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The Behaviour Business: How to apply behavioural science for business success
If you are in business, you are in the business of behaviour – and unless a business influences behaviour, it will not succeed.
In the last 50 years we have learnt more about how we behave than over the previous 5,000. This book shows how behavioural science has revolutionised our understanding of how people really think (or don’t) – and how we can use those insights in our businesses to influence behaviour and gain competitive advantage.
Richard Chataway is Director of Behavioural Science at Gobeyond Partners, and one of the most experienced behavioural science practitioners in the UK. He has worked in senior strategic roles for government in Australia and the UK, and for the four largest advertising agency groups, addressing behavioural challenges as varied as getting people to stop smoking, join the armed forces, drink spirits rather than wine, prevent domestic violence, pay for university tuition, submit their taxes, buy flatpack furniture, and take public transport – to name a few.
Introducing the leading thinkers and practitioners from this new field (and sharing dozens of real-world examples), Richard guides readers through the hidden influences, biases and fallacies that influence the behaviour of customers, employees, and business leaders alike – and shows how we can ethically use these insights
• powerfully attract and retain customers
• fuel true and lasting innovation
• stand apart in the new world of increasing automation and artificial intelligence
• change workplaces and maintain happy and productive employees and teams
• and a lot more!
It’s time to shape behaviour instead of simply reacting to it. The Behaviour Business is the eye-opening, practical guide you have been waiting for.
In the last 50 years we have learnt more about how we behave than over the previous 5,000. This book shows how behavioural science has revolutionised our understanding of how people really think (or don’t) – and how we can use those insights in our businesses to influence behaviour and gain competitive advantage.
Richard Chataway is Director of Behavioural Science at Gobeyond Partners, and one of the most experienced behavioural science practitioners in the UK. He has worked in senior strategic roles for government in Australia and the UK, and for the four largest advertising agency groups, addressing behavioural challenges as varied as getting people to stop smoking, join the armed forces, drink spirits rather than wine, prevent domestic violence, pay for university tuition, submit their taxes, buy flatpack furniture, and take public transport – to name a few.
Introducing the leading thinkers and practitioners from this new field (and sharing dozens of real-world examples), Richard guides readers through the hidden influences, biases and fallacies that influence the behaviour of customers, employees, and business leaders alike – and shows how we can ethically use these insights
• powerfully attract and retain customers
• fuel true and lasting innovation
• stand apart in the new world of increasing automation and artificial intelligence
• change workplaces and maintain happy and productive employees and teams
• and a lot more!
It’s time to shape behaviour instead of simply reacting to it. The Behaviour Business is the eye-opening, practical guide you have been waiting for.
244 pages, Paperback
Published February 18, 2020
31 people are currently reading
180 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 21, 2020
The book covers wide aspects where Behaviour science can be used from Digital products to government / public policy to team productivity to marketing and advertising. However, I thought it just covered very generic stuff.. I found the references more meaningful than the content of the book itself. The books sort of amalgamates what is covered in separate books for each of topic and I personally feel it it better to read those books to get deeper insights than this.
October 13, 2020
I was looking for a deeper read into behavior and ways to analyze customers in relation to a product or service. Didn’t find it here. Very top line, anecdotal stories. I also found the take on the customer sales funnel really one-sided and misleading. There is also very little to back up his assertions on many theories laid out on this book.
February 17, 2021
Richard Chataway is certainly qualified to write a book on behavioural science. Vice president of the BVA Nudge Unit UK and founder of Communication Science Group, he has worked in senior strategic roles for the UK and Australian governments. And this is a book about practically applying behavioural science in business, intended for anyone who wants to understand how to apply these insights.
The structure of the book is very good. There is a jaunty forward by the ever affable Rory Sutherland and the content is then broken down into six parts; key concepts, use of behsci by successful companies, how behsci can help business, behsci and staff (recruiting, training, motivating), knowing what customers want and how to influence customers. Each part includes three chapters exploring different aspects under its heading and is then followed by a "What to do now" chapter. It is this very practical approach that I particularly liked. The chapters are interspersed with subsections explaining the behavioural principles as they arise, as well as suggestions for further reading - additional information that I always enjoy being included.
"The growth of knowledge in behavioural science has been extraordinary."
