Behavioral Grooves Podcast
430 episodes - English - Latest episode: 20 days ago - ★★★★★ - 96 ratingsStories, science and secrets from the world’s brightest thought-leaders. Behavioral Grooves is the podcast that satisfies your curiosity of why we do what we do. Explanations of human behavior that will improve your relationships, your wellbeing, and your organization by helping you find your groove.
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Episodes
Grooving on Priming: How Your Socks Influence Your Behavior
September 04, 2018 17:59 - 23 minutes - 31.6 MBPriming is a technique whereby exposure to one stimulus influences a response to a subsequent stimulus without conscious guidance or intention. In other words, it’s a subconscious influence on our behavior. And it’s powerful. In this grooving session, Kurt and Tim discuss the power of priming and how the socks you wear can influence your day. We discussed how replicability of many studies has been a challenge for several research projects; however, the effects of priming are no less robust....
Grooving on Goals: The Magic of Goals
September 02, 2018 13:01 - 20 minutes - 28.7 MBGoals are as common and as misunderstood as mobile phones. We think we know how to use them, but we don’t get it right every time. And if we were asked to explain how they work, we’d be clueless. In this grooving session, Kurt and Tim discuss the magic of goals and how to best utilize them. We discuss some goal-setting studies – both published and unpublished – and some fundamental reasons why goals are important. We also get into some complementary research on the illusionary progress to g...
Ruchir Sehra on The Behavioral Effects of Sleep
September 01, 2018 13:47 - 1 hour - 87.3 MBRuchir Sehra is an entrepreneur, cardio physiologist, MBA and a curious and caring human being. Our interview with Ruchir was set in the discussion of Resonea, Inc’s new product, Drowzle. This phone-based app analyzes sleep patterns in the comfort of their own homes, without electrodes and invasive cameras – just a microphone. We found this behavioral approach very interesting and our conversation reflected it. We discussed the behavioral effects of current sleep technology and how makin...
Facial Muscles Speak Louder Than Words with author Dan Hill
August 06, 2018 16:54 - 1 hour - 85.2 MBDan Hill, PhD, researcher, author and founder of Sensory Logic, shares his wit, wisdom and insights into behavioral sciences in our interview. Dan's work is in facial coding - a diagnostic methodology that connects emotions to the expressions of the 42 facial muscles. It is a fascinating field and might cause you to think about what you're saying with your face, not just your words. Our conversation flowed from Rembrandt to the Minnesota Timberwolves to Haiku to Happiness ("Happiness makes ...
April Seifert on Digital Exhaust Analysis and Gender Stereotyping
July 19, 2018 14:05 - 1 hour - 106 MBApril Seifert, PhD considers herself a multi-passionate person. In this episode, our conversation with her covered skydiving, motherhood, data nerdery, implicit bias assessments, gender stereotyping and, of course, digital exhaust analysis. April's dissertation was on gender stereotyping which is what we spent most of our time on, between references to the Millennial Falcon. April offered two key ways we deal with the out-of-context or contradictory stereotype images: 1. We adjust our stereo...
Grooving on Self Identity
July 18, 2018 14:33 - 17 minutes - 24 MBIn this episode on the mysterious world of self-identity and self-schema, we offer 4 tips on how you make the most of your self-identity. 1. Fake it 'till you make it. 2. Insure your self talk is positive and future focused. 3. Create small wins and acknowledge your progress. 4. Get a partner to help keep you on track. Grooving Sessions are for Kurt and Tim converse about topics that are near and dear to their hearts. Grooving sessions make for short listening and we focus on practical ...
Grooving on Cash vs. Non-Cash
July 01, 2018 17:55 - 19 minutes - 26.7 MBKurt and Tim have experience in designing and implementing rewards programs for sales reps, channel partners and loyal customers as well as corporate recognition programs. In this episode, we discuss the not-so-intuitive value of non-cash rewards for a variety of reasons. We serve up research from Dan Ariely, James Heyman, Scott Jeffrey, Ran Kivetz and Richard Thaler. If you have doubts, listen in! If you are a believer but need more cognitive ammunition for your boss, listen in! And if you ...
