The Human Risk Podcast

What happens when you bring three behavioural science gurus into a world-famous recording studio? Find out on three special episodes of the Human Risk podcast.Rory Sutherland, Gerald Ashley and Paul Craven have all been on the show before (links below), both individually and as duets. As the show approaches its 250th episode, I thought I’d invite them all back together for a recording session in Abbey Road Studios. For this first of three episodes, I asked Rory, Gerald and Paul a question that was inspired by our location: what makes things a hit? Why do some things go viral and others don’t? What emerged was a wide-ranging conversation that explored:why predicting hits is unpredictable;how bubbles can have positive outcomes;the role that emergence and chance play in driving innovation;how trends evolve over time;the role that labelling and branding play in determining what we like and don't;how fashions and preferences change over time;and much, much more...If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more:Rory on his own talking about ‘Compliance’: https://www.humanriskpodcast.com/rory-sutherland-on-compliance/Gerald on his own talking about ‘Uncertainty’ - https://www.humanriskpodcast.com/gerald-ashley-on-uncertainty/Paul on his own talking about ‘Magic, Money & The Mind’ - https://www.humanriskpodcast.com/paul-craven-on-magic-money/Rory and Gerald Part One talking about ‘Networks’ - https://www.humanriskpodcast.com/rory-sutherland-gerald-ashley/Rory and Gerald Part Two talking about ‘Prosilience’ - https://www.humanriskpodcast.com/gerald-ashley-rory-sutherland/Paul and Gerald Part One ‘Statistics, Spreadsheets & Scams’ - https://www.humanriskpodcast.com/gerald-ashley-paul-craven/Paul and Gerald Part Two ‘Context, Consequences & Changeability’ - https://www.humanriskpodcast.com/paul-craven-gerald-ashley/Rory and Paul Part One ‘Alchemy & Magic’ - https://www.humanriskpodcast.com/rory-sutherland-paul-craven-on-alchemy-magic/Rory and Paul Part Two ‘Magic & Alchemy’ - https://www.humanriskpodcast.com/paul-craven-rory-sutherland-on-magic-alchemy/

How do we know that laws and rules are effective? On this episode, I'm returning to the field of Behavioural Law. It's something I've explored in previous episodes with academics (links below), but this time I'm joined by a practitioner who works in a law firm and whose job is to think about the behavioural dynamics of law.The idea behind Behavioural Law is that since we right laws and rules in order to influence human behaviour, it makes sense to explore whether or not the laws and rules have the desired effect. Because if they don’t, then what’s the point in having them? And if we’ve got ineffective laws, then we’re not mitigating human risk.My guest is Nitish Upadhyaya, who is a behavioural scientist who is also a lawyer. He works for Ropes & Gray, a law firm that has a behavioural insights laboratory which explores the intersection of behavioural science and law. To find out more about:Nitish - https://www.ropesgray.com/en/biographies/u/nitish-upadhyayaHis work at R&G Insights Lab - https://www.ropesgray.com/en/RGInsightsLabThe R&G ‘Better Way?’ Podcast - https://www.ropesgray.com/en/rginsightslab/better-wayTo learn more about and read sample chapters from my book ‘Humanizing Rules: Bringing Behavioural Science to Ethics & Compliance’ - www.humanizingrules.comPrevious episodes of the show on Behavioural Law include:Professor Yuval Feldman on why we should write rules for good people not bad peopleProfessor J S Nelson on What Everyone Needs To Know About Business EthicsProfessor Yuval Feldman on Trust & Voluntary ComplianceProfessor Benjamin van Rooij on COVID ComplianceProfessor Benjamin van Rooij on The Behavioural CodeProfessors Benjamin van Rooij & Danny Sokol on Compliance 2.0Professors Melissa Rorie & Benjamin van Rooij on Measuring Compliance

Why does a two-letter word ('no') often cause us huge amounts of problems? After all, it's easy to say… except when it isn’t. We’ve all found ourselves in situations where we’ve wanted to say 'no' but, for some reason, haven’t been able to do so.From a human risk perspective, it's not hard to see how finding it hard to say 'no', can crystallise human risk; it can lead to people doing things they aren’t qualified to do, don’t feel morally right about doing or simply don’t want to.So, how can we put as much emphasis on ‘just say no’ as ‘yes we can’?The answer comes courtesy of my guest Dr Vanessa Patrick who has just published a book called 'The Power of Saying No: The New Science of How to Say No that Puts You in Charge of Your Life'Vanessa is the Associate Dean for Research, Executive Director of Doctoral Programs (PhD and DBA), a Bauer Professor of Marketing and lead faculty of the Executive Women in Leadership Program at the Bauer School of Business at the University of Houston.In our dsiucssion, Vanessa explains the concept of 'empowered refusal', a skill that helps us say no in a way that does not invite pushback from others. She also highlightst why saying no is difficult because society expects us to say yes. Three factors that affect our ability to say no are concern for relationships, concern for reputation, and lack of practice in saying no.Key points from our discussion:Why the ability to say no is a skill worth developing and can be done by identifying what matters to us and what is a good use of our time;How good work is excellent, engaging, and ethical, and we should focus on tasks that fall within this framework;Vanessa refers to difficult people who refuse to take no for an answer as Walnut Trees; hear why and how we can develop strategies to handle them;Surrounding ourselves with positive and nurturing people, or what Vanessa calls marigolds, is important for our well-being; andRecognizing and managing our interactions with others can help us prioritize our time and focus on relationships that bring us joy.To find out more about Vanessa, her research and her book, visit her website:https://www.vanessapatrick.net/Listeners too young to know what a fax machine is, can find out here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FaxFor more on my book 'Humanizing Rules: Bringing Behavioural Science to Ethics & Compliance' and to read the first few chapters for free visit www.humanizingrules.comTo hear previous episodes you might have missed visit www.humanriskpodcast.com

