“We have long assumed that those who rise to high office will be ‘good chaps’, knowing what the unwritten rules are and wanting to adhere to them.”

So writes British constitutional historian Peter Hennessy, whose “good chaps” theory of government (or as I’m calling it, good eggs) has been under considerable strain. 

This is not new to managing a business, of course.

We often have to decide whether to structure around good eggs or bad...

Managing people can be frustrating. You just want them to turn up and do a good job. While it sounds simple, getting employees to turn up can be surprisingly difficult, and unplanned absences can negatively impact your customers, your team’s morale and your stress levels. So, will a bonus for attendance encourage employees to turn up?

That’s what researchers were interested in testing.

Working with a large German supermarket retailer, 346 junior staff...

Examples of mental accounting don’t get better than this:

“Me at the airport at 6am after eating my $30 meal, drinking my $12 water, and spending $80 on an Uber…all because I booked a 6am flight to save $50”.

What is mental accounting? Our tendency to weight money differently according to where it’s come from and where it’s going.

The $50 he saved was a win for the “paying for my flight” mental account.

But the money spent getting to...

This is a cruel god.

Millions of us try to curry favour with the god through performance.

We do as we think the god desires, but have no way of knowing because the god never proclaims what is expected.

Just when we think we know, the god changes the rules and those who were in favour now flounder in the shadows.

This is the god of algorithms.

Social media is wild, isn’t it? If your friend were in a relationship with someone who changed their mind on  a whim, blew hot and...

In 2002, then US Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld baffled the world with his statement that there are unknown unknowns.

Parodied at the time, his insight wasn’t wrong.

In fact, it’s been turned into the Rumsfeld matrix.

• Known knowns - things we are aware of and understand e.g. using behavioural science everyday to improve interactions
• Known unknowns - things we are aware of but don’t understand e.g. You have heard about behavioural science but don’t know...

When you are a business owner, is it good to drive an expensive car or not? Will it attract customers by signalling your success or will it remind them they will be funding your lavish lifestyle?

I’ve often wondered this about real estate agents, for example, the majority of whom seem to drive late model European vehicles.

So I was interested to read new research that probed the benefits and risks of signalling your success as a service firm. In particular, the researchers...

The biggest misconception about behavioural science?

That it’s discretionary.

I’ve heard it over the years - people telling me they couldn’t get funding for our project because it was deemed a discretionary expense.

That’s my fault.

I should have been more explicit.

Because what can be more essential than correctly influencing behaviour? 

If you look at the inefficiencies in any organisation, the reasons for frustration and burnout, there’s one...

At the start of the year, I asked ChatGPT what the 5 top emerging issues were for business.

Thing is, they're not emerging at all. Rather than burning issues, they seem, well, blah.

1. Financial management
2. Future planning
3. Economic shifts and inflation
4. Employee communication
5. Staff retention

To my way of thinking, these issues fail to get to the heart of why running a small business (or leading a team) is so challenging.

That's what I reveal in this video, including what to do instead.

...

Three issues people are grappling with as we try to make decisions:

• Velocity - the speed at which information comes at us.
• Volume - the amount we are confronted by.
• Veracity - the truthfulness and accuracy of what is shared.

These three factors increase reliance on cognitive biases (ingrained mental short-cuts) and heuristics (rules of thumb), which means a couple of things for you and your business.

First, designing for ease and immediacy is crucial. Not just for your customers -...

I like wine. It’s Friday night. 

One wine? Why not?

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday night.

One wine. Why not?

Hey, I only drink at night. 

Well I mostly drink at night and I never drink alone.

Well I sometimes drink alone, when there’s no-one home.

And there’s no-one home. I don’t share my house.

Who are you to judge me Willis? What you talkin’ ‘bout?

...

These are the lyrics of Clare Bowditch’s song, Modern Day Addiction, which so...