Grooving on Applying Behavioral Sciences at Your Office
June 29, 2018 17:46 - 26 minutes - 36.9 MBKurt and Tim have decades of experience applying BS (behavioral sciences) in corporate environments (and non-profits) and this episode walks through some tips that YOU can use to apply BS (behavioral sciences) to your workspace. We talk about sales incentives, employee recognition and general ways to get the BS (behavioral science) stuff going at your company. We outline some best practices: the need to start with a business problem, how to convince your boss (and your boss' boss), start sma...
The Teaspoon Hustle - Part 2 with Rob Burnett
June 17, 2018 20:26 - 1 hour - 82.8 MBThis podcast is Part 2 of a 2-part podcast. Our interview with Rob Burnet, founder of Well Told Story in Nairobi, Kenya went so well and so long that we decided to break it into two separate podcasts. Part 2 begins with a Seth Godin story and gets into sociologist James Coleman’s working model of how social change occurs. Often referred to as Coleman’s Boat, Rob brought it up as a way to recognize the power of every individual’s behavior on social change. Rob also detailed some research pr...
The Teaspoon Hustle - Part 1 with Rob Burnett
June 15, 2018 21:08 - 1 hour - 99.3 MBThis podcast is Part 1 of a 2-part podcast. Our interview with Rob Burnet, founder of Well Told Story in Nairobi, Kenya went so well and so long that we decided to break it into two separate podcasts. In this episode, Part 1, we tee up the work that Rob did with the Ford Foundation and leading into the creation of Shujazz, the Nairobi-based graphic novel (or comic book). Shujazz means 'hero' in Sheng, the slang spoken by Kenyan youth. Rob shared the challenges he and his team faced in creat...
Stars - Cores - Laggards - Better Incentives for Your Sales Reps featuring Dr. Michael Ahearne
June 13, 2018 18:30 - 1 hour - 115 MBIn this episode, we spoke with Michael Ahearne PhD, a professor and researcher at the University of Houston. Mike is an expert in sales incentives, so we talked about the behavioral issues that come to light with – mostly – bad incentive design. Mike’s work with Tom Steenburgh, PhD at the University of Virginia’s Darden School has introduced a new way of thinking about salespeople. This was highlighted in a Harvard Business Review article from July-August 2012 called "What Really Works." The...
The Accidental Behavioral Scientist with David Hussman
May 17, 2018 22:30 - 1 hour - 104 MBFrom being a recording engineer at Prince's Paisley Park studios, to playing with the big-hair metal band Slave Raider to founding a successful Agile coaching business called Dev Jam, David Hussman has been forging his way one untraditional step at a time. Our interview with David quickly pegged him as the 'accidental behavioral scientist' and that played well throughout the discussion. We talked about chaos monkeys, constructionism, how important it is for Neil Young to know G-C-D chords ...
Nudge-A-Thon with Dr. Christina Gravert
May 15, 2018 17:20 - 1 hour - 95.2 MBDr. Christina Gravert is a Post-Doc at the University of Gothenburg and Chief Behavioral Economist of Impactfully, a behavioral science consultancy. We talked to her from Gothenburg, Sweden, and we had a very interesting conversation about nudging. Christina has worked closely with Nobel laureate Richard Thaler and we thought she'd be a good one to talk to about nudging. Our discussion began by defining a nudge versus other policy or incentive decisions. We talked about how nudges came abo...
A New Leadership Model with Bain & Company's Mark Horwitch
May 14, 2018 13:08 - 1 hour - 119 MBIn this episode, we spoke to Mark Horwitch, Partner for Co-Creation ~ Flexibility ~ Openness ~ Vision at Bain & Company about his remarkable new leadership model developed at Bain. Leaders at Bain selected Mark to lead a team to develop a new leadership model with specific emphasis on improving employee retention and engagement. He and his team examined thousands of leadership models in order to hone in on 32 distinct characteristics that they found drove leadership effectiveness. They dis...
