System 2

As twenty-first-century professionals, we all recognize and value Kahneman's System 2 thinking. It is the collective term for how our mind processes data, picks the numbers, juggles and cross-checks them, and then assesses all of the ‘on-paper’ stuff: the economic and financial impact of proposals and counterproposals. System 2 serves as our sophisticated problem solver in the Visible Game. It produces good results in complex situations that require analysis and broader, more creative, thinking. You rely on System 2 if you are looking for an innovative idea, for a way to see connections between seemingly disparate things, or for an ‘out-of-the-box’ answer. System 2 works well with open-ended questions, where the answers can be surprising or ambiguous, or become better with time and critical thinking.

System 2 is what guides salespeople as they ponder, draft, rewrite, and edit a lengthy proposal or response. System 2 also has an on–off switch. Disengaging System 2 is what the Americans called ‘vegging’ or what the Dutch have started to call ‘niksen’, the art of doing absolutely nothing with the goal of recharging. This disengagement is important, because System 2 exhausts itself quickly and needs to recharge frequently. It explains why creative teams need frequent breaks or changes of scenery in order to bring in new stimulation or allow thoughts to develop further.

Situation 1.1 provides a look at our first real-life situation, one familiar to anyone who has sat in a conference room during a presentation.

System 1

The idea behind System 1 is that humans have a separate mode of operation that works automatically and comprises the primal mental functions of our minds.

From an evolutionary standpoint, the responses generated by System 1 are potent and effective. Otherwise, humans would have become extinct eons ago. So much of what we think and do – or don't do – runs on autopilot. Have you ever shown up somewhere by car, but you can't remember much of the drive at all? Have you seen an empty bag of crisps or cookies, but you cannot recall finishing it? Those are just two of a nearly infinite number of ways that System 1 keeps us going and keeps us safe. It is an enormous evolutionary strength that allows us to do many things at one time.

These functions are hard-wired into our brains to such an extent that every sales negotiation takes place between cavepeople at some pre-conscious or subconscious level. No matter how much we try to disguise or suppress these primal mental functions, they will inevitably exert their influence.

System 1 produces quick decisions with good results in business-as-usual situations. It helps us to respond in situations that tend to be information poor. System 1 responds well to closed questions, such as yes/no questions or simple multiple choice.

Think of social media usage as a helpful illustration. System 1 is what leads us to immediately tap an emoji to like or dislike a post. In contrast to System 2, however, System 1 does not have an on–off switch. It only has a dimmer switch. It is not only frighteningly fast, but also always on. You can't pause the Invisible Game or decide not to play. There is no airplane mode.

The journey to better sales performance is not about feeding System 2 – neither yours nor your audience's – an overwhelming amount of data and information. If the discussion devolves into two teams trying to outdo each other in terms of System 2, then the negotiation has stalled. If System 2 alone could resolve a negotiation, we would no longer need salespeople and could turn the entire sales department over to artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithms. What accelerates and enhances the journey to better sales performance is the addition of contextual references that feed, sharpen, and improve the instant judgment provided by System 1.

The risks and benefits of System 1 thinking

The evolution of System 1 has made us very efficient and effective in many ways, but it comes at a cost. It assumes a certain level of environmental consistency and stability that is often not truly there. If we aren't careful, others can capitalize on those illusions and the speed of System 1's responses. The upside is that System 1 is an equalizer. The more we understand that we are much more similar than we think, the more we can learn how to use System 1 to our own advantage. Instead of fighting hunches and signals, you facilitate them and learn to trust them because you have expanded your knowledge base, the well of accomplishments and experiences that System 1 draws on. This is comparable to the way we train System 2 through traditional educational approaches.

Another characteristic of System 1 is that it has neither the ability nor the time to construct a lie. No matter how finely tuned someone's System 2 is, it cannot prevent System 1 from reacting authentically to any given situation in the blink of an eye. We often draw the comparison between the race car and the snail. For almost any question, the race car (System 1) gets to the finish line labelled ‘answer’ long before System 2 even gets a chance to react.

What does this mean for the salesperson? It means that any instant reaction from a negotiation partner has a high chance of being authentic. The more attuned and attentive someone is to observe these reactions, the more likely they are to detect unequivocal clues that would otherwise be hidden in micro-expressions, micro-behaviours, or a seemingly innocuous Freudian slip.

Once your situational awareness starts to reveal these subtle System 1 signals, you will be surprised how obvious they can be and how often they appear. Gaby has experienced situations in which her negotiation partner said ‘I really like your offer’ while noticeably shaking his head at the same time. The purchaser was apparently oblivious to his ‘no’ gesture, but Gaby wasn't. It compelled her to check on her team's position and, indeed, she found out that a competitor of hers had just submitted a new offer that the buyer found attractive. By recognizing and then acting on the ‘no’ gesture, Gaby and her team modified their approach and ultimately outmanoeuvred the other bidder.

Here is a simple exercise to allow you to practise recognizing these gestures and improve your own situational awareness. The next time you receive a verbal compliment – someone likes your product, your suit, or your pet – try to make a conscious effort to observe what the person's head does. Even the slightest nod confirms the compliment. Once you start making these types of observations, you will be surprised how often a positive message is accompanied by a ‘no’ gesture, a headshake, which means there is a conflict between words (System 2) and what the person really feels (System 1). The gesture does not always mean the person is outright lying to you. There are no such rigid, black-and-white interpretations. There are also cultural differences to take into account. In India, for example, the headshake may have several different meanings depending on its form or context.