What does it mean to be truly funny? We often associate the word ‘funny’ with comedy and making people laugh. But it can also mean being witty, incisive ironic, playful, teasing, or delivering little moments of truth. On this episode, I’m speaking to comedy writer Paul Dornan, whose new company, True Funny, helps people discover what makes them funny — in the loosest sense of the word — and how they can maximise that in the way they present themselves. Not to make them artificially funny in an [inster funny joke here] type way, but naturally and authentically.In our discussion, we explored how Paul came to become a comedy writer, working with comedy legend Barry Humphries. He explains how comedy was an inherent part of his family and how that led him to his career. We explore what makes comedy work and why being funny is all about being human.Paul shares some of his thoughts about how being more authentic can make us more engaging and how the increasing power of cognitive technology means we all need to be more human.To find out more about Paul and his company, True Funny: https://truefunny.co.uk/During our discussion, Paul referred to a number of comedians and comedy shows:Barry Humphries and Barry’s comedy alter ego Dame Edna Everage: https://www.dame-edna.com/A clip that Paul referred to where Dame Edna speaks to former UK Prime Minister Ted Heath. Read this explanation first https://www.linkedin.com/posts/pauldornan_truefunny-activity-7055216788594151424-DmtU?and then watch the clip here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/pauldornan_this-is-the-dame-ednated-heath-clip-in-all-activity-7055218623996424192-0UOo?The Cambridge Footlights: https://www.cambridgefootlights.org/Monty Python: https://www.montypython.com/Peter Cook: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Cook/Jonathan Coleman: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Coleman_(presenter)Jimmy Carr: https://www.jimmycarr.com/Del Boy, a character from the TV show ‘Only Fools & Horses’: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del_BoyRicky Gervais, the creator of the TV series ‘The Office’: https://www.rickygervais.com/Mrs Brown’s Boys; https://www.mrsbrownsboys.com/

Why should we humanize rules? On this episode, your usual show host Christian Hunt is replaced by experienced podcaster and presenter Mark Heywood. That's becuase, the guest on today's episode is...Christian.Having just released a book called 'Humanizing Rules: Bringing Behavioural Science to Ethics & Compliance', he joins Mark to explore the complex world of human decision-making and the challenges of influencing compliance with rules. As well as talking about the book, we also provide personal reflections on risk, societal norms and how cultural context shapes behaviour.Hear how thoughtful and considerate design can improve compliance and prevent unintended consequences and why humanizing rules can lead to better outcomes.To hear Mark's podcast 'Behind The Spine' 🎧 👉 www.behindthespine.co.ukFor more on 'Humanizing Rules' and to read the first few chapters for free 👉 www.humanizingrules.com

How can organisations with limited resources handle ethical issues? While every organisation wants to be ethical — or at the very least, to be seen to be ethical — smaller ones often lack the resources or experience to manage these issues.My guest Rupert Evill is the author of ‘Bootstrapping Ethics’, a book that’s designed to help organisations with limited resources in the same way as they think of other challenges as something that can be bootstrapped. In other words, you don’t need lots of money or staff to be able to run an ethical business.In our discussion, we explore how Rupert came to work in ethics and the issues that inspired and continue to inspire him to work in the field, including corruption, child poverty, human trafficking, and wildlife trafficking. We also look at some of the creative ways he’s worked with his clients to do that.To find out more about Rupert, visit his company website https://www.ethicsinsight.co/You’ll also find him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rupert-evill/For more on his book ‘Bootstrapping Ethics' https://www.ethicsinsight.co/book/Rupert’s book is published by Wiley, which makes him a publishing stablemate of mine, and so, it would be remiss of me not to mention that my book ‘Humanizing Rules; Bringing Behavioural Science to Ethics & Compliance’ is also out now. You can find out more about that by visiting www.humanizingrules.comIf you order that and ‘Bootstrapping Ethics’, you’ll not only have two books that complement each other in terms of subject, but they also look fabulous next to each other on the bookshelf.

