Endowment leads to inaction, and it’s Maddening. Why do we overvalue what we already have?
The concept is simple. The results are painful. We overvalue what we already have. In a study, participants were asked how much they would pay for a coffee mug—answers averaged at $3. Another group was asked what they would sell the same mug for, and their answers averaged just over $7. This discrepancy illustrates how we overvalue our possessions.
Consider these scenarios:
- Existing Processes: The QA team often overvalues their current testing methods, resisting collaboration with developers earlier in the process.
- Agile Change Initiatives: The people who started the change process often see these initiatives as more critical than other teams who’re affected by these change
- Feature work conflicting priorities - Our product has a common vision. We’re working from a common product backlog. Yet we have trouble getting help from our peer teams. They say: “Our work is more important than helping you right now”
- Code Ownership: We overvalue code we wrote ourselves over a library we discover after the fact.
- Agile Coaches - we value our handmade index cards, more than external tools.
Caveat Clearly the Endowment effect doesn’t explain the whole problem, it is just another lens. In addition, it doesn’t say there is no value in things like our index cards (❤️). The Endowment effect shows that we and the people we work with over value these things.
#YourTurn Where have you seen the Endowment Effect kick you in the teeth?
#Influence #Ship30For30