The Human Risk Podcast

What can business learn from improvisation? If you listened to the previous episode of the shwo, you'll know the answer. If you haven't yet done so, then I recommend dojgn that before listening to this. Because this is Part Two of my discussion with Heather Urquhart and it lfows naturally on from Part One. Meet Heather Urqhuhart My guest Heather Urquhart is a professional improviser who not only p...

What can business learn from improvisation? On the face of it, a form of entertainment that involves making things up as you go along, seems to be filled with human risk and not at all helpful in the business world. But actually, the skills that improvisers use to entertain us, are incredibky useful in businesses to drive better decision-making, The techniques that allow them to respond to unexpec...

What is burnout , and how can we prevent it? We're increasingly hearing about the idea of 'burnout', which the World Health Organisation has defined as a condition " resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed". Recent high profile resignations, including Jacinda Ardern the former PM of New Zealand and Jürgen Klopp, the Manager of Liverpool Football Club — both c...

What is Healthcare Coaching? If I say the word ‘doctor’ to you — in a medical, not academic, sense— you’ll probably think of someone in a white coat with a stethoscope who makes medical assessments and prescribes treatments and drugs to patients. Which, of course, is what they do do But a word that probably wouldn’t come to mind when you think of doctors is ‘coach’. Yet, that’s the role that my gu...

How can businesses do the right thing? What does that even mean and why does or should it matter? What is Business Ethics? Business ethics used to be a case of dealing with things like bribery and fraud, which companies tried to — and often did — manage with rules and processes. But nowadays, in a world where every employee and consumer has the ability to go viral on social media, it’s a much hard...

What happens when a surgeon decides to become an airline pilot? You get some amazing insights into mistakes, how they happen and what we can do to mitigate them. That surgeon and now pilot is my guest Niall Downey . He’s also the author of a book called ‘Oops! Why Things Go Wrong’: Understanding and Controlling Error’ He began his career as a doctor, where he becaeme a cardiothoracic surgeon. Afte...

What happens when companies outside financial services are required to comply with regulations such as AML (Anti-Money Laundering) ? As we all know from our personal experiences of banks that want to verify who we are and where money is coming from or going to, the rules are complex. That’s challenging enough if you’re a bank. But if you’re an art dealer, a real estate agent or someone else workin...

Authenticity is often praised, and inauthenticity is criticised. We want people to be themselves. But what happens if the society we’re in isn’t supportive or even hostile toward who we really are? Or we don’t yet know. That’s the challenge facing many LGBTQ+ people in relation to coming out . It’s the subject of a brand new book called ‘ Countless Sleepless Nights ’ which tells the real-life stor...

What’s the most effective way to manage cyber risk? The obvious answer is to have more sophisticated security systems. My guest on this episode thinks the answer is humans. That’s because behind every cyber attack, there is a human, and the biggest point of vulnerability within an organisation is its humans. If we can better understand humans and how they behave, we can be more effective at managi...

What determines the price of an item or service? How can we price things so that people want to buy them but also so that we feel it’s fair? Whether (like me) you’re in business and have to sell, or you’re negotiating a salary or looking to buy or sell a house or a car, pricing matters. My guest on this episode, Melina Palmer , is the author of a new book, The Truth About Pricing: How to Apply Beh...

What drives the choices we make, and how can we influence the choices that others make? On this episode, I’m speaking to an expert in human decision-making. Richard Shotton is a behavioural science practitioner who has written two best-selling books, ‘ The Choice Factory ’ and ‘ The Illusion of Choice ’. Having begun his career in marketing, Richard now helps companies apply behavioural science to...

How can we manage people who are doing creative work? On the one hand, letting someone do what they want feels incredibly risky. On the other hand, creativity requires a degree of freedom, experimentation and agency. That’s a particular problem in the creative fields, but it’s also a broader challenge. In the 21st century, the jobs people are doing are increasingly ones that require some element o...

