The Ikea Effect


Added on: 01/07/2019

We welcome IKEA to our client portfolio this month and I like to think we have a lot of similarities between our business models. While it might sound more like some sort of strange addiction to Scandinavian flatpack furniture than anything to do with compliance software, The Ikea Effect is actually a pretty interesting psychological principle which the world’s smartest business leaders have been using to great effect for many years.

Firstly, What is The Ikea Effect?

In a 2012 study by three American psychologists, two groups of people were given various items of Ikea furniture: one group were given it pre-made, the other flat packed and in need of building.

Anyone who has wrestled with an Ikea product in the past would think the first option is much, much more valuable.

However, after building their furniture (probably getting it wrong, shouting at planks of wood and sighing heavily in a passive-aggressive manner a few times along the way), both groups were asked to secretly price the items they had in their possession according to how much they thought they were worth.

Interestingly enough, the group who had built their own furniture priced each item significantly higher than their counterparts who were given the objects pre-made.

The reason?

When people put some effort, time and even a bit of pain and emotion into creating something - even if it’s just a small amount - they feel more attached to it.

For me, this principle could also be called The Lego Effect.

Having spent thousands of hours as a kid building things with Lego bricks, I know for a fact that simply being given a pre-made Lego toy would’ve been pretty boring compared to receiving it in a box with the instructions and having to build it myself.

So Why do MY Compliance Management Use the Ikea Effect in Our Software?

Some compliance software comes fully built, containing all the possible information, categories, pre-designed forms, data sheets, dashboards and everything else you might possibly need one day. This initially sounds great, saving you all that time in building it and you can be operational from day 1, (if we ignore all the additional onsite set up training you may need and get charged for).

For some businesses this is essential but what they have saved in that initial set up time leads to confusion, systems filled with fields, forms and information with no relation to their own process and often not even related to their industry. Trying to complete a simple task for a user can take multiple pages and hundreds of mouse clicks costing more time in reality, especially when that user has had to take time of work to be trained on how to click a mouse 100 times and view many pages of irrelevant information before they get to what they need.

MY Compliance Management is a little different. Consider us the nuts and bolts, the little wooden pegs and soft close draws, the electric screwdriver of the compliance software world. We provide the framework for your own management system. You create your own forms, simply and easily adding the fields you need. Building your own registers using our tools, this means you have the know how to change it when required, building on it with each entry and making it exactly how you want it. The end result may take a little longer to get there but the accomplishment you’ll feel having the system just the way you need it. This will actually save you time in the future, cost far less and something that will be your legacy within your business for years to come. Just like that fitted wardrobe your still proud of every time you slide it shut in the mornings.

Part of the Ikea Effect is making people feel valued. MY Compliance Management allows your system to grow with you and your team, the more they put in the more they feel part of the management system and the more involved they want to become. This responsibility forms an environment where your people genuinely feel valued. Internally for our own small team everyone has a voice, and every input no matter how small is listened to. I’m sure many of our customers will feel the same when they see their suggestions for improvements come to life with each new release and update.

Just like Ikea, here at MY Compliance Management we want our customers to feel a sense of connection with what they have built, and yes despite a little work to get there, that sense of accomplishment and value is worth all the sitting in your room angrily grunting while you try to piece key parts of your management system together.