In this episode of Coach Cut’s Corner, Coach Cut explores the psychology behind the IKEA Effect and why people naturally place greater value on things they help create.

What began with research involving IKEA furniture, origami, and Legos revealed something much bigger about human nature. Ownership creates commitment, pride, and perseverance. But it can also create blind spots.

Drawing from his own journey and experiences building the culture at Lansing Community College, Coach Cut discusses how coaches and leaders can become overly attached to the systems and philosophies they have spent years creating.

This episode is about humility, curiosity, and the importance of seeking the truth rather than defending opinions.

If you are a coach, leader, parent, or someone pursuing excellence, this episode will challenge the way you think about growth and success.

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Hey, it's Coach Kate here, registered dietitian and owner of RD Kate Sports Nutrition. As a member of the LCC STARS Athletic Department, I teach our athletes what to eat and when to eat it, on training days, competition days and throughout the year. For over a decade, I've been helping athletes of all sports and levels meet their goals. RDKate Sports Nutrition offers individual consulting team services, on demand courses and downloadable handouts. For more information, visit RDKate.com.

Hello, friends, and welcome to Coach Cut's Corner. Streaming bright from Michigan's Capital City, this podcast is dedicated to helping you better understand the who, the what and the why of mental performance, personal growth and Lansing Stars baseball. Coach Cut’s Corner, brought to you by “eyewash” in collaboration with Lansing Community College. And now, here's your host, Steven Cutter.

Hey, I'm Coach Cut, and today I want to talk about something that hit me right between the eyes when I first learned about it. Been studying this for about a month now, and I found it just really, really interesting. It's called the IKEA Effect.

And when I first read about it, I thought, man, this is. This is pretty incredible. And I think I can relate to it, and I can see it relatable in coaching and business and in life.

And I started thinking about leadership. I started thinking about the culture we built at Lansing. I started thinking about baseball, and then I started thinking about myself.

And I'll be honest, I didn't necessarily like what I found because I realized something. I realized sometimes the things we build become the things we're unwilling to question, and that can be dangerous.

Most of us have bought something from ikea, even me, but maybe you haven't, and you've gotten something from, you know, Amazon or something like that. But think of it in terms like this. You buy a bookshelf, it comes in a box with 8,000 pieces or so.

The instructions really don't have words, they have pictures. Halfway through, you're wondering if you've accidentally built a boat and you put it together, take it apart, put it together again.

But after taking it apart, it doesn't quite go together as well as it should have the first time. And six hours later, you stand back and you admire your work. And I think about, like, Christmas Eve building playhouses for our girls late at night.

I think about, like, all this stuff when it comes to the IKEA effect, but somehow that bookshelf, that playhouse, that table, it means more to you than the one that was already assembled. If you would have bought it like that not because it's better, but because you built it.

Researchers actually discovered this years ago, long before I discovered this. People place a higher value on things they've invested effort into. Effort creates attachment. And honestly, that's not always a bad thing.

And they were trying to answer a simple question. Why do people love things more when they have to work for them? It's a very simple question, but also very hard to answer.

So they ran several experiments. One involved IKEA furniture, another involved folding origami, and another involved building Legos. I love Legos as a kid.

And what they found was quite fascinating.

People consistently valued things that they'd help create far more than people who simply just received them, even when the finished product wasn't really very impressive. Some of the original origami pieces people folded were not very nice, maybe even considered ugly.

But the people who made them valued them almost as highly as expert artists valued professionally created pieces. Think about that. People become emotionally attached to imperfect creations simply because they invested effort into them. Kind of makes sense.

And that's where the researchers gave it the name the IKEA Effect. I encourage you to research this. Ironically, IKEA itself never intended to create a psychological phenomenon.

Instead of shipping, like, large assembled tables and products, they started shipping boxes and parts and instructions. And customers did the work themselves. Well, obviously it saved money, it reduced shipping costs, and it really made furniture affordable.

But something unexpected happened. People didn't just assemble the furniture, they assembled pride, ownership, and they assembled emotional attachment.

And that emotional attachment turns out to be very powerful. Now, here's the thing. There are some tremendous positives to the IKEA effect because ownership creates commitment.

People support what they help create. At Lansing, we don't hand players a list of rules. We talk about standards. We have leadership groups, we have discussions, we teach, we ask questions.

And over the years, I found something. When players help build the culture, they fight just a little bit harder for it. Because now it's not my culture, it's our culture.

And that's where ownership comes in, and ownership matters. The second positive is pride. There's something Deeply satisfying about building something. I love to build stuff.

A business, family, a program, a life. Nobody really values what came easy. That's why adversity matters. That's why championships matter.

That's why climbing the mountain changes you, because struggle increases meaning. And I think the third positive is perseverance. Talk about that a lot. You don't quit on things you're invested in.

