The Human Risk Podcast

How can we communicate more effectively in a virtual environment? My guest Mark Bowden is a body language expert who is well known for advising senior business leaders, celebrities and politicians on how to present themselves. He’s also the author of a number of best-selling books on communication and body language. During our discussion, we explore how Mark became a body language expert and he sh...

What determines how we individually react to refugees? That’s the question that my guest on this episode, Dr Nihan Albayrak-Aydemir, has explored in her PhD. Nihan is originally from Turkey and came to the UK to study at LSE - the London School of Economics & Political Sciences. Nihan was intrigued by the fact that the level of engagement she saw in Turkey towards Syrian refugees was very differen...

What is Creative Accountancy? That's what I'm exploring on this episode. It's a term I've invented — a deliberate play on the term 'Creative Accounting' — to describe the approach which my guest Alastair Thomson adapts to his role as an accountant. He's actually much more than an accountant, but that's his background. Nowadays, Alastair advises companies in a growth phase, which requires him to ad...

How can we use crowdsourcing to obtain human risk insights? We’re all familiar with companies that have faced big issues in terms of misconduct. When there’s a big scandal — whether that’s banks engaging in bad behaviour or the diesel emissions cheating scandal in the motor industry - it’s very easy to look back with hindsight and point to things that could have been spotted at the time. But would...

What causes human risk in companies, particularly at senior levels? That's what my guest on this episode, Professor Elizabeth Sheedy, has been exploring in her research. And she's just published a new book called Risk Governance: Biases, Blindspots & Bonuses. Elizabeth has been on the show two times before (links below) talking about Bad Behaviour in Banking and Accountability regimes. This time,...

How do human factors influence an inherently risky activity like scuba diving? That’s what my guest on this episode, Gareth Lock explores in his work as the founder of The Human Diver — a company that specialises in teaching the diving community about human factors. Whether you’ve ever been diving or not, it's fairly obvious that it’s an activity, that comes with a degree of inherent risk. After a...

Why might judges in the same Court give vastly different sentences for the same crime? The answer is noise. When experts who assess the same situation come to very different conclusions for no good reason, we risk bad outcomes. On this episode, I’m speaking with Professor Olivier Sibony, who is the co-author — along with Professors Daniel Kahneman and Cass Sunstein — of Noise: a flaw in human judg...

How can we manage risk in an increasingly complex world? My guest on this episode, Richard Fenning, has spent three decades advising multinational companies on geopolitics and security crises. He’s been involved in helping to manage situations involving kidnappings, terrorist attacks, coups d’etat, corruption scandals, cyber-attacks, earthquakes and hurricanes in places ranging from Iraq and Russi...

How can we make better connections when we're on virtual calls and webinars? My guest on this episode, Dr Nick Morgan is a speaking coach and writer who helps people to find their voice in a physical and virtual world. For personal reasons, that he explains on the episode, Nick is on a mission to help people have better interactions with others. To find out more about his business visit https://pu...

If we want to mitigate human risk, we need to engage the humans that might crystallise it. But how can we do that effectively? My guests, Lasse Frost and Jacob Danelund have been working on this challenge for some time. Their focus is on engaging target audiences, using techniques that range from gamification — turning something into a game — to story-telling, the natural way we all learn as child...

What does the word 'compliance' mean? On the face of it, we've all had experience of it under COVID as governments have introduced rules to influence our behaviour to stop the spread of the virus. But its influence is far broader than that, with applications ranging from corporate environments to the medical profession. It's even become an industry in its own right, complete with its own professio...

Why is Peloton - a company that sells bikes that allow you to take on-demand and live classes at home - so successful? With a Net Promoter Score of 94 (that's 94% of customers who would recommend it to someone else), there must be a psychological explanation. That's what my guest Lisa Richardson has researched as part of her psychology masters. I'm interested in this because I've recently joined P...

How can we create better connections with other people to help us meet our objectives? On this episode, I’m speaking to a Behavioural Scientist that was introduced to me by my good friends Tim Houlihan and Kurt Nelson, hosts of the Behavioral Grooves podcast. If you’re not familiar with their show, do check it out - https://behavioralgrooves.com/ The reason I mention that is because it's highly re...

