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Behavioral Science Casebook Project

In my free time I have been developing a course, tentatively called Applied Behavioral Science in the Digital Age to be taught to business school students at either the undergraduate or graduate level. In the course, students will study how the pervasive reach of digital technology into our lives affects our heuristics, biases and other behavioral patterns. In addition to learning about behavioral science theories in the digital age, students will then learn how to apply those key theoretical concepts through discussing actual, corporate case studies and participating in hands-on exercises related to nudging and experimental design. The class will discuss key elements to starting and implementing behavioral science initiatives within a company. The course will be especially geared toward those interested in professional careers within consulting, product development, marketing, services, and technology app (e.g., FinTech) settings.

As related to that course, I have started to develop a short book that will cover specimens and cases based on the real world, such as sample websites, app designs, email campaigns, and customer journeys with ideas about how to evaluate such designs though the lens of behavioral science. If you have interesting examples and specimens for me to consider including (can be disguised or made anonymous as needed), please feel free to correspond with me at sds77@cornell.edu. If the specimen is from your company and you are interested, I can potentially perform a behavioral audit on the materials provided.

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Repost Which Explains Management Consulting Using Layman’s Terms

This is a repost from an answer I wrote a couple of years ago on Quora.

I usually fail miserably at explaining this for some reason.

Probably the most common definition out there is that management consultants are like doctors for companies (instead of doctors for people).

This analogy probably works for most cases. However, in the spirit of consulting analogies used by guru David Maister, there are probably sub-analogies. For example, there are some management consultants that are more specialized like brain surgeons. Brain surgeons work directly with patients, but possibly for shorter periods of time and using more specialized skills (and hence, brain surgeons charge higher rates). There may also be management consultants that operate more like pharmacists. In that regard, they may be more in the backoffice doing specialized work, interacting with patients less frequently.

Where the doctor analogy doesn’t always quite sit with me is that I usually think of going to the doctor either when something is wrong or for maintenance purposes. While it is true that a large bulk of consulting is about fixing company problems (e.g., unprofitable company, poor customer service, divisions not working together well, technology systems a mess), there are also management consultants that are more like life coaches or entrepreneurial partners that help with opportunities. These management consultants are not fixing things like doctors do. Instead they are helping companies build new capabilities (e.g., new line of business, new product) like a personal trainer helps a person develop more strength or cardio capacity.

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What Best Practices Can Consultants Use to Develop Their Own Toolkit?

This post is based on a question I answered previously on Quora.

Here are some of the techniques I have used over the years in different consulting roles, such as working for a traditional consulting firm, boutique firm, or as an independent:

  • Research and keep a scrapboook of ideas – This can be a folder where you drop killer slides you’ve run into, killer figures, well done models, articles, etc. Your scrapbook may consist of a few islands in the electronic world, such as using programs like Pocket, OneNote, etc. and also the physical world, such as bookmarked pages in key books you have.
  • Share the ideas with others on a small scale – Consulting is based on an apprenticeship model, and part of the value you add as a consultant also applies to how you interact with colleagues. If you can filter out the best information and share nuggets of knowledge with your peers, this can help both parties to learn.
  • Use what you’ve learned to synthesize and create new ideas – Innovation can come from many directions. Sometimes you can apply a method used in one space into a totally new space. Sometimes streams of knowledge are separate and disjoint, and you may find a simpler more holistic way of combining the approaches. Or sometimes you can create models by creating a new relationship between the beholder and the model (e.g., such as creating a stakeholder value view instead of a shareholder value view).
  • Share the ideas on a larger scale – Writing about your ideas can help to flesh out your thinking. I have often created short presentations and then presented them in a setting like a business school class. I may then create an article about a key idea. In some cases, I have written blog posts or written a newsletter type memo to share with newer consultants or clients. I have also expanded presentations into thought leadership pieces (e.g., I’ve published three books).

In summary, I find that having a method to research, collect ideas, interact with the ideas, synthesize new creations, and share those creations is a meta process that works for me.

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