Hey, Behavioural Scientists - What are you doing?
Read the newspapers these days and you’d think we were all ‘flattening the curve’ of Covid-19 (or just getting in the way!). But most behavioural scientists are trying to add value on the periphery, while preparing for the consequences - and opportunities - that lie ahead. I wanted to share a birds-eye view of that unreported energy, so I emailed a few friends with a simple question: “What are you doing?”
My thanks to everyone who answered. It was heartening to read the responses and I was inspired to write my own. It also made me remember why I’m proud to be part of the behavioural science community. I hope it does the same for you too.
Professor Oliver Hauser
University of Exeter and Academic Advisor at MoreThanNow
“On a professional level, the Coronavirus crisis has led me to reflect on how my research can help learn from these new circumstances we have to deal with. What does it mean for organisations (that are able to continue to operate), whose employees are all working remotely now? Can we turn some of these unexpected changes to the positive? Beyond individual organisations, what effects do these changes have for our economy and, just as importantly, our environment (which appears to be on a temporary recovery)? On a personal level, the Coronavirus crisis makes me incredibly grateful for the flexibility and security that my academic job already affords me. It enables me to spend more time with my wife and my 6-week old daughter at a time when we are all grateful to be with, and looking after, our loved ones”.
Wendy Jephson
Head of Behavioural Sciences, Nasdaq
At Nasdaq we already work with teams around the globe in different timezones to develop tech that intuitively supports and enables human decision-making in financial services. With virus concerns rising Nasdaq moved fast to ensure we can all continue working safely. Tech design doesn't stop for viruses (at least not human based ones) and tech also allows us to keep working together from our studies and kitchen tables. Wifi permitting and collaborative tools enabling we are still connecting with our clients and teammates in their homes, using Behavioural Science methods to elicit new insights every day. We are coming through this challenging time with creativity, ingenuity and a great sense of humour - delivering evidence based tech designs that we believe will Rewrite Tomorrow.
Jo Evershed
CEO and Founder, Gorilla Experiment Builder
“At Gorilla headquarters we couldn’t be busier. With universities across the globe shutting their face-to-face testing and sending their students home, they all suddenly need to take their behavioural research online. We’ve been onboarding new labs and universities at quite a pace! With the right tools, researchers won’t have to delay their projects and students will be able to turn in their coursework on time. Juggling it all is stressful. I’ve been sick (probably COVID), now our nanny is sick (also COVID) and so I’m at home looking after two kids, recovering from being ill and dealing with an influx of new clients. It’s been exhausting and exhilarating! Thankfully, we closed our office 2 weeks ago and sent our team to work remotely. That has meant that none of them have been sick and they’ve been looking after our clients brilliantly. I couldn't be prouder of them”.
“The Covid-19 crisis has showed me that we probably don’t need 95% of the things we otherwise do on a day to day basis.”
Siri Chilazi
Research Fellow, Women and Public Policy Program, Harvard Kennedy School
“With travel, speaking engagements and projects with organizations on pause, I’ve retreated into my “writing cave” and am working on several papers, articles and teaching case studies that have nothing to do with the coronavirus. I am even trying to prioritize tackling one or two passion projects around gender diversity and inclusion in organizations that normally don’t make it to the top of the to-do list. While the world is, for the moment, understandably focused on the coronavirus, my hope is that in a few months, we will be able to start sharing a lot of this diversity and inclusion thinking that will be relevant to organizations as they adapt to new norms and ways of working post-pandemic”.
Sarah Kaplan
Distinguished Professor and Director, Institute for Gender and the Economy, Rotman School of Management
“The COVID crisis brings into relief many of the issues that I've been working on through the Institute for Gender and the Economy and in my book, The 360º Corporation: From Stakeholder Trade-offs to Transformation. That is, first, we see even more clearly the gendered nature of work—how women are often in precarious, under-paid and vulnerable jobs where they are most prone to be harmed by COVID or by layoffs due to the economic crisis. Second we also see how the gendered division of labor at home is making it even harder for women to cope with the dislocations created by the crisis. Third, we are witnessing a dichotomy in corporate responses to the crisis, with some privileging workers and social good—by keeping people employed, by redeploying resources to fight the crisis—and others focused on protecting the bottom line—by making severe cuts and layoffs. So, I'm working to use this crisis to illuminate these inequalities, which have always been there but are exacerbated now, and hopefully to propose radical realignments of our systems in response. My hope is that the post-COVID economy can be realigned to address gender-based inequalities as well as rebalance corporate priorities to focus on all stakeholders and minimize the primacy of the shareholder. What I'm thinking about now is what precisely these proposals should be and how to get them out there”.
James Elfer
Founder, MoreThanNow
“What a weird roller-coaster of a time. Personally, the biggest impact has been as a small business owner. Pretty much everything we were doing was put on hold overnight - a tough blow on multiple fronts. But I’ve been amazed how quickly disappointment turned into energy in our team - because of course working culture still matters; of course inclusion and psychological safety matter; of course risk management matters! And maybe this is even an opportunity to move faster than ever before? Reading through these responses, I’m even more inspired by the role behavioural science can play and want us to make our contribution. It won’t be easy, I know that much - experimental work is a hard sell at the best of times - but there’s also no way we’re putting down that flag when it’s needed most. As long as our surge in creativity continues, nothing can stop us. Not even a global pandemic!”
