The Science of Behavior w/ Julie Miller

For many businesses that want to innovate, the biggest challenge is not coming up with a new idea, but figuring out how to get consumers to embrace the idea. We dealt with this problem often at Cree, including when we tried to get customers to switch from incandescent light bulbs to LEDs.

The key to driving change is to first understand how humans behave.  I recently had a chance to talk with Julie Miller, who is a behavioral scientist, a researcher at Dan Ariely’s Center for Advanced Hindsight, and an Innovation Partner at Wake Innovates.  

Julie has been using her knowledge of human behavior to help companies connect with their customers, teach organizations to become more innovative,  and recognize that “We rely way too much on asking people, when instead, we should be watching people and testing things.”

We discuss how behavioral science is more than simple user experience, why incremental improvement may actually be more risky than innovation, and the importance of workplace culture to create the right environments and contexts for employees to pursue new ideas.

You can follow the podcast and host Chuck Swoboda on Twitter for further exploration and discussion on innovation.

The episode is also available wherever else you listen to podcasts. Enjoy!