NUDGE and the A+++ Example, TED.

Posted on | May 28, 2009 | 2 Comments

Every so often you happen upon a book that has the potential to change the way you do something, maybe everything.

If you are like me you can list those books on the back of your hand.

NUDGE, by Dr. Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, is one of those provocative great books.

Who hasn’t asked themselves, “how can we do this (get people to a conference, collect waste, save energy ANYTHING) better”, but have ended the intrapersonal conversation there and not taken it any further?

EXACTLY, all of us.

Dr Thaler walks us through this very simple idea of the NUDGE in the conversation below.

A conversation with Dr. Richard Thaler about NUDGE.

So, the million dollar question has to be, show me NUDGE in action, but not only once but in an ongoing sustainable organization.

What if I could point you at an organization that is a NUDGE itself as well as being made up of hundreds of smaller NUDGES?

The organization is TED.

TED from my perspective is the ultimate NUDGE medium and through it we see the articulation of hundreds of formal NUDGES and from there hundreds more informal nudges.

June Cohen the Executive Producer of TED Media talk us through the TED idea.

June Cohen the Executive Producer of TED Media talking about TED.

June Cohen summed it up in the simple statement that TED wants to take the stories of change it has facilitated being told to the world, in the tongues of the world, and Dr. Thaler would like to see the NUDGE story, of provoking simple change, in every hotel in the world,  as common as the phone book (he said bible)!

TED is Thaler’s hotel room, the ultimate NUDGE medium, providing a means for the dissemination of ideas through stories that simply provoke the thought of doing things a different way, but not mandating it, ultimately improving our decision making process by provoking you to choose to do so.

Comments