A Tangible Success

The “IKEA effect” is alive and well in my household.

I talk and listen for a living. Clients will tell me ways in which their therapy sessions change their lives in ways which I find awesome and humbling. However, there isn’t always a lot of tangible signs that I have made a difference when I go home at the end of the day. Not a lot of concrete signs that I accomplished something..and when the paperwork is done, I file it away–no splashy outcome. I’ve accepted that…at least I tell myself that I have.

I worked hard yesterday…and I’ve got the blisters to prove it. I received a pair of Adirondack chairs recently as a gift…only thing was in came in about 200 pieces and extensive instructions. Yesterday, we hunkered down with the instructions, the myriad of pieces and a plastic bag of screws and got to work.

WE DID IT!!

It reminded me of a concept I heard of recently called “The IKEA Effect”, first outlined by Michael Norton in the Harvard Business Review:

When people construct products themselves, from bookshelves to Build-a-Bears, they come to overvalue their (often poorly made) creations. We call this phenomenon the IKEA effect, in honor of the wildly successful Swedish manufacturer whose products typically arrive with some assembly required…. Companies hoping to persuade their customers to assume labor costs – for example, by nudging them toward self-service through internet channels – should be careful to create tasks difficult enough to lead to higher valuation but not so difficult that customers can’t complete them.

It produced an immense satisfaction as we carefully followed the instructions and in very short order, the chair back emerged. I don’t think it’s an accident that a substantial and very recognizable piece was first on the list of tasks…an immediate sense of accomplishment for those of us who see this DIY project as major construction.

We had to undo and redo a couple of steps but everything was very clearly laid out, all holes predrilled—and sloooowly over the afternoon (with a 7-11 refreshment break carefully scheduled in there), the piece moved towards completion. I think we felt this extra sense of ruggedness as we used old fashioned screwdrivers–no electric drill for us!

I had to laugh at how I completely got sucked in by this project (which is a Costco product, not IKEA)…it was detailed enough to require carefully using the instructions, 2 people, and some figuring out. However, it was pretty hard to get it wrong…there were pencil marks showing us the angles at the trickiest step, and some pieces that might have been a little hard to recognize were individually labeled.

It had me feeling like if I was wearing suspenders, I’d be proudly tucking my thumbs in them, lift my chin up, and sneak a few looks to see if somebody was looking and noticed this beautiful piece of carefully handcrafted furniture.

However, Mr. Norton uses research to make official what we as humans have known to be true all along…it feels good to know “I done good”. People take pride in their work…fridges all over this country are plastered with hand drawn pictures which are found to be more worthy of display than all sorts of more professional artwork. We enjoy seeing that we are creative, capable and competent people—that we can produce something of value. So yes, we fall for it, when companies who really are trying to save money, help us feel good. They carefully provide us with a challenge—a “just right challenge”—one that will stretch us, while yet allowing us to succeed.

This morning, it was fun to look in the back yard and see the “fruit of our labor”…it’s not only practical, functional, and attractive—I made it!!