Don't be annoyed. Be effective.
Use behavioural science to influence business outcomes.
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Behavioural science has identified hundreds of biases and heuristics.
If I had to narrow them down, I’d choose 10 “I.N.F.L.U.E.N.C.E.S.” – the ones that...
Space Invaders
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Space Invaders is a TV show that follows people as they declutter their homes, and it’s fascinating, not just for the before-and-after shots, but...
The missing t-shirt
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I ordered two t-shirts from a local Australian business.
Only one arrived.
You can imagine the irritation.
Not only would I have to wait...
Trifle
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There’s an episode of Friends where Rachel, a notoriously ungifted cook, is in charge of dessert.
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Unbeknownst to her, two pages of the...
Deal or No Deal
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High stakes, big money, and a tricky choice. That’s the world of Deal or No Deal.Â
My cousin Warwick recently stepped into it and...
Disappearing fruitboxes
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We knew things were bad when the fruit boxes disappeared.
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No question, the corporation I’d joined a few years earlier was starting to...
Avoiding cannibalisation
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Imagine you're launching a new product but want to minimise cannibalisation of older models.
Should you compare it to your oldest (and cheapest model),...
The donut strategy
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When chairing school council meetings, a principal I knew had a simple trick: he deliberately gave people something to argue about.
His favourite example?...
Room number
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Walking down the corridor of the arty hotel I’d just checked into, I couldn’t find my room.
Because there were no room numbers.
At...
Doppleganger
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Is your business like everyone else’s?
Didn’t think so.
So why is it so hard to explain how you’re different?
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Often the problem...
Buyers are (not) liars
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I was taken aback during a sales training session when a consultant declared: “All buyers are liars.”
What he meant was you can’t trust...
Accidental detour
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Legend has it that when Tsar Nicholas I of Russia was planning the railway between St. Petersburg and Moscow, he used a ruler to...
