Why You Still Need Post-It Notes

[jim]

Why You Still Need Post-It Notes
By Emily Peck

Paper-based communications might be nearing obsolescence, but there’s a reason 3M still sells an estimated $1 billion worth of Post-It notes every year.

If you ask someone to do something by writing it on a Post-It note, they’re more likely to comply, according to an oddly resonant research paper from a decade ago written up this week on Harvard Business Review’s website.

Those little squares with the sticky strip on top are “surprisingly persuasive,” writes psychologist Kevin Hogan in HBR. (It should be noted that there are other sticky-note makers out there aside from 3M, which came up with the nifty technology 35 years ago.)

The paper's findings still hold up today, said Randy Garner, a professor of behavioral science at Sam Houston State University and the author of the original study, published in 2005 in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

“Perhaps one explanation," Garner wrote in an email to The Huffington Post, "is that in our seemingly overly technologically bound and electronically enhanced world we live in today, people may find unique interest in the possible influence of the low-tech impact of a small 3 x 3 piece of semi-sticky paper. :- )"

An informal Twitter survey conducted by this reporter seemed to confirm his findings. This is kind of surprising, considering that over the past 10 years, we've all been gradually sucked into the digital borg. In 2005 there was no Twitter or Snapchat or Slack or whatever-the-hell-else you use to communicate with your friends and colleagues instead of talking out loud to them.

Why You Still Need Post-It Notes
By Emily Peck

Paper-based communications might be nearing obsolescence, but there’s a reason 3M still sells an estimated $1 billion worth of Post-It notes every year.

If you ask someone to do something by writing it on a Post-It note, they’re more likely to comply, according to an oddly resonant research paper from a decade ago written up this week on Harvard Business Review’s website.

Those little squares with the sticky strip on top are “surprisingly persuasive,” writes psychologist Kevin Hogan in HBR. (It should be noted that there are other sticky-note makers out there aside from 3M, which came up with the nifty technology 35 years ago.)

The paper's findings still hold up today, said Randy Garner, a professor of behavioral science at Sam Houston State University and the author of the original study, published in 2005 in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

“Perhaps one explanation," Garner wrote in an email to The Huffington Post, "is that in our seemingly overly technologically bound and electronically enhanced world we live in today, people may find unique interest in the possible influence of the low-tech impact of a small 3 x 3 piece of semi-sticky paper. :- )"

An informal Twitter survey conducted by this reporter seemed to confirm his findings. This is kind of surprising, considering that over the past 10 years, we've all been gradually sucked into the digital borg. In 2005 there was no Twitter or Snapchat or Slack or whatever-the-hell-else you use to communicate with your friends and colleagues instead of talking out loud to them.

[Author]

June 2, 2015 at 11:18 AM