We all could pick at least one behaviour we’d change — especially in someone else. So, what would it be? And how would you influence that change? Don’t assume you know why people do what they do. There are more sources of influence than you may realise. Once we recognise our influences, we find change that lasts.

We stink at influencing ourselves. When we say influence — or the power to change — we define it as the ability to change our own behaviour or the behaviour of others. That’s a powerful concept if we can really grasp it. So, how do we change ourselves — and why aren’t we better at it?

With the Tour de France ending just a few weeks ago, Australia has a lot to celebrate! As winner of the green jersey — the

There are people all around us struggling through tough times. If you find yourself battling loneliness, anxiety, or disappointment, the Ancestor Effect can help you. If you’re willing to reexamine the story of where you come from, you can create new emotions and promote healthy actions in hard seasons of life.

We go crazy explaining HOW to do things, especially when we’re in leadership and management positions. But with all the energy we spend on the HOW, we can lose sight of the WHY. When we tap into why motivation, we find the world’s most effective performance-enhancer: purpose.

Dialogue is great, but sometimes people start to take on the conclusions of the most charismatic or experienced person in the room, even if conclusions are flawed. Here’s how to overcome the subconscious bias of The Halo Effect.

At VitalSmarts, we talk a lot about the importance of a safe environment for crucial conversations. But sometimes, safety’s not enough to make the crucial conversation a success. Even situations where mutual respect and mutual purpose abound, conversations can still fail because of an interesting phenomenon called The Halo Effect.

If we’re honest, we’ve all let someone down and we’ve all been let down. But when it happens at work, it becomes more than a disappointment — it becomes an issue of job performance. And the best way to solve the problem is to look at the causes — the big WHY behind a behaviour. We group these causes into what we call The Six Sources of Influence.

Our brains can only really handle one active task at a time, so when we attempt to multitask, these four specific areas suffer.

There are three types of people when it comes to productivity: Zen Masters, Wanderers, and Pig Pens. Think about your mode of operation to see where you fit and learn why you could be losing 40 hours a month.

Many of us believe that if we work hard, we’ll achieve success, which leads to happiness. In reality, happiness can be the key to achieving and learning right now.

We constantly face situations where a tough but positive conversation can change the entire course of a relationship — both in our organisations and our

The most important capacity we possess is our ability to influence behaviour change, but we humans aren’t naturally good at it. In fact, we’re terrible, which means our organisations, society, and personal lives all suffer. We need a better way to influence behaviour.

Sometimes, we’re naive about what shapes our choices. Small cues nudge us in ways we grossly underestimate.

Sometimes strategic and economic motivators fail. When that happens, we need to harness the power of social motivation to influence change.​ See how one government agency used social motivation to get drivers to change their behaviour.