Part Two which covers how the most successful businesses of the 21st century, the so-called FANG group (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google), have used behavioural science to deliver digital products and services and have minimised consumer cognitive effort is particularly interesting. It includes how Google made search easy, Netflix used data to leverage social proof, Amazon created addictive products (great figures and facts in this bit) and an excellent section on Facebook looking at how they embed test-tube behaviours. Even though these are well known subjects there are still plenty of interesting facts and new insights from Chataway.
For me the most fascinating section as Part Three - looking at how to successfully use technology advances and robots to make business work for humans. Lots of new and really interesting conversation here covering the limits of AI, prediction machines and ethical considerations. Much of this was a bit over my head I must be honest and warranted a second reading but there is no doubt this is an area of great interest for the future of behavioural science. On this subject Chataway quotes Daniel Kahneman's 2016 response on the difference between an algorithm and a human;
"If you feed the same data into an algorithm twice you will get the same answer. This is not true of humans." (Daniel Kahneman)
Part Four covers boosting productivity with behavioural science and the humans are allowed back in the room. Reminding us that all is not lost and that there are roles requiring empathy and creativity for example, where machines are (currently) inferior to humans and an interesting re-cap of the arguments for a universal basic income bringing in research on the impact financial worries have on our mental capacity thereby affecting the ability to pay attention or problem-solve.
"95% of new product launches fail, and two-thirds of hires are unsuccessful...half of all marketing spend is wasted."
Throughout the book Richard Chataway shows ways in which a better understanding of human behaviour can be used to help businesses make better decisions, maybe by becoming aware of behavioural biases such as overconfidence or looking at challenges with a behavioural lens. The importance of testing, making mistakes and learning is driven home, and also the need to address the misconception in business that using behavioural science evidence limits creativity. The book is simply a great practical guide for shaping behaviour in business.
The structure of the book is very good. There is a jaunty forward by the ever affable Rory Sutherland and the content is then broken down into six parts; key concepts, use of behsci by successful companies, how behsci can help business, behsci and staff (recruiting, training, motivating), knowing what customers want and how to influence customers. Each part includes three chapters exploring different aspects under its heading and is then followed by a "What to do now" chapter. It is this very practical approach that I particularly liked. The chapters are interspersed with subsections explaining the behavioural principles as they arise, as well as suggestions for further reading - additional information that I always enjoy being included.
"The growth of knowledge in behavioural science has been extraordinary."
Part Two which covers how the most successful businesses of the 21st century, the so-called FANG group (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google), have used behavioural science to deliver digital products and services and have minimised consumer cognitive effort is particularly interesting. It includes how Google made search easy, Netflix used data to leverage social proof, Amazon created addictive products (great figures and facts in this bit) and an excellent section on Facebook looking at how they embed test-tube behaviours. Even though these are well known subjects there are still plenty of interesting facts and new insights from Chataway.
For me the most fascinating section as Part Three - looking at how to successfully use technology advances and robots to make business work for humans. Lots of new and really interesting conversation here covering the limits of AI, prediction machines and ethical considerations. Much of this was a bit over my head I must be honest and warranted a second reading but there is no doubt this is an area of great interest for the future of behavioural science. On this subject Chataway quotes Daniel Kahneman's 2016 response on the difference between an algorithm and a human;
"If you feed the same data into an algorithm twice you will get the same answer. This is not true of humans." (Daniel Kahneman)
Part Four covers boosting productivity with behavioural science and the humans are allowed back in the room. Reminding us that all is not lost and that there are roles requiring empathy and creativity for example, where machines are (currently) inferior to humans and an interesting re-cap of the arguments for a universal basic income bringing in research on the impact financial worries have on our mental capacity thereby affecting the ability to pay attention or problem-solve.
"95% of new product launches fail, and two-thirds of hires are unsuccessful...half of all marketing spend is wasted."
Throughout the book Richard Chataway shows ways in which a better understanding of human behaviour can be used to help businesses make better decisions, maybe by becoming aware of behavioural biases such as overconfidence or looking at challenges with a behavioural lens. The importance of testing, making mistakes and learning is driven home, and also the need to address the misconception in business that using behavioural science evidence limits creativity. The book is simply a great practical guide for shaping behaviour in business.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews