People are often described as the largest asset in most organisations. They are also the biggest single cause of risk. This podcast explores the topic of 'human risk', or "the risk of people doing things they shouldn't or not doing things they should", and examines how behavioural science can help us mitigate it. It also looks at 'human reward', or "how to get the most out of people". When we manage human risk, we often stifle human reward. Equally, when we unleash human reward, we often inadvertently increase human risk.To pitch guests please email [email protected]
Latest episodes
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1 h 06
Dr Nina Burrowes on All Reasonable Steps: The Psychology of Sexual Harassment Prevention
What does it actually take to prevent sexual harassment at work? Policies, training, reporting mechanisms and statements of zero tolerance are one thing. Creating a workplace where…
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1 h 01
Professor Alex Edmans on the Madness of Markets — Why Smart People Make Crazy Decisions
What can financial markets teach us about human behaviour? Why might the size of a CEO’s signature tell us something useful about the company they run? And why, even when smart inv…
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1 h 23
Lyndon Nelson & Gavin Stewart on Building Better Regulators
What if understanding regulation could help us spot when politicians are promising the impossible? Regulation sounds simple in theory. Something poses a risk, so we create rules an…
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60 min
Roger Dooley on The Persuasion Engine
What if AI could help us understand people better, rather than simply replacing what humans do?Episode summaryHow can we use AI to become better at persuasion, communication and un…
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1 h 00
Annie Wagstaff on The Joy of Curiosity
What’s the last thing you learned simply because you wanted to know?Episode summaryWhy do we feel the need to justify what we learn? My guest on this episode is Annie Wagstaff, a m…
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51 min
Paul Craven on Living With Uncertainty
What happens when someone who spends his life thinking about risk, decision-making and human behaviour is confronted with an uncertainty he simply can’t control?Episode summaryMy g…
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1 h 04
Benji Wilson on why we rate everything
Why do we rate everything and why do we do so on a scale of one to five stars? What happens when systems designed to help us make better choices start influencing our behaviour in…
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1 h 21
Mark Heywood on The Stories We Tell About Ourselves
What parts of yourself have you learned to hide in order to be taken seriously? My guest on this episode is Mark Heywood, a friend of the show, returning guest and someone I've col…
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58 min
Gill Kernick on Grenfell - the disaster we still haven't learned from
When something goes badly wrong, we investigate it. Reports are written. Recommendations are made. Lessons are identified. But do we actually learn them?Episode SummaryReturning to…
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1 h 01
Anna Rössler on Finding Your Voice — Online, On Stage and At Work
What does jazz singing have to do with LinkedIn? More than you might think. This week's guest, Anna Rössler, has built a career helping senior leaders find their voice online while…
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49 min
David Grosse on The Unconvention
What happens when two people who spend their careers thinking about human behaviour meet in a London pub and start complaining about conferences? Apparently, they decide to organis…
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45 min
Freewheeling on Human Risk with Thomas Ableman
Why is it so hard to stop people playing vides, music or phone calls out loud on public transport — and what does that tell us about changing human behaviour? Show Summary This epi…
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1 h 03
Jill Wick on The Human Side of Cybersecurity
What if the best way to improve cybersecurity — or any other form of human risk — wasn't another policy, training course, or piece of technology, but a board game? That's the kind…
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1 h 08
Tobias Sturesson: from cult to corporate culture
What can businesses learn from cults?It might sound like an uncomfortable comparison: one involves strategy meetings, values statements and quarterly targets; the other manipulatio…
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1 h 00
Will Tarrant on Service: Closing the gap between brand promise and reality
What makes great service? It’s one of those things we instantly recognise when we experience it, but struggle to define. And while organisations spend huge amounts of time trying t…
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1 h 02
Dr Carissa Véliz on Prophecy
What if prediction isn’t about knowing the future, but controlling it? On this episode, I'm joined by a leading thinker on digital ethics, privacy and technology to explore the ide…
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1 h 08
Dr C Thi Nguyen on How to stop playing someone else's game
We like to think we choose what matters. But what if the goals we’re chasing… aren’t actually ours?Episode Summary My guest on this episode is Dr. C. Thi Nguyen, philosopher and au…
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1 h 09
Phil Dobson on Cognitive Leadership
We tend to assume that if we’re working hard, we’re working well. But what if that isn’t true?Episode SummaryMy guest on this episode is Phil Dobson, author of The Brain Book and f…
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1 h 04
Professor Mark Stoyle on The Western Rising of 1549
What lessons does a religious protest that led to an uprising in 1549 have to do with human risk?At first glance, not very much. It’s easy to see it as a distant historical event —…
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1 h 04
Jeffrey Ludlow on What A Sign Is...
What exactly is a sign? At first glance, that might sound like a strange question. Signs are everywhere: telling us where to go, what to do, what not to do, and sometimes what migh…