And honestly, that's been my journey in coaching. I've talked about this before. I got into it a little bit late. Most guys had a 15 year head start on me.

I'd spent 15 years running different businesses and trying to figure out what my true passion was. By the time I became a head coach, I was behind. And because of that, everything I've done has felt like building. Nothing really was handed to me.

Certainly had a lot of help along the way.

But the culture, the systems, fundraising, technology, leadership classes, mental performance work, yeah, that was years and years of late nights, years of being called pouring, years of treating Friday nights exactly the same way I treat Monday or Tuesday nights. It was just stacking bricks. That's where it came from.

And because I've invested so much into this profession, I care deeply about it, which is wonderful. But I've also found it creates danger, because here's where the IKEA effect turns against us and me. We start confusing effort with excellence.

And those are not the same thing. Just because I spent 10 years developing a philosophy doesn't mean it's the best philosophy.

Just because I created a drill doesn't mean it's the best drill. The system doesn't mean that the system shouldn't change. And if I'm being truthful, I've fallen victim to this more than once.

When we start diving into technology. Trackman K. Motion, Pyson, Armcare Win. There were moments when I thought, you know, I think we might have this figured out.

Then I talked to somebody smarter or somebody doing things differently, and I'd realize, yeah, we don't really know what we don't know. Maybe we're still learning. Maybe there's another level. Maybe what we built isn't the destination. Maybe, just maybe, it's the starting point.

And I think coaches are especially vulnerable to this. After I've studied this, I see it everywhere because we spend years creating systems, years developing philosophies.

This is the way our program runs, years refining culture. This is what we expect. And eventually those systems become part of our identity.

And we talk about identity in our program, and I talk about it on this podcast with that developed identity Criticism feels personal. Suggestions, well, they feel threatening and. And change. Yeah, everybody knows that feels uncomfortable.

I've seen coaches argue over hitting philosophies, pitching philosophies, strength programs, technology, culture. I could go on and on. Everybody kind of thinks that their way is. Is the way, and maybe it works.

But what if we only believe it's superior because we built it? That's kind of uncomfortable because none of us like hearing that. But growth, it requires uncomfortable questions. I think, about our program.

We've won over 200 games in five seasons. We've been to the World Series. We've had absolutely incredible players, families, and some incredible teams.

And if I'm not careful, I can start believing everything we do is right because we've had success. But success doesn't mean perfection. Championships don't mean you've arrived.

If anything, success should make us more curious, not more closed off, because the game keeps changing, players change, technology keeps changing, and ultimately learning keeps changing. And if we're not careful, the very systems that once helped us grow become the systems that prevent us from growing.

Marcus Aurelius understood this long before psychologists gave it a name. He constantly reminded himself that he could be wrong. Think about that. He was the Emperor of Rome.

He would write notes to himself, I guess, reminding himself, he would say, you might not have all the answers. I think I'd like to label that humility. Humility isn't a weakness. Humility is intellectual honesty.

It's having enough confidence to say I might be wrong. And honestly, those four words have made me a better coach and a better person.

Not because I enjoy saying them, because I don't, but growth lives on the other side of them. As I've gotten older, I become less interested in being right and more interested in finding the truth, because the truth doesn't care about my ego.

The truth doesn't really care how many hours I've invested. The truth doesn't care how emotionally attached I am to an idea. The truth is the truth. And my responsibility isn't to defend my opinions.

My responsibility is to serve our players. And if serving our players requires changing, then I need to change.

We need to change, even if it means letting go of ideas that I've spent years building. So, big question here. So how do we avoid the trap? How do we separate your identity from your ideas? Your philosophies are not you.

The drills, the systems, they're not you. They're tools. And tools, well, they evolve great ways to seek people who challenge you, not people who tell you how brilliant or great.

You are people who sharpen you, people who force you to think, people who occasionally make you uncomfortable. These people, their gifts, stay curious. The moment we stop learning, we start declining. And finally, never worship what you've built.

Take pride in it. Celebrate it, Be grateful for it. But don't worship it. Because what got you here may not get you to where you're going. I'll leave you with this.

I love what we built at Lansing. I love the culture. I love the standards. I love the relationships. I'm proud of the wins. I'm proud of the World Series trips. I'm proud of the impact.

I'm proud of the players. But I hope I never become so attached to what we've built that I stop building. Because excellence isn't a destination. It's continuous construction.

And maybe that's the greatest lesson behind the Ikea effect. Be proud of what you've built, but never become a prisoner of it. Keep learning, keep growing, keep stacking bricks, and I'll see you next week.

Go Stars.

Coach Cut's Corner is recorded live in the WLNZ Studios. Engineering and production assistance are provided by Daedalian Lowry. Thanks for listening and if you enjoyed today's podcast, please share it and follow us on all the platforms of social media. You can find more about our programs at LCCStars.com and donations to our baseball program can be made at the same site. See you next time.