Dr. K’s Blog

Well, science has finally done it! What’s it? Given aid and comfort to the nags and whiners (whingers in some parts) of the world! Woohoo! The message from the data - Go ahead and drive people to exhaustion, it works! When their defenses are down, when they can’t put up any more of a fight, YOU WIN! Well, that’s someone’s interpretation. Not mine.

I was reading an article in the The Australian about this, and was left with some nagging questions. Sure, this bad behavior works in the short term, but what are the long term consequences? What happens to the relationship when this is the method used to get what a person wants? What happens when you see one of these folks coming? What happens when you learn the trick and know how to counter it? Alas, the study offered no such insights.

Now, I don’t have much science to back me up on this, and I confess that what I’m about to say is mostly opinion, tempered with real world experience derived from over two and a half decades of my own studies into human behavior. Nagging and whining work, but only to a point. And that point is often the breaking point in relationships, and the backlash can be significant.

Nags and Whiners become unwanted and unwelcome. They come across as negative, obnoxious and oblivious to their effect on others. And those who deal with these bad behaviors tend to go out of their way to stay out of the way, and dismissive of other more productive behaviors when coming from a grievous source.

If a person wants long term persuasive success, then building relationship almost always works better than tearing apart and beating others down. If a person wants the next interaction to be simpler than the last, more productive than then last, less work than the last, whining and nagging just don’t cut it.

I could go on, but I have no desire to be whiner or nag myself. I like people. I believe in their capacity to learn, grow and change for the better. And when articles like this one draw erroneous and potentially damaging conclusions, I choose to make the case clear for those with the desire to hear. Enough said. I end this post here.

Be well,

Dr. Rick

Popularity: 1% [?]

Dealing with bad behavior at work is a common theme that I address continually in my work with people, my writing and here on this blog. Below is another example of someone experiencing bad behavior from her boss and my recommendations to her. (Her real name is not used.)

Dear Dr. Rick

In my office, we have two dozen employees, and I work directly with the owner and two other veterinarians. In my state, those of us who have worked for a veterinarian for five years as technicians can sit for the boards and take our certification based on experience. I have done this and passed the same test that every tech in America takes on the same day twice a year.

My issue is that the owner does not think that taking the test based on experience is just as valid as if I went to school and studied for two years and then took the test. Just to be clear, I believe that most of the veterinarians in my state accept my certification to be as valid as a schooled tech.

My problem happens when the owner takes me into his office and proceeds to tell me about some mistake I may have or may not have made. He does not let me accept or deny the mistake. After about an hour of insults and cussing he then goes into how my certification is not as valid as a schooled tech and has said that “it does not count” how at my age (45) I should do XYZ or with my experience (15 + years) I should not be making the mistake. I leave his office with hurt feelings and sometimes embarrassment.

I do not need a pat on the back for doing something that I know given my personal background that I am very proud of accomplishing. Like I said I did this for me. However I do not think that he has to dismiss it and belittle my accomplishment. For the most part at this time I wish he would just not bring it up at all.

Please help me, I really love working where I work and do not want to quit. But if this continues I do not see any other alternative. Reviews are coming up and I do not look forward to sitting through an hour of insults just to get a twenty-five cent raise.

Help!
Joan (Not her real name.)

Dear Joan,

Ok, here’s what I get from reading what you’ve written. It seems to me that you tolerate your boss’s bad behavior, even though you find it wrong and offensive. Maybe you do this because you want to be nice. Maybe you do this out of fear for your job. But I don’t see the benefit to you in keeping a job at all costs. I recommend that you read the chapters in my book on dealing with Tanks and Grenades and apply this material to your situation. Because, in my opinion, it is your tolerance of this bad behavior that perpetuates it. I recently wrote a blog entry on this very topic, bullies at work.

Seems to me that you have other options besides take it or quit. I’m not telling you what to do, but I can tell you what I would do. I would stand and walk away when he does this.

Options for Dealing with Bad Boss Behavior

I might first tell him I’ll be back when he’s ready to talk to me in a respectful way, and then walk away.

Or, I might tell him that his behavior is inappropriate, disrespectful, and does him a disservice as well as myself, and I’m not willing to let him continue to embarrass himself, and then look into his eyes until it registers with him that he’s behaving badly. Or I might try Pygmalion Power (it’s in the book in the chapter on Grenades) and tell him, ‘This isn’t like you. You’re a reasonable and intelligent person and you’re capable of talking with others in a respectful and responsible way.” I think anything other than fight or flight is likely to be more effective than letting him do this.