But we can say with confidence that the gesture in Western cultures does indicate that something is off. If you are in a sales negotiation, it means that you should not take praise at face value or assume success. Your System 1 is warning you to step back and find out what is causing the discrepancy between what you heard and what you saw.

To test this and get more practice in a no-pressure environment, keep an eye out for how actors and actresses deliver the line ‘I love you’ in a movie or a TV show. When things build up to that romantic moment when one character confesses to have fallen in love with the other person, watch how the person's head moves when they utter the words. Often you will notice that they will shake their head slightly, for a fraction of a second. Even Academy Award winning actors can't avoid that tell. The culprit is System 1, which cannot suppress the fact that the words and the emotions are artificial.

Recognizing the power of System 1

The conventional wisdom views the dichotomy between System 1 and System 2 as a battle between the irrational and the rational. That makes sense from the perspective of the cultured twenty-first-century professional, who would rather view the ‘animal’ side through the ‘civilized’ lens rather than vice versa. However, that perspective is flawed, because it evaluates System 1 through the lens of System 2. In our view, both sides are rational in their own contexts. Both make intrinsic sense, and neither should be subordinated to the other. Both therefore need to be understood on their own terms and placed on equal footing when you are in a negotiation.

We believe that the autopilot of System 1 is not only undervalued, but massively undertrained. There are huge differences in the quality and reliability of a person's autopilot. It is not an ‘either you have it or you don't’ thing. The better your pre-programming is, the better your System 1 autopilot will perform. But most salespeople don't focus on pre-programming and refining this function. They don't realize how important it is to manage the experiences, accomplishments, and flows of information that fuel and fine-tune their autopilot.

Getting System 1 the attention it deserves is often an uphill battle. Witness how companies construct and conduct their sales trainings, which tend to emphasize System 2 and gloss over System 1. Companies err on the side of more facts, more data, and more hard analyses because data is the coin of the realm in today's digital age. This bias in favour of System 2 also manifests itself in the labels ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ skills, a distinction that belittles System 1. The fact that supposedly ‘soft’ skills defy easy quantification and black-and-white comparisons does not make them less powerful or more difficult to master than the hard skills that companies prize.

The food or fuel for System 2 is data and analyses. The food or fuel for System 1 is exposure and experience. Expanding System 1's knowledge base in this way is a modern expression of a primitive survival skill, from a time when automatic or intuitive behaviours meant the difference between life and death. Learning from successful experiences is a skill, even if the experiences are simulated. That's how professional athletes, musicians, and other people with superior performance gain an edge through practice.

In 2019, the Washington Nationals baseball team won the Major League Baseball World Series, and outfielder Adam Eaton had one of the most important hits in the final game. How he accomplished that feat in a stressful, high-stakes situation is not only an example of System 1 overriding System 2 at a decisive moment, but also an example of how important time commitments and repetition are to training your personal autopilot.

Eaton practices hitting a ball off a batting tee every day, rather than having someone throw him a ball. And he makes the drill as hard as possible.³

‘High-inside tee is an uncomfortable drill, but it teaches body control’, Eaton explained. ‘I work on this every day.’

That hard work paid off handsomely with a contribution to a championship. In the live action of the do-or-die final game of the World Series, Eaton saw a pitch coming and told himself ‘No, don't swing!’ But System 1 kicked in immediately. Eaton swung the bat and got a successful hit.

‘It was kind of cool to have a “blackout moment” where your body just takes over’, Eaton said. ‘It's a beautiful thing and you think “how did I do that?” but there was hardly any thought process.’

Without his daily training, it is doubtful that Eaton would have had his ‘blackout moment’ at that critical time.

Achieving this well-coordinated combination between System 1 and System 2 takes training. Like muscle or endurance training, it becomes stronger and more effective the more frequently it is practised and honed.

Extending the analogy from sports to sales, we recommend you constantly push the boundaries of your own knowledge base. Seek to break your habits. System 1 needs more experiences and impressions to process, so that it has a greater array of images, patterns, and feelings to rely on when it makes snap judgments. You tip the scales in your favour when you have a greater set of experiences to base your responses on.

Learning to sell with System 1 and System 2 is like being ambidextrous. Suppressing System 1 while emphasizing System 2 is like playing tennis only with your forehand and or playing basketball by dribbling only with your right hand. You become predictable and easier to defend, because the other team can overplay against you and knows that your options are limited.

In other words, a key realization for situational awareness is that the processing of a situation is not a black-and-white case of only System 1 or System 2. The reality is that many decisions involve both sides working together. Think back to situations when you and your colleagues have conducted data analyses, did some scenario planning, and decided on an option, only to have one person have the courage and forethought to speak up and say ‘That just doesn't feel right.’ Those reactions deserve full exploration, yet in many cases, people tend to downplay them or dismiss them entirely. Conversely, many successful System 1 responses – such as Eaton's hit in Game 7 – occur because lengthy periods of analysis preceded them before the do-or-die situation arose. System 1 and System 2 should be treated as equal partners rather than as opposing forces or in a subordinate relationship to each other.

In negotiations, we see star performers excel in both areas. Their success depends on their ability to respond quickly and confidently in highly stressful situations. It also depends on their ability to distinguish between the authentic and the insincere, between true and false, and between threats (requiring a defensive response) and opportunities (requiring an offensive response). They outperform their negotiation partners through their excellence in both System 1 and System 2 processes. They learn to tap into the strengths of both systems and train their intuitive behaviours so that their responses are intentional rather than purely reflexive. The challenge for salespeople lies in deriving the greatest combined benefits from each force so that they can win both the Invisible Game and the Visible Game.