This video of Dan Ariely from TED  has several enlightening and surprising ideas you can use. It’s 18 min long but the last 2 minutes are an ad.

Why people cheat and steal and how this can be encouraged or discouraged. The reasons are not at all what you’d expect.

How these conditions were exacerbated by the stock market and financial systems to cause the mess we’re in.

Why our intuitions can lead us wrong and what to do about it. This doesn’t come up till about the 14th minute but it’s the most important takeaway. It broadens the appeal beyond cheating and beyond the financial mess. How many of your intutions do you rely on to run your business and how many have you really tested?

Takeaways:

1. Buy Dan’s book here  http://www.predictablyirrational.com/
2. Test your intuitions. This is a hard and painful process for most people. Hard because our intuitions are often invisible – we just think of them as “how things work.” And painful because self inspection often is. Hire a coach to help if you want to break out of the limits your intuitions are imposing on your growth.

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