What does MTV have to do with fighting HIV? My guest on this episode Professor Eliana La Ferrara of Bocconi University in Milan knows the answer and she joins me to tell me more about her work as a development economist. Her specialism is in applied work, meaning that she collects and analyses data, mostly from families or individuals in poor or disadvantaged locations. And she tries to understand...

On this episode, I'm tackling two seemingly unrelated topics: how regulators use Behavioural Science & Depolarization. What combines the two is my guest Alex Chesterfield. She's a Behavioural Scientist that has worked inside a regulator, looking at the effectiveness of regulation on consumer behaviour and is the co-founder of something called The Depolarization Project. In the first half of our di...

Why, when solving problems, do we tend towards addition, rather than subtraction? Not in a mathematical sense, but rather in terms of how we think about things? That's what my guest on this episode Dr Leidy Klotz, has been exploring in some research and it forms the subject of his new book Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less. Having had an interest in the subject, Leidy observed how his son Ezr...

Why do we have arguments & why might they actually be a good thing? That's what my guest, Ian Leslie, explores in his new book Conflicted: Why Arguments Are Tearing Us Apart and How They Can Bring Us Together. In it, he explains how conflict is the secret of happy relationships, the way companies can build collaborative cultures and what lies behind some of the greatest scientific and creative bre...

What are companies here to do? Make profit? Or is there something more? That's what my guest on this episode, John Rosling, is here to help me find out. On previous episodes, I've explored the idea that companies don't always get the best out of their employees, and that a lot of human risk crystallises within organisations, because of the disconnect between individual priorities and the stated or...

How is our perception of risk impacted by ethical dynamics? That's what I'm exploring on this episode with my guest Dr Cailin O'Connor. She's the co-author of a recent draft research paper that highlights some interesting findings in relation to the risk perception of COVID. The paper explains that research subjects thought that people were less at risk of COVID infection when engaged in morally g...

This episode is the second half of a discussion between Paul Craven & Gerald Ashley. If you haven't listened to the first half (🎧 👉 https://www.podpage.com/the-human-risk-podcast/gerald-ashley-paul-craven-on-statistics-spreadsheets-scam-artists/) then I highly recommend you do so, though the episode does work on a standalone basis. On this episode, Paul & Gerald discuss: Ergodicity - hear my pre...

What do Statistics, Spreadsheets & Scam Artists have in common? They're all topics that my guests on this episode, Gerald Ashley & Paul Craven discuss as they explore how we make decisions. Both Gerald and Paul have previously appeared on the show (links below) - Gerald as an individual and a 'head to head' with Rory Sutherland and Paul as an individual guest. Since the episode with Gerald and Ror...

Why are many of the laws & regulations that are put in place, either ineffective or counter-productive? How can we make them more effective? That's the question that my guest on this episode, Professor Benjamin van Rooij of Amsterdam University, explores in a new book he's co-authored with Professor Adam Fine. The book isn't out until later this year, but Benjamin kindly agreed to join me to tell...

How can companies be better at managing the strategic risks they face in an uncertain world? This episode is part two of my discussion with Hans Læssøe on Strategic Risk. If you haven’t yet listened to Part 1 👉 https://www.podpage.com/the-human-risk-podcast/hans-lassoe-on-strategic-risk-part-one/ - then I recommend that you do that first. Having explored how Hans’ career evolved in Part 1 of our...

How can companies be better at managing the strategic risks they face in an uncertain world? My guest on this episode Hans Læssøe, spent over 35 years working for Lego. He held a variety of roles within the company, culminating in being responsible for developing and running Lego’s Strategic Risk Management program. In other words, helping Lego Senior Management to better understand and mitigate t...

What is Clubhouse and why should you care? Clubhouse is a new(wish!) social media network that is focused on live audio content. The audio element isn’t the only thing that differentiates Clubhouse from other networks. It also offers a very different user experience - one that relies heavily on Behavioural Science. As an active user of Clubhouse, for professional and personal reasons, I’m fascinat...