A New Leadership Model with Bain & Company's Mark Horwitch
May 14, 2018 13:08 - 1 hour - 119 MBIn this episode, we spoke to Mark Horwitch, Partner for Co-Creation ~ Flexibility ~ Openness ~ Vision at Bain & Company about his remarkable new leadership model developed at Bain. Leaders at Bain selected Mark to lead a team to develop a new leadership model with specific emphasis on improving employee retention and engagement. He and his team examined thousands of leadership models in order to hone in on 32 distinct characteristics that they found drove leadership effectiveness. They dis...
Grooving with Kurt & Tim - The 4 Drive Model
April 23, 2018 21:38 - 30 minutes - 42 MBWhen Kurt and Tim founded the Behavioral Grooves, we wanted to glean insights into the applications of behavioral sciences from world-renowned researchers and practitioners. So far, so good! In this shorter episode, rather than interviewing a guest, we converse with each other about a topic near and dear to Kurt's heart: The 4 Drive Model. We discuss Lawrence & Nohria's development of the 4 Drive Model and how it's morphed over the years, how the model remained below the radar of corporate a...
Grooving with Kurt & Tim - The 4 Drive Model
April 23, 2018 21:38 - 30 minutes - 42 MBWhen Kurt and Tim founded the Behavioral Grooves, we wanted to glean insights into the applications of behavioral sciences from world-renowned researchers and practitioners. So far, so good! In this shorter episode, rather than interviewing a guest, we converse with each other about a topic near and dear to Kurt's heart: The 4 Drive Model. We discuss Lawrence & Nohria's development of the 4 Drive Model and how it's morphed over the years, how the model remained below the radar of corporate a...
When Marketing Is Good, You Don't See It
March 27, 2018 19:55 - 50 minutes - 68.7 MBThis episode’s guest is Kyle Simenson, a marketing consultant who noted that ‘When marketing is good, you can’t see it.’ His comment instantly brought questions of malevolent and benevolent use of marketing data along with intention and the lines marketers draw when considering the uses of behavioral sciences. Kyle’s work in digital strategy is particularly relevant in a world where big data can generate highly-tailored messages and can incorporate nudges that appeal to the unconscious mind...
Mapping the Influence of Corporate Cultures - Silke Brittain
March 20, 2018 19:55 - 56 minutes - 77.6 MBWhen we started our conversation with Silke Brittain by talking about her thrill-seeking nature and her background in gymnastics, we couldn't have predicted the deep conversation about influence mapping inside organizations. Silke is the managing director at Clearvoice.agency based in the UK and works with corporations to help them map communication pathways to determine ways to change the cultures of organizations. She shared research that 3% of the people in an organization account for a...
Growth Tribes and Pirate Funnels - Bernardo Nunes
March 15, 2018 19:55 - 1 hour - 83.2 MBBernardo Nunes, PhD believes that applying behavioral sciences to startups is the fastest way to get entrepreneurs up and running in a fast-changing world. At Growth Academy in Amsterdam, the students work in small teams over three months to build a company with the help of sophisticated machine learning tools as well as knowledgeable coaches and teachers. In our conversation with Bernardo, we spoke at length about the ethics and regulations surrounding data privacy, how an article in The ...
Changing the World One View at a Time - with Reddit superstar Kal Turnbull
March 12, 2018 00:28 - 53 minutes - 73.9 MB"One begins with a judgment and ends with a judgment, and the purpose of facts and figures is to come in between them is to make the one you end with more accurate." This wise comment came from the grand-dad of Kal Turnbull, the founder of Change My View in the Reddit community. In this interview, Kal shares his discoveries with a community of over 520,000 people willing to engage in civil discourse about views they currently don't buy into. The conversation began with a definition of Fisk...
Don't Be Creepy - Data Transparency with Charlotte Blank
February 25, 2018 22:13 - 1 hour - 93.3 MBCharlotte Blank, Chief Behavioral Officer at Maritz, says her job is 'selling science.' In this interview, held immediately before our meetup gathering in Minneapolis in February 2018, Charlotte describes research she conducted with Leslie John, Tami Kim, and Kate Barasz to create a recent HBR article titled "Ads That Don't Overstep." Their work yielded two very simple and important messages about communication: 1. Don't talk behind someone's back, 2. Don't make assumptions. In the world of...
