Bluma Zeigarnik was a Soviet phsychologist who discovered that when something isn’t finished, it can drive us nuts…
She found that when there’s an “open loop,” or an unfinished task that gets interrupted, we’re more inclined to go back to it.
One of the studies was with a group of restaurant waiters and waitresses who were serving at a party with an unpaid tab. As long as the tab hadn’t been settled, the server remembered all the details of the order: what stage of the meal they were in, even their names…
Once the tab was settled and they left, they could no longer remember.
An open loop, or an unfinished “story” creates tension. We want to know what happens in the next chapter, the next episode (Netflix binge?), or the next day…
Given that curiosity, intrigue and the chance to step into new possibility can play a big role in retention for a lot of service businesses and relationships, where could you create open loops in your work or business?
Maybe we can look at some examples in the next post…