Ultimately, if I were you (which obviously I’m not) and I believed in my value, if I believed in my ability, if I believed in my education and training and performance of my job, then I would require myself to have the courage of my convictions and stand up for what I believe.

Drawing the Line

Assertive behavior like what I’ve been describing here doesn’t require you to attack him or argue with him, just to draw the line on unacceptable behavior. To say “This is who I am and why you should care. I don’t need you to validate my education or background. But do let me know when you’re ready to speak with me in a respectful and responsible way. Until then, excuse me, but I have real work to do and this is keeping me from it for no useful purpose.”

Change is inevitable, but progress is not. YOU make the difference.

Dr. Rick

Related posts:

1. How to Develop An Assertive Style: Office Politics

2. Dealing with Bad Behavior: Bullies At Home, At Work

Popularity: 11% [?]

This post continues from my last post on Persuading with Integrity here and is helpful if you are seeking to improve your ability to change your world for the better and you want to improve your persuasion skills.

Strengthening your positive persuasion, persuading with integrity, and communication skills is facilitated by understanding some basics. This post will cover some useful definitions I have found to help people as they work to improve their positive persuasion abilities.

Useful Definitions

Influence

What is influence? Is influence something you have or something you do? Pardon the paradox, but the answer is both. When people trust you, they are open to being persuaded by you. your influence flows into them as a force that is recognized and respected.

This natural process gives you the power to cause things to happen through others with their willing consent. Trust is so important to powerful positive persuasion skills that I have posted on building workplace trust here and developing an assertive style (including confidence) here. Trust magnifies your persuasive power. There is nothing so powerful as the positive influence trust makes possible.

Negative Influence

Yet there is such a thing as negative influence. That’s when you are persuaded or motivated to act against your own interests. Or you persuade others to act against their interests. This kind of influence does not require trust. It does, however, require acceptance and acquiescence, through the surrendering of personal responsibility. For example, peer pressure creates this kind of influence. Anytime you go along with the crowd without considering the consequences, you run the risk of negative influence.

Negative influence can also insert itself into your life when you limit the scope of your input. This age of information offers radio stations, Internet radio, television and cable stations, specialized magazines, newspapers and web sites that promote a single point of view. People marginalize themselves and surrender important opinions as they watch listen and read only that which supports their limited, and therefore limiting, views and opinions.

Narrowing Minds

If your mind is set on comfort and agreement without challenge, eventually you become enthralled to your chosen mental environment. The mind narrows, positions harden, society becomes polarized and important information goes unnoticed because it exists outside the limited domain.

In the early days of television and radio, advertisers, hosts and broadcast personalities admonished their audiences with the classic “DON’T TOUCH THAT DIAL!”

So what is your homework for today? As you work to improve your positive persuasion skills—TOUCH THE DIAL!

Change the stations, read watch or listen to something that you disagree with. Challenge your views in order to gain access to information that exists outside of your comfort zone. This way you can expand the scope of your input. You can bring into your awareness other options, other interpretations and possibilities. These other possibilities provide you with what you need to better understand your world and give you sufficient information to influence it for the better.

Be well,

Dr. Rick

Related posts:

1. Mastering the Art of Persuasion & Healthy Communication: Recognizing Communication Needs

2. Dealing with Difficult People: A Different Approach

Popularity: 14% [?]

If you are seeking to improve your ability to change your world for the better—like most of us I suspect—you may find it useful to brush-up on your persuasion skills.

This post is an introduction into the basics of persuasion with integrity that I researched for my book, The Insider’s Guide: The Art of Persuasion: Use Your Influence To Change Your World. I have posted here about the connection between recognizing communication needs and persuasion.

If you haven’t thought lately about how strong your persuasion skills are, or if they are preventing you from achieving the positive change you’re striving for, here is some food for thought.

Persuasion Benefits

I have said before that I see two key benefits to improving your ability to persuade others to create positive change: the ability to protect yourself from unscrupulous people with hidden agendas. The kind of people that use ignorance and emotion to achieve negative ends. The second reason is huge when you consider how many great ideas (your ideas and those of others) have evaporated because of a failure to persuade.

