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I’ve been ruminating over the critical distinction between “letter of the law” and “spirit of the law” - the literal vs. the intent - because as we witness the world’s most powerful democracy floundering, it’s clear that the systems and institutions Americans have relied upon for their democracy to function have at least one striking flaw.

They are predicated on the assumption that those in power will do what’s best for their people - and that...

“Don't wait until you’re thirsty to dig a well” implored Chinese philosopher Zhu Xi over 800 years ago.

In other words, you need to put plans in place today for things that may happen tomorrow.

But how many of us do that? How realistic is it when you are mired in the day-to-day?

Thirst drives urgency

I’ve seen variants of this quote being spruiked by futurists and strategists. Most commonly, “dig the well before you get thirsty!”

Some organisations...

There are three hard truths about your customer.

1. They write the script
2. They are the hero of their story, and
3. They run on batteries

The accompanying article is available on my blog archive: https://blogbriwilliams.wordpress.com/2018/08/03/three-truths-about-people/

This image just about sums up human behaviour, doesn't it?  

Image via @CorkCoypu

I'm writing to you from the locked-down city of Melbourne. A few weeks ago it seemed we were on top of Covid-19 but in a blink we find ourselves under Stage 4 restrictions. An 8pm-5am curfew, a 5 kilometre boundary in which we can shop - but only for essentials - remote schooling and limits on outdoor exercise.

It feels like the whole class got 6 more weeks of detention because some naughty kids...

6 cognitive biases that influence online shopping

Google's consumer insights team wanted to "understand how consumers make decisions in an online environment of abundant choice and limitless information."

They found that "people deal with scale and complexity by using cognitive biases encoded deep in their psychology."

As consumers cycle through exploration and evaluation phases of their decision, they rely on the following six cognitive biases:

1. Category heuristics -...

I’ve found myself talking a lot about in-group bias recently.

It's our tendency to favour our group over others. 
 
What’s our group? It could be our family, footy team, hair colour, ethnicity, choice of car, nationality, or even, as I have witnessed during Melbourne’s second lockdown, suburb.
 
We naturally sift and sort people into categories so we can navigate the world, separating “us” and “them” as we go. From an evolutionary...

Does the world really need another behavioural framework? 

I wrestled with this as I developed and shared my model for behaviour change.

How is it different? Why should people bother? 

And the thought came screaming back as I presented at Nudgestock a few weeks ago. A lot of concepts and approaches were thrown around over 14 hours. It was overwhelming. 

So here's what I thought I'd do.

First, sketch a landscape of the more commonly known behavioural...

“When you do testing to that extent, you are going to find more people, you will find more cases. So I said slow the testing down.”

US President Donald Trump’s statement about slowing COVID-19 testing was so appalling that it rightfully made headlines around the world.

For a world leader to so flagrantly place vanity above the health of his citizens was truly gobsmacking.

But there’s a second reason it was so awful.

Inadvertently or by design, Trump made blatant what...

I was excited to present at the world's biggest and best festival of behavioural science, created by Ogilvy.

It kicked off in Sydney and travelled around the globe, finishing in New York 14 hours later.

Here's my 'tight ten' in which I explain my behaviour change model.

What now?

• Read a quick overview of my Behaviour Change Model here.
• Clarify your very own behavioural challenge with my free Behavioural Analysis tool.
• Get behavioural tips and ideas by subscribing...

Much of the power of Hannah Gadsby’s hit show “Nanette” was her deconstruction of comedic performance, lifting the veil and stepping us through the set-up, tension and release.

The comedian’s role, Gadsby shared, is to deliberately create tension so they can then relieve us of it.

That’s your role too, by the way, if you are interested in gaining traction for your ideas or winning new business. Whether you are creating a PowerPoint presentation, writing a tender...