Human behaviour, motivation, and psychology
We can think of organizations as part of systems or ecologies, but what does it mean to make them fit for humans? Today, we look at the psychology and design of organizations for humans. An organization is much more than a group of people working together; it’s a system. The whole — the organization — […]
Humans and their Organizations: A Psychological Design Perspective Read More »
Psychological momentum leverages performance, motivation, attention, and confidence for sustained change. Harnessing it and leveraging it effectively is a way to improve outcomes. and impact. If you’ve ever seen a team on a hot streak, you know about the power of momentum. Psychological momentum takes the idea first formed in physics and applies it to
Psychological Momentum and Sustained Performance Read More »
Futures work is a branch of design that seeks to translate trends, ideas, and imagination based on data into visions of where we might go. What happens when we bring psychologists along? The popular deployment of generative AI tools has put ‘futures thinking’ into our collective imagination front and centre. We humans love futures thinking
Psychological Futures and Human Behaviour Read More »
The finger-pointing to the moon is a model, not a truth. What happens when our models and frameworks become held as truths instead of guides? There’s an often rephrased Zen quote attributed to the Buddha that says: Do not confuse the finger pointing to the moon for the moon itself. Zen Phrase Often our models,
Framework Errors In Design and Action Read More »
I might be writing this near the holidays in 2022, but the message I want to send is timeless. In times of disruption — which seems to be all the time — these are the lessons that my clients, friends, and family did best when they were heeded. They certainly worked for me. I love
Four Holiday R’s: Rest, Reflection, Recovery, Reinvigorate Read More »
We can reflect on gender-based violence and the victims of it and take action, but we must do both if we want change. Today is a day of National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada. (You can read more about it here). This is a theme that’s rarely — if
Remembrance and Action for Gender-Based Violence (And All of Us) Read More »
A myth of behaviour change is that we must be motivated before we act. Behavioural Activation shows us how doing can lead to new thinking and better change-making. Much of the literature on behaviour is predicated on the belief that we need to change our minds to change our behaviour. However, if you’re depressed, anxious,
Action Before Motivation Read More »
Energy — our ability to generate and convert inspiration and enthusiasm into action — is at the heart of designing for change. Just like Design itself, we need to design for it to make it happen. There’s a great analogy about juggling that suggests success is as much about how many balls you have in
Disruption and the Energy of Change Read More »
Strategic Foresight can do more than help us to see what might come, it can help us to live better lives today. Using the example of well-being we look at how design with foresight can help us create a better present while shaping our preferred future. What if we could live in the future today?
Living Our Future Selves Today With Foresight Read More »
Much of what we believe about behaviour change is based on myth, fallacies, and some poor science and yet these beliefs flourish. It’s time to apply some change-making to itself. It is fair to say that much of the foundation of my profession is bent out of shape. Behavioural psychology is a mess. It’s not
Repairing Our Broken Assumptions About Change-Making Read More »
