The Decision Corner – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode of The Decision Corner, Brooke discusses disagreement with Julia Minson, an Associate Professor of Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and former lecturer at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Her research explores the psychology behind disagreement and collaboration — why we often suck at turning the former into the latter, and how we can be better. Brooke and Julia dissect the thought processes that often fuel our discussions, how discussions turn into arguments (particularly, unproductive ones), and the reasons we can’t seem to figure out why. Julia gives us practical interventions, applicable on a personal level, that can help us avoid the feared Thanksgiving dinner screaming match and other conversations like it.

Specific topics include:

• Advocacy v.s. Inquiry mindset
• Why being a know-it-all is a problematic blindspot
• How to effectively signal open-mindedness
• Active listening: body language and verbal acknowledgement
• Cognitive misconceptions about our counterpart’s open-mindedness
• Scopes, baselines, and defaults
• The role of asking questions, and how to ask them with genuine curiosity
• Conversational receptiveness, intentional vocabulary, and the HEAR technique

In this episode of The Decision Corner, Brooke is joined by Grace Lordan, an associate professor of Behavioral Science at LSE and author of Think Big, Take Small Steps and Build the Future You Want. Together they discuss the importance of narratives in the workplace, and how the stories that we tell can improve opportunities, diversity, and well-being within organizations.

This podcast covers a variety of topics, including:

• How marginalized communities can wield behavioral science to shatter glass ceilings
• Why having a growth mindset often falls short - and how talking to three people can fix it
• A numerical strategy to prevent likeability from biasing your hiring decisions
• The paradox of cronyism in the workplace
• How to defeat the “cascade effect” that causes toxic meeting environments

In this episode of the podcast, Brooke speaks with John List, Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago and Chief Economist at Lyft. John talks us through some of the key takeaways from his recent book ‘The Voltage Effect’, which offers guidance around how to identify the ideas that will be successful when scaled, and how to avoid those that won't. Drawing from his career as an experimental economist and sharing stories from his own personal and professional life, John sheds light on the economic and psychological forces that influence the scalability of ideas, products and policies. Some of the things discussed include:

- The challenge of scaling great ideas, from the Petri-dish to the real world.

- What is the Voltage Effect and how does it impact scalability?

- 5 vital signs for scalable ideas.

- Diseconomies of scale and why bigger isn’t always better.

- Knowing when to pursue an idea and knowing when to quit.

Brooke speaks to Emily Bailard and Steven Masnajak from Everyday Labs, an organization that applies behavioral science to improve student outcomes. They discuss the growing issue of chronic absenteeism in schools across the United States and how nudges and other behavioral interventions can be used to keep kids in school and engage with their families. Some of the things covered include:

- What leads to chronic absenteeism and the barriers to effective school participation.

- Its impact on student success, grade levels, and the likelihood of progression to college.

- How COVID exacerbated some of the underlying factors that lead to chronic absenteeism.

- The role of nudges in engaging family members and communicating the importance of school participation.

- Practical steps that teachers and education officials can take to make their student engagement policies more behaviorally informed and ultimately, more effective.

In this episode of the Decision Corner, Brooke speaks with Yoel Inbar - professor of psychology at the University of Toronto and expert in how the feeling of disgust influences human judgment and decision-making. Together they define what it really means to feel a sense of disgust and its evolutionary purpose as a means of preventing risk or harm (like stopping us from eating rotten food!). On the flip-side, we hear about the negative consequences of disgust and why it can lead to biased or flawed judgements.

Some of the things discussed include:

- What is disgust and what purpose does it serve from a biological or evolutionary perspective?

- Why justifying our disgust with moral reasoning, i.e. “It disgusts me so it must be wrong!” can be troublesome.

- Descriptive versus normative beliefs, and how disgust affects both in different ways.

- Does disgust affect people differently, and do some people get more ‘grossed out’ by things than others?

- Strategies to acknowledge our disgust, and allow us to question whether it’s serving us effectively or not.