Why do we sometimes make bad decisions in relation to money and what can we do about it? My guest, Vishal George , is a Behavioural Scientist who has recently published a book called ‘ Money Mindsets: Science-Based Stories to Rewire your Money Beliefs, Goals, & Habits ’. In it, he explores that he way we behave when it comes to money, comes from beliefs about it, that we’ve adopted from our fa...

What do you think of when you hear the word ' error '? It's highly likely you'll think of it negatively as a defect. The obvious way to manage defects, particularly in safety-critical industries, is to have detailed procedures, strict compliance, and zero tolerance for errors. But we know that this doesn't always work. After all, if it did, we'd have far fewer errors. My guest on this episode take...

What are museums, and what purpose do they serve? As a regular museum-goer — both when I’m travelling and also at home when I need distraction or creative inspiration — I’m always intrigued, both by what they show and how they show it. If you’ve been following my Compliance In The Wild series on LinkedIn (example post here ) you’ll know that museums regularly feature as they often contain fabulous...

What is it like to grow up in a country that no longer exists? That's the challenge faced by my guest Katja Hoyer. She grew up in the GDR, the German Democratic Republic. Or as most of us think of it, East Germany. While most histories of the country focus on the political decision-making or things that are most extraordinary — for example, the Stasi, the East German secret police or dramatic esca...

What is the Monday Revolution, and why do we need it? On this episode, I'm speaking to someone who used to run a company that grabbed a lot of my attention during my teenage and younger years. That company was Capital Radio — at the time, London's largest radio station — and that person is David Mansfield . After being CEO of Capital and its successor company, GCap Media, he went on to advise a nu...

How can lying earn you millions? If you’re an actor and good at impersonating people, then the answer is that you become a corporate spy. That’s the unexpected career path followed by my guest Robert Kerbeck , whose memoir ‘ Ruse: Lying the American Dream from Hollywood to Wall Street! ’ tells the story of how it happened. And on this episode, he joins me to talk about some of the behavioural dyna...

Why can senior leaders — usually in post as a result of experience and expertise — often make mistakes? The answer might seem counterintuitive; it’s precisely because of their experience and expertise that this can happen. How that happens and what we can do to mitigate it, the subject of this epsiode. My guest is Dr Constance Dierickx , who is also known as the Decision Doctor. She’s also the aut...

Why is some software a real pain to use? How does it happen, and what can we do to make it not happen? On this episode, I’m speaking with Sebastian Lees , an experienced software developer with a keen interest in making things more human-centric. We often think of computers as making our lives easier and reducing human risk. Yet, poor design and a lack of thinking about the humans that will use it...

What is trickle-down safety? On this episode, I’m finding out with two safety specialists who help me to explroe what it means and why it’s relevant to other fields. By safety, I mean the kind that saves people’s lives on building sites,not the cyber kind. My guests are James MacPherson and Elisa Lynch. James is a safety professional who works across multiple industries, including manufacturing an...

What we can learn about customer service and being more human from the fire service? On this episode, I’m speaking with David Wales, who used to work in the fire and rescue service and has now switched to focus on product design and customer service. In his role in the fire and rescue service, David wanted to understand why people didn’t always do the things that they were told. For example, rushi...

How can we be better at explaining things? On the 250th episode of the podcast, I’m joined by a very special guest who has made explaining an art form and has just published a book called ‘The Art of Explanation’. That guest is Ros Atkins . He’s a BBC News presenter and the BBC’s Analysis Editor. Ros is best known for his explainer videos, which, since 2019, have become a global phenomenon with va...

What is livescribing? On this episode, I speak to an artist with a unique creative talent. Hannah Williams is the founder of Scribble Inc. and her talent is that she can summarise presentations and discussions in beautiful pieces of art that fuse words and images. You'll find links to examples below. I met Hannah at a conference called Speak to the Human, an annual event, organised by Acteon Commu...

Why are we so reliant on models, how can they lead us astray, and what can we do about it? On this episode, I’m exploring models. Of the mathematical kind, not the fashion or toy kind. Models interest me because so much of our world is run by them. Many of the things we take for granted in the 21st century have models either running or helping to run them. When they work well, they enable things t...