Think of the opportunities squandered, resources wasted and the money and income lost—all because the right person at the right time lacked the persuasive skill to persuade the key people to take the necessary actions. If you have the answer to a question, or the solution to a problem, and you’re unable to persuade others consider the impact. The people who need that answer, or that solution, have no hope. Consider that your business, your family, your community, your country and the world itself may one day depend on your persuasion skills.

What Does Persuasion Accomplish?

Persuasion facilitates. Persuasion connects point A to point B by building a bridge between them. So what exactly is persuasion? For the purpose of this blog’s readers, it is a deliberate attempt to influence a person’s attitude, using the means of communication. In order to make sense of this, let’s break it down. Why deliberate? A deliberate attempt means it is not accidental or incidental—but done on purpose. Why influence a person’s attitude? Because, dear readers, attitude drives behavior.

Persuasion finds success in three steps:
1. Meeting people where they are
2. First understanding them
3. Then speaking to their needs, interests and motivations

In upcoming posts, we will talk about improving your abilities around these three steps for improving your persuasion skills.

Can you share with me examples from your professional or personal life where you were grateful that someone in the group was able to successfully persuade the others on a positive course of action?

Change is inevitable, but progress is not. Let’s take a journey together to discover how you can make the difference.
Dr. Rick

Related posts:

1. Dealing with Difficult People: A Different Approach

2. How to Recognize Motivation

Popularity: 20% [?]

Communications problems with coworkers are common—we’ve all experienced them. Solutions to nagging coworker problems can be found in your own desire to create positive change. Keep in mind, many times you are not the only one experiencing the coworker-problem. By addressing the problem, you will be creating positive change for yourself and others.

Here is one example of a person experiencing communications problems with a coworker. Maybe my suggestions to Lynne (not her real name) can help you improve your workplace communications.

Dear Dr. Rick,

I have a problem with a colleague who frequently displays the behavior of a ‘Thinks they know it all’, but with an additional problem. He will use even the most tenuous link to people (frequently myself) or groups/committees to
take other’s credit for himself.

For example, he and I are both in a committee and also I head a team of which he is a member. In both situations, he has claimed credit for things ‘we’ have done in front of others, when it has been work solely done by myself or another committee member.

In this way, he has skillfully misled many people in our workplace into thinking that these achievements are his own. Indeed some staff have even questioned who is in charge of the team because of the things he has
said (and omitted to say) behind my back.

He won’t specifically say ‘he’ did it or that ‘he’ runs the team but he will ‘forget’ to mention anyone else. Give me some ideas on how can I put a stop to this without sounding petty and insecure by pleading “No! That was me. I did that”, which is what I’m thinking. Any suggestions for me?–Lynn

Dear Lynn,

You describe someone who takes undeserved credit for himself. And your issue with it is that you want the credit due you, but you don’t want to appear petty in seeking it. You say you want to put a stop to his behavior, but you haven’t said what you want him to do instead.

Remember, nature hates a vacuum and you cannot replace something with nothing. That makes it more difficult to create positive change for you and for your organization.

If you don’t want him to do what he’s doing, what behavior would you him to replace it with?

That said, I can tell you what I would do in your situation, and it’s up to you what you do from there. I would assume that this person actually believes what he’s saying when he takes undeserved credit. Therefore, I would seize every opportunity to help educate him about the role he actually played vs. the one he thinks he played by drawing him out and asking him for specifics about his contributions. My guess is he’ll hate this. My guess is, by the time I’d done this on several incidents, he’d be well trained, and he’d stop doing anything that might cause me to ask such embarrassing and revealing questions again.

For example, when he claims credit for things ‘we’ have done in front of others, I’d be inclined, gently, not accusingly, to say, “I hear you say that ‘we’ did that. Honestly, I have a different recollection. Clearly I’ve overlooked some important details about your specific participation. Please help me. Tell me, what specifically did you do that you’re referring to when you say ‘we’ did this?” And then I’d smile graciously, and patiently wait for an answer. And no matter what the answer was, I’d keep asking questions that went from general to specific.

He says, “Well, remember, we got that list and made those calls?” “When you say ‘we got that list,’ please help me recall, because I just have a different recollection. What specific part did you play in getting that list?’ Or, I might tell him how I remember it, and ask him to help me with the parts I’m missing. “You know, the way I remember it, I called my staff, had them solicit input from their clients, then took the results and created the list myself. Then I made the calls. I’ve obviously over looked something. Tell me exactly what you did that helped put together that list? And who specifically did you personally call?” Once I revealed the details or lack thereof in this way, I’d summarize what I heard, and thank him for helping me out. “So, ok, my memory was accurate. I put together the list, and I made the calls. Hey, thanks for helping me remember this accurately. Great job!”

Now, you’re concerned with looking petty. But it’s my guess that you’re not the only one annoyed by this person’s behavior. So calling him out through innocent questions and positive communications might actually be considered as an added service by others who work with him. And if you have some fun with this, I think it could be a very effective communications approach.

You do have other communications options. Another option would be to do all of this with him in private the first time or two. “Back in the meeting, when you said that ‘we’ did such and such,….” Then, the next time it happens and you call him out in public, he won’t be so surprised, but he will recognize the patterning of it.

Last bit. I think this person is pretty desperate for attention. So maybe he’s not getting any when he deserves some. If that’s the case, maybe it would serve you well to pay attention more closely for legitimate opportunities to recognize his contributions. Tell him specifically what he did right and recognize him for it.

This two fold strategy of calling him out when it isn’t due through innocent questions for details, and giving him credit when it’s due for specific actions taken, may be enough to change the way this individual pursues his efforts to make (or be seen to make) a meaningful positive change.

Does anyone have examples of other solutions that work with coworkers taking credit for others’ work?

Be well,

Dr. Rick

Related posts:

1. How To Develop An Assertive Style: Office Politics

2. The Art of Communication: How To Bring Out The Best In People At Their Worst!

Popularity: 25% [?]

This time of change promises to be a bumpy road. Instead of stressing out, how can we ride the waves, weather the storms, and help each other out? This is a common question for people that want to create positive change.

In my work over the past 22 years, I have developed a sense for what helps people that want to leverage the power of change. This is a part of the foundation for The Art of Change Skills for Life™

Here are five simple introductory rules I’ve found to help people that want to change their personal and professional lives for the better.

1. Expect Waves of Change
It is the nature of life, and thus our nature as well, that change is inevitable and irreversible. You are a verb, not a noun! In every moment, change happens within, around and between us, and every change produces more change. Instead of foolishly trying to avoid the inevitable, anticipate it and embrace the opportunity of it.

2. Brace Yourself
Your ability to roughly discern the rules by which the universe operates is what differentiates you from all other living creatures. You gain leverage to make tomorrow different than today by understanding and applying these principles of change through the courage of your convictions.

3. Focus Forward
Since uncertainty is a growing trend, keep your focus forward and your eyes on the horizon, by regularly asking big picture questions that create “What If” scenarios. This type of activity will help you generate new ideas while cultivating your sense of ownership over the process of change.

4. Catch the Wave
Side effects are far more influential than direct effects in producing change, yet they remain largely invisible. Like watching a flower open, you need to include the element of time to see what’s happening. To make the invisible visible, watch the trends. In this way, you can see the waves before they arrive and position yourself to catch them. Waves arrive in a sort of punctuated equilibrium, with each moment of excitement followed by a moment of calm. The time to catch the next wave is in that moment of calm before it arrives.

5. Enjoy the Ride
This is the only moment guaranteed to any of us, so make the most of it! When leaders look scared or send mixed messages, the fear factor ripples out to the edges of our shared environment! Ultimately, your example isn’t the main thing in influencing people, it is the only thing.” Our work can be, and ought to be, a place for each of us to make a difference, to gain appreciation and to develop ourselves. Finding happiness in what we do is the inevitable result of matching our words to our deeds and our habits to our values.

I look forward to your comments. Do you have your own basic rules for approaching The Art of Change? In future posts I will expand on this foundation for creating positive change in your life.

Be well,

Dr. Rick

Popularity: 26% [?]

Have you found yourself in an office situation with a co-worker that is not only difficult to deal with, and has poor communication skills but also gets in the way of others performing successfully? This office situation is common and if you’ve experienced this yourself, you’ll enjoy this letter I recieved and responded to. (Real names not used.)

Hi there,

I’m looking for help in dealing with someone who repeatedly ’sabotages’ work projects - often through poor communication/lack of communication and the subsequent misunderstandings this causes, or through making decisions that don’t appear to make much sense. It occurs when the person ’strays’ into areas of work that are not their responsibility (and have been repeatedly clarified as being part of someone else’s role).

The person appears to be searching for appreciation - I suspect the sabotage is partly to try to avoid other people getting the appreciation she is looking for. Can you give
me any advice on strategies to resolve this problem?

Many thanks,

Rosy

Dear Rosy,

Hello and thanks for writing. It does sound like ‘Get Appreciation’ could be the driving force. Either that, or feeling out of control, she undermines the control of others. In either case, and basing my response only on this limited information and without the opportunity to gather information, (pardon my caveats, but…there’s likely more to this story than initially meets the eye, and my response may miss by a mile as a result) here my initial response.

I would document the problem. Captain’s log on the bridge of the Enterprise.

• What specifically happened.
• Who else was there when it happened (witnesses).
• Where it happened and when.
• The consequences and cost of it happening, extrapolated into the future.

When you have three specific examples logged, you could go to this person directly and create a focused meeting in which you describe the problem and offer the evidence and then ask her for an accounting. “What’s going on? What are you trying to accomplish by doing this? What needs to happen for this to stop?”
Then you could say what you want instead. Be specific. If there are consequences, you could spell them out. Preferably positive ones if the behavior changes, and negative ones if it doesn’t. I would leave her with the choice, but stand firmly behind the consequences.

Best wishes,
Rick

You can find many of the keys to dealing successfully with a difficult co-worker improving your own skills of persuasion in order to create positive change. Let me know if you’ve experienced this problem with an “office sabotager” and how you resolved the situation.

Be well,

Dr. Rick

Related posts:

1. How To Develop An Assertive Style: Office Politics
2. Mastering the Art of Persuasion & Healthy Communication: Recognizing Communication Needs

Popularity: 41% [?]

Wall St. Journal’s Marshall Loeb wrote an article titled, “Six Ways to Win at Office Politics” recently.

He states that “Office politics can be vicious, and how power and influence are managed in your company will be a part of your career whether you choose to participate in them or not.”

Develop An Assertive Style
Among others, Loeb recommends that you “Develop an assertive style, backed with solid facts and examples, to focus others’ attention on your ideas and proposals. Good politicians can adjust their messages for their audience and always appear well-prepared.”

But what does that mean, an ‘assertive style’? Here are my suggestions about how one goes about developing an ‘assertive style’.

Invoke Confidence
An assertive style means that when you speak, you speak with authority, in order to invoke confidence in your listeners that you believe in what you’re saying. You convey authority by the way you dress, the way you enter a room, the way you make contact with people, the way you address them and the way you respond to them.

As to solid facts and examples, facts in and of themselves are NOT persuasive. Witness all the dumb ideas that have been sold to ‘the people’ by their federal governments over the last 200 + years, all the poorly made products that almost nobody needs and most everybody buys, and it is obvious to even the most casual observer that facts aren’t even necessary to be persuasive. More important, if you have facts, that you be able to illustrate them. If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is a picture worth that is painted with words? It’s called an example, and an example well delivered provides people with an opportunity to experience a fact as a reality, as a meaningful story, as something connected to their humanity.

As to adjusting messages, different groups have different agendas, but all groups are made up of individuals who have the same interest: “What’s in it for me?” To the degree that you can speak to the self interest of the individuals in any group, you increase your persuasive power and the likelihood of moving people to action, agreement and change for the better.

Be Prepared Before You Say a Word
Confidence is invoked when confidence is present, and confidence comes from preparation. This is why it is always in your interest to prepare yourself to speak before you say a word. Practice presenting your ideas using each of the eight persuasion guides in the Insider’s Guide To The Art Of Persuasion, and you’ll easily be able to identify the ones that work best and most naturally to deliver your ideas most effectively.

When you are well prepared, you appear well prepared, and the authority and confidence this invokes allows you to communicate persuasively.

The complete WSJ article is here.

Change is inevitable, but progress is not. Discover how you make the difference by developing your ability to communicate persuasively.

Be well,

Dr. Rick

Related posts:

1. How to Recognize Motivation
2. The Art of Communication: How To Bring Out The Best In People At Their Worst!

Popularity: 44% [?]

