ApproachAvoid.com is a free learning and training environment built around a simple idea:

Throughout the day, humans are constantly approaching some things and avoiding others.

We approach what we believe may provide value, safety, reward, connection, opportunity, or meaning.

We avoid what we believe may create danger, pain, loss, uncertainty, stress, or unwanted outcomes.

Our perceptions and decisions are influenced by our past experiences, expectations, emotions, attention, identity, trust, relationships, and the world changing around us.

ApproachAvoid.com is designed to help explore these influences in two ways:

The Approach/Avoid Learning Series is a free course that provides a structured path for learning about human behavior.

The course begins with the fundamentals of approach and avoidance and gradually expands into:

• Perception and the five senses
• Prediction and expectations
• Emotion
• Reward and threat
• Trust
• Attention
• Stress and uncertainty
• Identity
• Social behavior
• Groups and society
• Change and adaptation

The learning journey moves from:

Understanding Yourself

↓

Understanding Other People

↓

Understanding Groups and Society

↓

Understanding How Humans Adapt to Change

As the course develops, later lessons will also review new research and explore how those findings may help us better understand ourselves and the society around us.

The goal is not to tell people what to think.

The goal is to help us observe more carefully, ask better questions, and become more self-aware and society-aware.

Click below to start the first Lesson

Lesson 1 — Approach and Avoid: The Basic Human Decision

Click here to go down to bottom of page to review current list of lessons

(IN DEVELOPMENT)

The course provides the learning foundation.

The rest of ApproachAvoid.com provides opportunities to explore and apply those ideas.

The site focuses on three practical areas.

Humans and organizations are living in a world that can change very quickly.

Technology, artificial intelligence, economics, energy, resources, the environment, global events, and social change can influence how people live, work, spend, communicate, and make decisions.

This section explores:

• What is changing
• Why it may matter
• How people may perceive those changes
• What people may approach or avoid
• How individuals may adapt
• How organizations may help people adapt

The objective is not simply to identify change.

It is to better understand the human response to change.

Every day consists of moments and experiences.

Customers, patients, employees, organizations, families, and communities constantly interact with one another.

Approach/Avoid provides a useful way to think about those experiences.

We can ask:

What makes someone want to approach an experience again?

What makes them want to avoid it?

What expectations did they have?

Did the experience create trust or distrust?

Did it reduce stress or create additional stress?

Did the person feel understood?

The site will explore ideas for creating better customer, patient, employee, and human experiences by applying what we learn about approach and avoid behavior.

Mapping is a way to step back and visually explore relationships that may otherwise be difficult to see.

ApproachAvoid.com provides a basic introduction to mapping:

• Change
• Risk
• Experiences
• Touchpoints
• Human perceptions
• Expectations
• Approach and avoid responses

Mapping can help individuals and organizations organize information, recognize relationships, and ask better questions.

ApproachAvoid.com will provide an introduction to these ideas.

Website:

ADAPTING TO CHANGE

>  Change Introduction -  Exploring Why the World is Changing so Quickly

>  Exploring 7 Major Topics to Monitor Change and Risk

>  Link to an Ongoing Change and Risk Board - Map

EXPERIENCES

>  7Starters - Top 7 Starters for Mapping   

>  ApproachAvoid Topics - Approach Avoid Topics for Review

>  Link to a Moments and Experiences Board - Mapping Ideas 

MAPPING

>  Mapping Introduction - Quick Introduction of Mapping the Human Experience

>  Mapping Ideas - Take learning from the site/Put into action with Maps

>  Touchpoint Ideas - Areas to Measure and Map

BLOG

>  Targeting 4 Blog Posts per Month

DEDICATION/CONTACT

>  Story and Purpose of the Work here at ApproachAvoid.com

>  Additional Contact Information

QUICK CONTACT:

Manager of ApproachAvoid.com - Brad Lehman

Brad@ApproachAvoid.com

For those interested in deeper organizational Change & Risk Mapping, Touchpoint and Experience Mapping, you can also reach Brad at www.SmileyAnswers.com

Below - Three sections:

The FREE Approach/Avoid Learning Series

Detached Observation

ApproachAvoid Mindset

Every person sees the world through a different set of experiences, memories, expectations, emotions, and perceptions.  That means the same moment can feel completely different to different people.

