What Makes People Tick: The Three Hidden Worlds of Settlers

by Chris Rose

If you want to communicate effectively with people - especially if you want to persuade them to act - you need to start from where they are, not from where you are. The failure to do this lies at the root of many communications damp squibs, disasters and social conflicts. Knowing about the Three Worlds gives you a head start in getting it right. These invisible 'Worlds' can only be truly revealed by large scale detailed surveys which identify the connections and correlations between attitudes and beliefs. These sets of attitudes and beliefs create three different versions of 'common sense', three distinct ways of seeing the world and of evaluating any offer or ask, any campaign or political idea, any past-time, hobby, social opportunity, any purchase, product or service. Because our place in one world or another is determined by meeting, or not yet having met, unconscious needs - of safety and security or identity, or for esteem of others or self esteem, or for things beyond that such as new ideas, innovations or ethics - we are not ordinarily aware that these worlds exist. This book details, for the first time, how the values mapping system developed by Cultural Dynamics Strategy and Marketing (CDSM), enables us to look beneath the fog of argument and opinion, and cut through the confusion of behaviours being undertaken for different reasons, to lay bare the 'social DNA' which lies beneath and drives much of our individual behaviour, relationships, politics and social dynamics. Based on a hugely detailed model of the UK population, the CDSM model has been statistically calibrated to fit the internationally validated values measurements of Prof Shalom Schwartz at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Three Worlds exist in all countries, and with this book the reader will be able to recognize Settlers, Prospectors and Pioneers wherever they live. Companies and campaigners, from Greenpeace to Shell, from the National Trust to Unilever, from the US Marines to the BBC and from McDonald's to Arsenal Football Club, have used the Three Worlds insights to build strategies that work, in marketing, in environmental change campaigns, in team building and in communications. This book gives examples, principles and guidelines to enable anyone to do likewise.

Genres: Nonfiction

420 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2011

Reviews

[Khalid · Rating 3 out of 5]

The worlds the author talks of are not physical but psychological and hence hidden, dividing what people deem as very important into three groups: "Settlers" seek out safety, security, identity and belong, "Prospectors" yearn for success, esteem of others, and self esteem, "Pioneers" have a drive for new ideas, live a life based on ethics and a quest for connections. This is all based on value surveys and analysis: asking hundreds of questions, grouping the questions into value groups and based on one's answers into one of the groups.

The book is an easy and enjoyable read and does bring up many interesting insights into the different values that drive behavior. I wasn't reading the book to help with any particular project or overly relevant to my day job so the many different examples got slightly tired, and though a relatively short book, could have been even shorter for me.