In this week’s episode, Brooke speaks to Ruth Schmidt, Associate Professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute of Design, and expert in all things related to behavioral design and its application to organizational strategy. Their conversation looks at the evolution of choice architecture to a deeply human-centered evaluation of organizational systems and processes, and how it’s impacting behavioral change strategies, and ultimately, organizational success. Some of the things discussed include:

- How insights from behavioral science and behavioral design can be used to complement each other in addressing organizational challenges, despite their differences in approach.

- Balancing evidence of something working in the past, with evidence that something else may work in the future.

- How behavioral design can improve strategy - moving from choice architecture to choice infrastructure.

- Behavioral design and innovation. Having a true understanding of why you’re trying to innovate and aligning your systems, culture, and incentives with that ambition.

- The role of leadership, and why behavioral interventions need to be driven both from the top-down and the bottom-up.

In this episode of the Decision Corner, Brooke speaks with Antonio Damasio - David Dornsife Chair in Neuroscience at the University of Southern California and author of Feeling and Knowing: Making Minds Conscious.

Some of the topics discussed include:

- Why feelings are integral to our understanding of consciousness.

- The evolutionary origins of our nervous systems and eventually, our ability to have and regulate our feelings.

- How feelings have been overlooked in scientific explanations of consciousness, and why a paradigm shift is important.

- Challenges and opportunities around A.I. - how can we make robots have feelings?

- The importance of understanding the unique way human consciousness developed, and what it can teach us about our future selves, as well as our technological developments.

In this episode of the podcast, Brooke speaks to Sonia Kang, Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, Chief Scientist at the Behavioural Economics in Action Research Center at Rotman School of Management, and Canada Research Chair in Identity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Their conversation addresses some of the major diversity and inclusion pain points that job candidates, employees, and employers encounter throughout the HR cycle, from recruitment to onboarding and training. Sonia shares fascinating insights from her research, and offers practical advice for organizations seeking to improve the processes they use to attract talent, and ensure their employees feel as though they belong and are valued in their workplace.

Some of the things discussed include:

Recruitment barriers, from gender stereotypes to biased application systems.

Zooming out to the wider picture when searching for the right candidates, and how hiring in sets can help identify the best people for your existing teams.

Making employees feel like they belong through onboarding co-creation.

The use of defaults to encourage promotion competition.

Practical steps organizations can immediately take to address gaps in their inclusion and diversity strategies.

In this episode of the Decision Corner, Brooke speaks with Dilip Soman, Canada Research Chair in Behavioural Science & Economics, University of Toronto Professor and Director of the Behavioural Economics in Action Research (BEAR) Centre at Rotman School of Management. Together they explore the translation of behavioral science theory into practice, common intervention pitfalls, and the types of strategies organizations and individuals can implement to make their interventions more robust and ultimately, more successful. Some of the topics discussed include:

- Why ‘shopping at the nudge store’ doesn’t always lead to the best outcomes, and how practitioners should consider the unique ‘seemingly irrelevant factors’ that exist in their particular context.

- The ladder of evidence - adopting a variety of approaches to intervention testing, that isn’t just another randomized controlled trial.

- Moving beyond statistical averages and considering the larger picture.

- Why a house listed for $1 will likely get a much higher sale price than the predetermined asking price.

- Organizational and psychological barriers to intervention testing and experimentation.

- How individuals can catalyse change in their organizations, and overcome some of the human biases that impede on the ‘discipline of testing’.

Remi Desa, CEO and Co-Founder of Pantonium, sits down with Brooke to discuss his company’s innovative proposal to improve public transit: on-demand buses. Remi believes in a future where public buses can respond in real time to their users instead of following a set schedule. His concept has already been implemented in several cities in North America, demonstrating huge increases in bus ridership, and decreases in mileage and operating costs. Remi’s combined background in engineering and entrepreneurship has led him on a fruitful journey to change how we experience public transportation. 

In this episode, Brooke and Remi discuss:

- The huge increase in digital communication and data that has made his vision a reality

- The North American tendency to treat public transportation as a last-resort, instead of a viable, efficient option

- The necessary spectrum between on-demand models and set schedule models

- Maintaining public transport accessibility

- Cities’ risk aversion to changing their transportation systems