Understanding motivations in others helps you to improve your communication skills, your ability to persuade and to bring about positive change.

As I wrote in part 1 of this series on How to Recognize Motivation, you can’t motivate other people. But you can help people find their motivation. You can speak to motivation and engage people at a deep level, and bring about change as a result. This post looks at a common motivation: fear.

Sometimes, people are motivated more by fear than by other motivations. When they do go forward, it’s because they’re trying to get away from something. And when they stand still and take no action, it is usually because they are holding themselves back in order to avoid something. Avoid problems. Stay away from consequences. Get away from failure, worthlessness and pain. You can hear when fear is the motivation because people talk about what they don’t want, or want to avoid, or how they want to get as much distance as possible from something they deem undesirable.

There’s no denying that fear gets our interest, and holds it, at least for a little while. Our entire nervous system is designed to be afraid in a heartbeat, and it often goes off without warning. It also gets our interest when people tell us we have reason to fear. Our nervous system responds by wanting to fight or get away.

Fear as a Short Term Motivator
That’s why the oldest trick in the persuasion deck is to really scare someone, and then offer them an easy solution that eliminates the threat. It’s practically guaranteed, at least in the short term, to generate interest and engage motivation. For example, in the two weeks following a speeding ticket, a driver will typically behave better on the road. But it doesn’t take long for the old habit of behavior to kick in. Fear is insufficient as a long-term motivator for change.

You must walk a fine and fearful line to use fear as a motivator. Apply too little, and it won’t gain any interest. Apply too much, and you overload and exhaust the receptors for it, with the paradoxical effect of losing interest. Even if the amount is just right, you have to keep using it to keep people interested.

Keep in mind, while fear plays an important role in motivation, it cannot create sustained motivation by itself.

We will look at desire as a motivation next.

Be well,

Dr. Rick

Related posts:

1. Mastering the Art of Persuasion & Healthy Communication: Recognizing Communication Needs

2. How to Recognize Motivation: Part 1

Popularity: 45% [?]

Helping people to better use their influence to make positive changes in their lives, relationships and their work is a common theme in my work and writing. Actually, “Use Your Influence to Change Your World” is the subtitle of my recent book, Insider’s Guide to the Art of Persuasion. The subject of motivation is always a key discussion in my experience. So here is a summary of my approach to understanding motivations. In yourself. In others.

What is Motivation?

Motivation = an incentive, an inducement, or a stimulus for action.
Anything - verbal, physical, or psychological - that causes somebody to do something in response.

• Why do people change their minds?
• What makes a person care about one thing more than another?
• What is their motivation? How can you find out?

Listening for a Person’s Motivation

The MAP to a person’s personal reality consists of their Motivation, Access Language and Position. Your mission, when listening to others, is to go deep and FIND THE MAP!

Let’s explore the first of three key aspects of the deep structure MAP behind your persuadee’s actions and decisions–motivation!

You can’t motivate other people. But you can  help people find their motivation. You can speak to motivation and engage people at a deep level, and bring about change as a result.

Drive and determination, inhibition and restraint are the consequences of motivation, because motivation is all about the direction of our motion or movement in life, either towards or away. Motivation is context specific. It changes, like so many details about how we live our lives; depending on the situation we’re in, the people involved, and our priorities at that moment in time.

What’s In It for Me?

Your motivation to do or not do something can often be found in the answer, or lack of an answer, to the question ‘What’s in it for me?’ That’s true about everyone else, too. Everybody is interested in what’s in it for him or her, no matter what it is.

The art of persuasion is getting people to do something because they want to do it, not because you want them to do it. You’ve got to find out what people really want, and then help them understand how your proposition helps them get it.

The art of persuasion is a key to your ability to build and project your authority. By gaining support using your understanding of others’ motivations, you can create positive change in your work, family and your world.

The value of recognizing key motivations in others is that they can serve as powerful guides about what to say when you want to be persuasive. And these motivations are not hard to recognize. Simply find your own motivation for doing what you do, and suddenly you recognize motivation in others.

In the next post we’ll look deeper into understanding the basic types of motivations.

Be well,

Dr. Rick

Related Posts:

1. Mastering the Art of Persuasion & Healthy Communication: Recognizing Communication Needs
2. The Art of Communication: How To Bring Out The Best In People At Their Worst!

Popularity: 52% [?]