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Convincing your boss to do something differently is one of the biggest frustrations people have. 

It’s not just your boss, of course. It could be any colleague whose support you need. 

So let’s walk through an example that I’ve shared with many of my clients.

How to convince your boss

Start with unifying language, tethering their objectives to yours.

“As you know, our task/objective is to get people to…”  

We’re using ‘our’ to tether their goals with ours. We want to signal we are a uni...

Do you have an 'um-ing' habit?

Perhaps you equivocate a lot, like saying something 'might' work rather than it 'will' work?

If you do, is this turning your customers and colleagues off?

In sample video from my online membership program, Just Do This, I share how these hedges and utterances impact how people perceive you.

And guess what? The news isn't all bad!

Hear me explain:

- The two types of hedges, and how to combine them to sound more persuasive; and

- How um-ing can actually help, ...

Proportionality is core to how we navigate the world.

It’s how we gauge the extent of something.

Is it a big slice or small? Generous or miserly? Almost complete or barely started? Half full or half empty?

We might be ‘middle aged’, ‘middle class’, or just ‘middling’ along.

To know where things stand, we rely on proportionality signals.

So what do you think might be my concern with the new Australian fire danger ratings?

In a positive move, the National Council for Fire and Emergency Servi...

Most of my trip to the Ikara-Flinders Ranges, South Australia, last year went as planned.

Plenty of wildlife, time in the red dirt, and lots of friendly fellow road trippers.

But the $3,000 coffee caught me by surprise.

I’d stopped in the small town of Blinman, boasting a population of thirty five, for a coffee and to sample some of the bakery’s finest. 

Strolling the main street, I spotted this sign.

Being a huge fan of Indigenous art, I jumped back in the van and drove a short distance ...

Ever find yourself dealing with a "squeaky wheel"?

You know, that person who soaks up an inordinate amount of your time because they need more attention, more information or more platitudes?

It's easy to get sucked into managing their demands even when doing so doesn't really help you deliver your project or proposal.

For that reason, it's a good idea to map out who your stakeholders are and how significant their support is to your success.

Stakeholder Matrix

In this video I explain a strai...

How to deal with painful people using behavioural science.

Behavioural expert Bri Williams takes you through the three types of painful people you are likely to encounter in business: People pleasers, Know it alls and Obstinates.

People pleasers bulldust, Know it Alls bamboozle and Obstinates bulldoze!

The transcript and full video is available exclusively to Just Do This members. Find out more here.

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You might also find interesting:

• How to communicate with "idiots"
• What to say to...

The more you learn about behavioural techniques, the more you'll see how businesses are trying to influence you.

Sometimes they do it poorly, sometimes they do it well.

If you're reading this, I expect you are in a business wanting to do it well?

So let's dive into a couple of examples that caught my eye recently.

What Greg got wrong

Here's a LinkedIn invitation I recently received from Greg.

What did Greg get wrong?

A couple of things.

I liked that Greg mentioned what type of busin...

There’s a communications paradox in most businesses. 

Staff say their bosses never tell them anything.

Bosses say staff are being bombarded.

What’s going on here?

Back when I was working in corporates, we’d all go through an employee engagement survey, usually every year or two. You might have experienced one of these?

A survey that asks people what they think of the company they’re working in, and how their leaders are performing.

Invariably, one of the big survey findings was “staff f...

When we hear about behavioural science and evolutionary psychology, it can sound daunting and, worse still, far removed from our day to day decisions and interactions. Low on relevance, high on hyperbole.

But I’m guessing you are more familiar with the tenets of behavioural science than you realise. I’m even going to guess that you hold a lot of the insights into human nature in your hand, twice, maybe three times a day.

Ahh, the humble tube of toothpaste.

If you’re up for an experiment, paus...

Here’s something that has always confounded me.

If behavioural science is so good, why aren’t more people using it?

Like Robert Cialdini’s famous study on social norms influencing hotel guests to reuse their towels. I’m still to visit a hotel that is correctly using a message about how many guests have re-used their towels to get me to do likewise.

The thing is, when people read or hear about behavioural economics, and more broadly, behavioural science, they typically get excited.

It’s like ...