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When you take a Peloton bike class you expend a lot of energy without actually going anywhere. 

That’s what a lot of work is.

Individuals exhausting themselves without really getting traction.

When you ride in a peloton out on the road, you and those around you move faster because you work collectively.

And the best bit? You get somewhere.

That’s what having a common way of approaching and solving problems in your team can do. People getting to answers faster and more...

There are five myths about behaviour that persist despite being debunked by social sciences like behavioural economics.

In this video, I share what they are and why the science of influence has its own influence problem!

You know what I think exhausts us at work?

Murk.

Think of your average work day, for example.

It’s likely filled with writing and responding to emails, attending meetings, speaking with colleagues, customers and/or suppliers.

Now think of all the micro decisions you have to make in the course of that activity.

How should I say something so it best lands?

How do I get my point across that means others are likely to agree?

Who should do what, and how do I tell them?

This is the...

The problem with advice? Telling us what we should do.

I was watching some TED talks recently. They were well presented, the ideas made sense, each had ‘takeaways’ to make it practical.

But hearing what we should do to improve our lives is, frankly, exhausting.

It adds to our mental load and our ‘to-do’ list.

I'm part of the problem, of course. I share advice in my talks, consulting and writing.

So at times I, too, may inadvertently exhaust people.

So,...

Stop promoting your product. Start promoting your process.

New research suggests a powerful way to stand out in a cluttered market is to share how you make your product, not just what it is.

Consumers perceive traditionally made products as having better quality and being better for society.  For example, chocolate described as being made with a “traditional” process was believed to be of higher quality by research participants, and they were willing to pay 10% more...

Most of the letters and emails I receive are ‘safe’.

I was discussing this with a client the other day. 

Her communications specialist had drafted an email that was long winded, bureaucratic and entirely unengaging.

Lots of words, lots of waffle.

But being ‘safe’ is a risk.

Because you risk being ignored.

That’s fine if you want your message to be overlooked.

But if you want to engage? 

Be bold.

Learn how to write behaviourally effective...

Did you know you shouldn’t use “you” on your website’s help page, but you should on your home page?

Or that you should only use “we” with some types of customers and “you and us” with others?

Getting personal pronouns like “you, me and we” right is important. 

So important that using them in the right way can increase your revenue by up to 7%, and getting them wrong can lose you customers.

In this video, I share which...

Horrified.

That’s how I felt after watching an Apple TV ad spruiking its AI (Apple Intelligence) for emails.

It’s a business lunch with a writer meeting to discuss a pitch she’d emailed actor Bella Ramsey.

Bella, who obviously hasn’t read the email, quickly reaches for her phone and reads the AI generated summary of it, helping her feign knowledge of the project.

She lies, effectively.

The writer gets excited and says “Great, I’ll tell them...

“But I wasn’t properly trained!”

It’s a familiar excuse when people are found in breach of some sort of requirement. 

• During Covid it was protective equipment protocols.
• In restaurants, food handling standards.
• In organisations, security or privacy regulations.

But what does properly trained actually mean?

To be properly trained means behaviour needs to change.

We need to influence people to do X instead of Y.

Yet most training programs are based on...

How do you know when to walk away?

Let’s say you are trying to crowdsource funding for a new product using a platform like Kickstarter to attract and secure investors.

It’s a nervous wait, and if fundraising doesn’t go to plan, there are two paths to follow.

You can let things run their course, deciding not to invest more resources into the process, or you can make changes to the product to try to capture new interest.

But what factors influence that decision?...