A customer may see a process as helpful.

Another may see it as frustrating.

An employee may see a change as an opportunity.

Another may see the same change as a threat.

Detached Observation is a way to temporarily step back from our own immediate point of view and look at a situation from a wider perspective.

The goal is not to remove emotion or judgment.

The goal is to create enough distance to ask better questions.

When we want to improve a customer, patient, employee, or human experience, it helps to step outside our own perspective.

Instead of asking only:

“How do I see this experience?”

we can also ask:

“How might they see it?”

“What are they expecting?”

“What past experiences may be influencing them?”

“What are they approaching?”

“What are they avoiding?”

This wider view can help us better understand the moments that influence trust, satisfaction, stress, decisions, and future behavior.

Detached Observation can also help us understand a rapidly changing world.

When we are very close to an event, problem, or risk, our attention can become narrow.

Stepping back allows us to look at the larger picture:

What is changing?

Why is it changing?

Who is being affected?

How are different people and organizations responding?

What are they trying to protect, gain, avoid, or adapt to?

A wider perspective can help us connect global change to organizations and eventually to individual lives.

Detached Observation reminds us that our own view of the world is only one view.

Other people may be working from different experiences, expectations, fears, goals, and information.

We do not have to agree with another person's perspective to try to understand it.

The practice is simply:

Step Back → Observe → Consider Other Perspectives → Ask Better Questions

Throughout ApproachAvoid.com, we will use Detached Observation as a tool for understanding ourselves, other people, organizations, and society.

DO:  

When you see DO:, it means we are pausing to make a Detached Observation about the topic being discussed.

The purpose is to step outside the immediate situation, widen the view, and consider what we may be missing.

Throughout the day, people are constantly moving toward some things and away from others.

We approach what we believe may bring value, safety, reward, comfort, connection, opportunity, or meaning.

We avoid what we believe may bring pain, loss, danger, stress, uncertainty, frustration, or unwanted outcomes.

Most of the time, we do not consciously stop and think:

“What am I approaching right now?”

or

“What am I avoiding?”

But asking those questions can reveal a great deal about behavior.

For one day, periodically pause and look at your actions through an Approach/Avoid lens.

When you:

• Open an email
• Put off a task
• Choose what to eat
• Buy something
• Avoid a conversation
• Scroll social media
• Exercise
• Watch the news
• Seek reassurance
• Walk into a meeting
• Get frustrated
• Change your plans

ask yourself:

What am I approaching?

What am I avoiding?

Then ask:

Why?

The answer may involve comfort, fear, reward, trust, habit, status, uncertainty, past experience, expectations, or something else entirely.

The goal is not to judge the behavior.

The goal is to notice it.

Once you begin noticing your own behavior, try applying the same questions to other people.

Instead of immediately asking:

“Why would they do that?”

try asking:

“What might they be approaching?”

“What might they be avoiding?”

“What do they believe they will gain or lose?”

“What experiences or expectations may be influencing them?”

This can help us move from quick judgment toward curiosity and perspective-taking.

Understanding another person’s behavior does not mean agreeing with it.

It simply means trying to understand what may be driving it.

The same questions can be applied beyond individuals.

We can ask:

What is this organization approaching?

What is it avoiding?

What is this group trying to protect?

What is this society moving toward?

What fears, rewards, identities, or expectations may be influencing those actions?

This way of thinking can help us explore customer behavior, employee behavior, social trends, political behavior, organizational decisions, and adaptation to change.

Throughout ApproachAvoid.com, we will return to three questions:

What is being approached?

What is being avoided?

Why?

Those questions will not explain everything.

Human behavior is far too complex for that.

But they can provide a useful starting point for observing ourselves, understanding other people, and making sense of the world around us.

Notice the behavior.

Ask what is being approached or avoided.

Look for the reasons underneath it.

Stay curious.