Reboot in Safe Mode

Bear with me on this one, because it’s gonna get a little deep. This is an idea that I’ve just started exploring, and is way too big to get into in one blog post, so I may add more mini posts as I discover more.

We’ve all heard of psychological safety:

A shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking. It can be defined as “being able to show and employ one’s self without fear of negative consequences of self-image, status or career” (Kahn 1990, p. 708). In psychologically safe teams, team members feel accepted and respected.

Thanks Wikipedia. But what I’m really interested in is how a person’s state of safety changes the way they view, react to and respond to advertising.

I’m reading a book by Claire Wilson, called Grounded. It’s truly brilliant, put it at the top of your reading list. It focuses mainly on helping children feel safe, but it equally applies to adults.

There’s a sliding scale of emotive states from thrive through to freeze (through the familiar fight or flight states). We want to thrive, of course. This is the only state in which we can make decisions.

So, as a brand, we want to talk to people when they’re able to take in our message, digest the information, and make a decision. When they’re in thrive state: they’re safe.

So how can we make sure we’re talking to our audiences when they’re in this safe mode? And not in one of the other survival modes, where decision making, and many other core functions, are switched off to the world?

Or can we help reassure people: help to bring people back down the scale, away from survive mode and into thrive mode?

This famous David Ogilvy quote comes to mind. But what if, we’re not talking to consumers in the right headspace? What if they’re not making purchasing decisions in the right headspace? What if, we actually are the totally rational beings that economists dream us to be, but only when we’re in safe mode?

This book has sparked some interesting questions in my mind, and I hope to share more of these questions with you. And one day, maybe even some answers.

Be brave. Feel stupid.