TGIF – Slim Ideas From Behavioral Economists

As the week winds down, we wind down with some tidbits for your information, education, health, and enjoyment.

Quote of the Week: “I tried every diet in the book. I tried some that weren’t in the book. I tried eating the book. It tasted better than most of the diets.” Dolly Parton

Humor Break:

Bev: Al, I am reading an article on healthy eating, but I am a little puzzled.  Do you know what is the Cardiologist Diet?

Al: Yeah, if it tastes good, spit it out.

Stat of the Week: “Business scholars, particularly behavioral economists, study what motivates people to buy, save, donate, and any other number of actions that build society. In helping organizations run better, this research can also be read in a different light. Diet tips, anyone?”  This quote is followed by this week’s Stat: 5 Weight Loss Tips From Behavioral Economists.  If you have followed my post recently you know I am a big fan of Dan Ariely, Duke University behavior economist par excellence.  I like the way behavioral economists look at the world. I guarantee two things if you click on this researched based article: (1) most of the suggestions you have never seen in print before and (2) you will have a moments of delight – at a minimum a smile or two and maybe even a chuckle.  I had LOL moments with the backpack and Wonder Woman suggestions.

Action Tip: Each of today’s 5 tips comes with a link to deeper research.  If any of the suggestions strike your fancy, take a look at the full study report.

Self-Development Corner: Last week reader Tammy Sicard raised several important issues regarding MOOCs and the future of universities. One of her concerns was the future of liberal arts. Fear not, liberal arts will live on within university systems. Specifically, are studies in liberal arts compatible with the demands of the business world? In a word, Yes! In earlier work by our fearless leader and excellent boss (never hurts to praise vertically) Ken Nowack wrote about four career path preferences for employees. Without going into detail, I can say that one of those career path preferences, the specialist, lends itself very well to the developing MOOC courses, both from a student and from an organization point of view. The remaining three career path preferences, leadership, generalist, and entrepreneurial all benefit from broader education options. In a nutshell, over time the university model will be restructured, but it won’t go away. The need is still there. 

Meanwhile the first week of April brings some exciting and excellent courses from Coursera, the most popular of the free MOOCs.  If you haven’t tried any of the courses yet, remember that the sign up is simple and you can work at your own level of interest and time availability.

How about joining with me to gain a better understanding of the political, social, cultural, economic, institutional and international factors that foster and obstruct the development and consolidation of democracy - Democratic Development (April 1, 10 weeks, Stanford University).  (Is there any irony in starting a class on Democracy on April Fools Day?).  Also note that this course fits into the liberal arts category.

Or consider one or more of these, you little self-development fiend you: Principles of Macroeconomics (March 31, 6 weeks, University of Melbourne);  Statistics: Making Sense of Data (April 1, 8 weeks, University of Toronto); and/or Introduction to Logic (April 1, 8 weeks, Stanford University).

Happy learning.

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.