The Empathy Edge

Melina Palmer: What Your Employees Need But Can't Tell You

Oct 11, 2022

49:15

Change is hard, even when it's a change that makes our lives easier. Today, I speak with Melina Palmer, CEO of The Brainy Business, expert in behavioral economics for organizations around the world, and the author of What Your Employees Need and Can’t Tell You. We give you a refresher on behavioral economics and how our human brains work - especially the conscious and unconscious parts of our brains. We discuss why change is hard, even when it's a good change, and how leaders get change massively wrong. Melina will share her framework called "It's Not About the Cookie" and how it applies to any employee initiative. She also shares her top tip for those who want to have more influence at work.

Key Takeaways:

Change doesn’t need to be hard, you just need to understand what motivates the people you are trying to change - education alone will never be enough.
Create a culture of feedback and input, solicit that feedback, then actually implement those ideas.
Be transparent about your change management. The more transparent you are along the way, the more people can trust the process.

"Every conversation and initiative is a change conversation or initiative - you are either in the midst of change, in the wake of change that has already happened, or building up to the next change." — Melina Palmer

About Melina Palmer, CEO and author of What Your Employees Need and Can't Tell You

Melina Palmer is the founder and CEO of The Brainy Business, which provides behavioral economics consulting to businesses of all sizes from around the world. Her podcast, The Brainy Business: Understanding the Psychology of Why People Buy, has downloads in over 170 countries and is used as a resource for teaching applied behavioral economics for many universities and businesses. Melina obtained her master’s in behavioral economics from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. A proud member of the Global Association of Applied Behavioral Scientists, Melina has contributed research to the Association for Consumer Research, Filene Research Institute, and writes the Behavioral Economics & Business column for Inc Magazine. She teaches applied behavioral economics through the Texas A&M Human Behavior Lab. Her first book, What Your Customer Wants and Can’t Tell You, was published in May 2021 and was a finalist in two categories of the International Book Awards. Her second book, What Your Employees Need and Can’t Tell You, is out as of October 2022.

Connect with Melina Palmer

The Brainy Business Website: https://www.thebrainybusiness.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/thebrainybiz

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melinapalmer/

Facebook: https://facebook.com/thebrainybiz

Instagram: https://instagram.com/thebrainybiz

References Mentioned

Melina Palmer on The Empathy Edge podcast, Why Your Customers Can't Tell You What They Want

Special link to get your free chapter of both of Melina's books: www.thebrainybusiness.com/empathyedge

Don’t forget to download your free guide! Discover The 5 Business Benefits of Empathy: http://red-slice.com/business-benefits-empathy

Connect with Maria:

Get the podcast and book: TheEmpathyEdge.com