The Employee Value Proposition at the NSA
February 13, 2018 16:26 - 1 hour - 86.4 MBChris Dobyns, the Human Capital Strategic Consultant in the Office of Human Resource Strategy & Program Design at the NSA (the National Security Agency), joined us to discuss how the NSA is engaging their workforce more than ever. Let it be known that the US Federal government cares about employees! He discussed some of his recent research to understand loss aversion and status quo bias among employees by analyzing how large a raise would be required to accept a different job. The conversat...
Applying the 4 Drive Model to Rewards & Recognition
February 02, 2018 20:40 - 1 hour - 34.2 MBMany firms use rewards and incentives to motivate their reps. However, it was only when a complete audit of all the rewards and recognition tools in place at a large pharmaceutical firm did the realization come that they were leaving motivational power on the table. In this interview, James Brewer, Director of Commercial Operations at Eli Lilly & Company, tells us how Lawrence & Nohria's 4 Drive Model acted as a foundational tool to discover what was working and what was missing from Lilly's...
Applying the 4 Drive Model to Rewards & Recognition
February 02, 2018 20:40 - 1 hour - 34.2 MBMany firms use rewards and incentives to motivate their reps. However, it was only when a complete audit of all the rewards and recognition tools in place at a large pharmaceutical firm did the realization come that they were leaving motivational power on the table. In this interview, James Brewer, Director of Commercial Operations at Eli Lilly & Company, tells us how Lawrence & Nohria's 4 Drive Model acted as a foundational tool to discover what was working and what was missing from Lilly's...
Using Behavioral Science to Save Lives with Anurag Vaish,TheFinalMile
January 20, 2018 19:20 - 59 minutes - 81.7 MBIn this episode, we talk with Anurag Vaish, Co-Founder of TheFinalMile, one of the largest behavioral science consultancies in the world. TheFinalMile has offices in Mumbai and Chicago and we caught up with Anurag while he was in India in December of 2017. Our conversation covered topics from how the unconscious influences our decision making, why organizations should do more testing of their ideas as well as the influence that Robert Cialdini, PhD had on Anurag. We also discussed some of ...
Grooving on Branding with Aaron Snyder, PhD from Lexicon
January 20, 2018 18:08 - 1 hour - 92.6 MBIn this episode, we spoke with Aaron Snyder, Director of Special Projects at Lexicon. Lexicon is one of the largest branding companies in the world. They are responsible for creating some of the most famous household brands including Pentium, Blackberry, Dasani, Embassy Suites and Swiffer. What we found interesting in our conversation was the tremendous amount of science that goes into the creation of brands. We also spoke about Mad Cow Disease, how tension = attention and even had a fun c...
BG 3: Scott Jeffrey, PhD, Monmouth University
January 02, 2018 21:27 - 1 minute - 94.1 MBIn this episode, we discuss the concept of justifiability with one of its earliest researchers, Scott Jeffrey, PhD. Scott was early among researchers, including Itamar Simonson at Stanford, to note that part of what makes a thing a 'reward' is its difficulty to be justifiable. In other words, the best reward is something that we would NOT justify spending our own money on. Scott took an interesting turn with his theme song and we had also talked about how employee engagement platforms are ...
Behavioral Grooves 2: Chad Emerson, President of The 421
January 02, 2018 21:06 - 58 minutes - 80.2 MBChad Emerson founded The 421 to help people with addictions make better decisions. He focuses his comments on being "change ready" and the importance of preparing oneself for making a change in life. Chad's website www.the421.com includes more information about his Minneapolis-based agency and the work that he's doing to transform lives using behavioral sciences. In Kurt's and Tim's Grooving Session, we talked about the importance of considering how the application of behavioral sciences i...
Behavioral Grooves 1: James Heyman, PhD
October 24, 2017 00:39 - 59 minutes - 108 MBIn the Behavioral Grooves first podcast, Kurt Nelson, PhD and Tim Houlihan interview James Heyman, PhD, a professor and researcher at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. Dr. Heyman's research has led him to collaborate with renowned behavioral economists including Dan Ariely, PhD, and focuses on decision making in a world with too much irrelevant information. The interview with Dr. Heyman runs from the beginning of the podcast through 38:00 minutes. At 38:00 minutes, Kurt an...