“Tech design doesn’t stop for viruses - at least not human ones”
Dr. Dario Krpan
Assistant Professor of Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics
“Being an academic, I typically spend a lot of time working from home. The biggest change has been that now I also have to teach from home. I realized that it is quite difficult to motivate oneself to talk for hours in front of one's computer, so my biggest challenge has been to find different ways to motivate myself. I discovered that discussing random anecdotal things at the beginning of each lecture (such as how to make one’s day interesting by using activity generator) helps. The COVID-19 crisis has showed me that we probably don’t need 95% of the things we otherwise do on a day to day basis, and that situations such as this inspire us to arrange our time creatively so we can have fun regardless of the circumstances. In terms of work, I am enjoying this period because it allows me to discover new things about myself, but that is probably because I am an introvert. For extroverts, it may be more difficult”.
Alison Taylor
Executive Director, Ethical Systems
“Today, we are working with companies to build more cooperative and inclusive team dynamics in a work context. Notably, this includes a new appreciation for family care responsibilities and commitments, suggesting that we may emerge having built more human and inclusive workplaces. Businesses are also starting to think about the longer term, and finding that new leadership qualities are coming to the fore. We are hoping for a long-term reemphasis on communication, compassion, emotional intelligence and psychological flexibility”.
Robbie Tilleard
Partner Experience and People Science at Humu
“As a company focused on making work better, for everyone - Humu is launching new products and research to respond to the rapidly changing needs of the workplace. This includes our offer of nudges to help everyone (who can) work from home and writing on leading in a crisis and being a great virtual leader. Check them out - and let us know what you think. For Humu itself, we are all working from home. We've adopted new check-in and communication habits to help the varied impact to everyone in Humu (including people who live alone, in sharehouses, in couples or with kids _and_ those with new and old caring responsibilities). And we've given our partners the space, flexibility, and compassion needed to adjust to new ways of working and ongoing uncertainty”.
“We are hoping for a long-term re-emphasis on communication, compassion, emotional intelligence and psychological flexibility.”
Elizabeth Arzadon
Managing Director, Kiel Advisory Group
“One of my passions is improving the system’s understanding of culture, and its impact on various risks. For all its challenges, the current crisis offers an intense opportunity to continue living out this purpose. To this end I have been focused on three areas, using social media channels such as LinkedIn and online discussion forums, as well as traditional interactions with institutional and regulatory clients: 1. Highlighting behavioural risks inherent in the transition to new work patterns. 2. Discussing cognitive biases underpinning blind-spots in decision making during this critical period 3. Sharing insight to improve the community’s understanding of behavioural risk management embedded in government strategies. So far, the feedback has been positive, but I sense people are getting overwhelmed. Behavioural science has gained enormous traction in recent years. The challenge for our discipline is how to maintain relevance, despite the natural tendency for those we could help to revert to their natural comfort zones when under pressure”.
Samuel Salzer
Behavioral Strategist, Author, and Virtual Keynote Speaker
“Everything has changed and nothing has changed. That is the paradox that I'm finding myself amidst what is currently going on. Clearly, much has changed for my behavioral consulting business. The spring and summer that was meant to be filled with public speaking and workshops will leave room for other things. Large projects being put on hold have left yet more space to fill in the calendar. Still, my days don't look much different. Not including public speaking, etc., the work of my team and me have already been 95% remote for the last year. I've worked on projects with collaborators across four different continents and had long before this crisis perfected the delicate dance of Zoom meetings. The freed-up time in the calendar has only left room to work on exciting projects that were already in the works. These projects are no doubt different and have led to a slight shift in our long-term business model, but again, that was something I expected to happen sooner rather than later. It's hard to let go of things, yet it is essential in an ever more unpredictable and changing world. Darwin said it best: "It is not the strongest that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change". That is what this has become for us, a chance to see how adaptable we truly are. While some things we now work on is different, how we do things on a day-to-day basis is the same. Everything has changed and nothing has changed”.
Elizabeth Weingarten
Managing Editor at the Behavioral Scientist, and Senior Associate at ideas42
“Personally: I'm trying, as much as possible, to create things during this time. I find that being creative makes me feel the most grounded, and brings me the most joy, when I can't physically be with the people who I care most about. Creativity stretches in many directions – I've been baking a lot ( though I just ran out of bread flour), I've been getting back to writing poetry, and I've been continuing to work on a book project. I've also been trying to inject more creativity into the conversations I have with the people who I love, by thinking about different and better questions to ask. Professionally – at the Behavioral Scientist, we're working to recruit and publish stories that help people make sense of the crisis, and hopefully help to ask and answer questions we don't see elsewhere”.
Alex Chesterfield
Head of Behavioural Risk, RBS
“I feel like I’m living in a permanent ethnographic study at the moment. A Truman show of Truman shows. Behaviours are changing on so many levels - at home, at work and in our communities. This brings challenges and opportunities personally and professionally. How do we identify the new behaviours emerging which could lead to poor outcomes for customers or the bank? How can we support better employee and customer decision making? How can we test what works to encourage new behaviours? How do diagnose and increase psychological safety to prevent smaller problems becoming bigger ones? How do we do all do this yesterday?!’
That’s all, folks! For now…
I couldn’t help but feel optimistic after reading all these responses - the value of the questions; the commitment to find answers; the potential to make things better. If you’re a behavioural scientist and want to add this Covid-19 time-capsule, click below and we’ll update the page over April.
Otherwise, thanks for reading and thanks again to everyone who took part.