What’s the most effective way to communicate rules and influence humans to comply with them? On the face of it, just telling people what to do seems like a sensible approach. But what about when those rules have a qualitative component, where people need to do things to a particular standard — for example, behave in an ethical manner — or where it’s not possible to monitor what they’re doing?In those cases, just telling people what to do is far less likely to work as we risk only finding out once it’s too late. We need an alternative approach.My guest on this episode is Dr Bettina Palazzo. She’s a business ethics consultant who helps companies to improve their integrity culture and bring a fresh perspective to compliance and ethics. Or, to put it another way, she helps people who are responsible for mitigating human risk to engage their audiences. In our discussion, Bettina emphasizes the need for companies to prioritize ethics in all aspects of business, as well as the importance of creating individualized codes of conduct and focusing on the client experience and employee journey of compliance.Bettina also tells me about "ethics scripting" for employees to have a clear response in difficult ethical situations and the need for clear policies in grey areas of decision-making.She also introduces her Compliance Influencer program: https://compliance-influencer.com/To learn more about Bettina: https://bettinapalazzo.com/en/home/In our discussion, I mention a ‘readability’ measure in Microsoft Word: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/get-your-document-s-readability-and-level-statistics-85b4969e-e80a-4777-8dd3-f7fc3c8b3fd2For more on my book ‘Humanizing Rules’: https://www.human-risk.com/humanizing-rules-book

What happens when people meet technology? As Artificial Intelligence makes machines appear to be more human, what does that mean for the interactions we have with tech?On this episode, I’m speaking to Matt Ballantine. He has spent spent the past two decades helping organisations make sense of where people, communications and technology collide.In the past, Matt has worked in global technology, media and marketing organisations, including Microsoft, Imagination, Reuters and the BBC, focussed on a wide range of technology and organisational challenges.All of this means he’s got some fantastic insights to share. And he’s got some really interesting ideas about how we can think about technology and the impact it is having on our lives. For more information:Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattballantine/Matt on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ballantine70To read his blog: https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/For more on 100 Coffees: https://mmitii.mattballantine.com/category/projects/100-coffees/The PlayCards: https://stamplondon.co.uk/Matt’s WB40 podcast: https://wb40podcast.com/about/For more on my book ‘Humanizing Rules’: https://www.human-risk.com/humanizing-rules-book

Why did an advertisement for coffee prompt a nurse to contact the company to ask them to withdraw it? The answer is that the nurse in question has 20 years experience in burn care, and the advertisement — for the coffee chain Costa Coffee — showed a scene which, if replicated in real life, could cause serious injury.That nurse is called Kristina Stiles, and she’s my latest guest on the show. I saw her post and was intrigued. After a brief introductory discussion, I realised that not only was this an opportunity to highlight how humans can underestimate risk but also to learn some fascinating techniques that are used to help prevent it. On the show, we talk about the risk of burns and scalds, what you can do to prevent them from happening and get practical advice on how to respond if they occur.For easy reference, the key lessons Krissie shares are: Most burn injuries happen in the home, so preventing burns is mainly preventing hot liquid scolds in our homes.Wherever you are working with boiling water, hot pants, hot oven doors, or running a hot bath, it's really important that you separate your young family members away from those areas.But if the inevitable does happen, it's 20 minutes of cool running water. This is still effective within three hours of the burn injury.Call for help, and then wrap gently, loosely in cling film or a non-fluffy clean cloth.To see the post that led to me inviting Krissie onto the show and the Costa Coffee advertisement: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/kristina-stiles-msc-%F0%9F%87%B1%F0%9F%87%BB-%F0%9F%87%AC%F0%9F%87%A7-8b225997_burns-prevention-beburnsaware-activity-7046899226101866499-P4tr? For more information on:The Children’s Burns Trust: https://www.cbtrust.org.uk/Dan’s Fund for Burns: https://dansfundforburns.org/The Katie Piper Foundation: https://katiepiperfoundation.org.uk/The Family Oops eBook that Kristina wrote: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7aDyugYJOM

What’s the difference between a leader that communicates well and one that doesn’t?We’ve all seen examples of leaders who are terrible at communicating — whether it’s politicians that can’t find the right words or those nightmare bosses who fail to read the room. If you’ve watched any of the recent clips on social media of insensitive bosses communicating really badly, then this episode is your antidote.My guest is Jenny-Joy Kreindl. She’s the managing partner of Talent & Leadership Solutions, a boutique consultancy based in Switzerland. Jenny specialises in human-centric communication, and she is interested in the psychology of choice and how language can influence decision-making. In a previous life, she's had a broad career, initially training as an actress and finally working at UBS — where I met her — managing a sales team. She's also a qualified coach.In our discussion, we explore the importance of effective communication strategies in leadership and sales tactics. Jenny shares practical examples of how we can all — whether we're in leadership positions or not — improve our communication skills.We also explore the impact of government communication during the COVID pandemic and how it affected public opinion and behavior. Jenny also shares her personal experiences and observations, including her experience of using train and plane travel as an opportunity to connect with senior executives.For more on Talent & Leadership Solutions - https://www.talentandleadership.com/For more on Jenny - https://www.talentandleadership.com/about/For more on the Make It Click model - https://www.make-it-click.com/model/You can hear Jenny’s colleague Sigfried Höhnle talking about positive leadership on the show here: https://www.humanriskpodcast.com/dr-sigi-hoenle-on-positive-leadership/For more on my book ‘Humanizing Rules: Bringing Behavioural Science to Ethics & Compliance’ visit: https://www.human-risk.com/humanizing-rules-book