings. Companies even match. Like, some companies will match, say, 3%— up to 3% of your salary, up to 6% of your salary. So it's not only forced savings, it's also free money. In one study, only a little more than 50% of employees in a company with an opt-in policy for a 401(k), only about 50% chose to enroll. In their first, say, 6 months or so of employment. Eventually more enrolled, but really after a few years, there was still about 20% of people that did not enroll in a 401(k) plan that in fact had a match from the employer. So in essence, free money. Now, recognizing this, to encourage greater participation, greater rates of participation in the 401(k), this same company decided to switch to an opt-out enrollment program. Again, this time, instead of having to opt into the 401(k), they opted out. New employees were automatically enrolled in the savings plan. And no surprise, what happened? 35% higher participation after 3 months on the job, 25% higher 2 years down the line. So bottom line, if you're looking for ways to increase savings, Make it easier. Now I share these two studies with you, but there's lots like this. And, and I want you to think about, again, your ideas, your leadership, your company. People want to do certain things. They want to take action, like they want to donate their organs. But if you create any barrier to entry or any slight difficulty to achieve that, The rates plummet with respect to the participation. So where in your business right now are you actually making desired action, either by the desired action you have for some, or maybe the desired action that you believe those people would want to have? Where are you making this desired action actually harder for someone to pursue? We're all guilty of this. I'll give you an example in my own company. In my own company where I spend a lot of my time. We want all of our partners to actively review their financial statements with a financial planner every single month. Now, what we've been running for quite some time is a policy where you opt in if you want to have that meeting. In other words, click this link if you want to book your meeting this month. Well, guess what? Our rate of meeting being booked is substantially less than what we actually desire. So what are we going to do moving forward? Instead of allowing individuals to say opt in and choose a date, like have to click on a link and book a date, what we're going to do is book their date for them and let them opt out now moving forward. If in fact they don't want to have that meeting, but the reality is they all want to have the meeting. We just have to make the path to holding or booking that meeting far easier. My expectation is that we double participation just by making this simple tweak. Now, this is, this is definitely shows up in other areas. If it's not business, I mean, think about other things just in general. Think about your own family. You know, you want to influence, say, your kids. Are you making the path for them to pursue an easier one, or are you actually making it harder because you're creating different steps for them to have to, to have to go through? Think around it. It's very applicable. And I think it's a mistake we all make. So this may be one you have to listen to again. I know it was a weird kind of opt-in, opt-out. How does this applicable? I think the big takeaway is, are we making it easier for people, for our customers, for our own people? Are we making it easier for people to pursue, or can we be making it easier for people to pursue the paths that they desire? Where are we messing this up? I think if you solve for this today in a place or two within your business or whatever groups you're part of, I think you're going to get much closer to your desired result. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.