As part of my ongoing series to make business psychology models more simple and practical, I seek to address the question:

What is Gut Instinct?

(And why it may not be as good as you think)

Over the last ten years or so, I have run hundreds of workshops on Unconscious Bias (in the context of Diversity & Inclusion) with thousands of people hanging on my every word. Or, at least that’s what I tell myself. And if there’s one thing I would stake my fee on, it would be a question arising about gut instinct.

· “I know you say ‘we are all biased’, but what about my gut instincts?”

· “When I meet someone, I just know whether they’re good or not. What about that?”

· “I have lived my life by my instincts and they’ve not let me down so far. They work, right?”

· “I don’t know what it is, but I just didn’t have a good feeling about him. Should I just ignore that??”

It seems to really strike a chord. We have such firm belief in our instincts about other people, that when someone like me tells you to, at the very least, be extremely cautious in their use, it prompts cynicism, disbelief and on occasion anger.

So, let’s clear a few things up. What do we know about gut instinct? And why is it not as good as you think?

As part of my ongoing series to make business psychology ideas more simple and practical, I seek to address the question:

What are Gender Myths?

Several years ago, I was dropping my young son at our local nursery. As I am milling about, registering my boy into class, and watching the kids cause havoc, I notice one of the nursery assistants handing out beakers of water for the little ones. As she comes round to my son, she hands him a beaker and then (with a beaming smile and genuine innocence) immediately takes it off him, apologises sweetly, and says “Sorry Dylan! That’s not for you…” and hands the PINK beaker to the nearest available girl. And so it begins, I thought…

Gender is a touchy subject. Does it exist? Is it innate? Is it different from biological sex? How should it shape and dictate who we are, how we should be and what we can achieve?

Let’s take a look.

As part of my ongoing series to make business psychology models more simple and practical, I seek to address the question:

What is Resilience?

Simple question. Difficult answer.

It’s an interesting thing that we all seem to know what ‘resilience’ means, until we are asked to define it. Is it something to do with dealing with pressure? Or maybe it’s about bouncing back from failure? Or is it the ability the adapt to changing circumstances?

What is clear is that there is no accepted definition of ‘resilience’. Which, let’s be honest, makes this blog a bit difficult! But I think we can all agree, it’s important to have. Perhaps now more than ever. So, let’s focus on what we do know.

As part of my ongoing series to make business psychology models more simple and practical, I seek to address the question:

What is Potential?

In 2010 Michael Housman, a labour economist, was wrestling with a problem many of our clients continue to struggle with; what makes some workers perform better than others? And how do I identify those who will be successful over the longer-term? In effect, what does ‘potential’ look like?

As part of my ongoing series to make business psychology models more simple and practical, I seek to address the question:

What is Unconscious Bias?

Picture this. You are on a plane. It is still on the tarmac and passengers are boarding. You are sitting in your seat at the front of the plane, trying and failing to get comfortable. Suddenly, an armed terrorist storms on to the plane. He fights his way into the cockpit and is holding a gun to the pilot’s head.

Got it? Can you see it?

OK, is the pilot male? If you are like most people (myself included), the answer would be yes. And why not? After all, 95% of pilots are male. It is a sound and educated guess. But, it is nothing more than a guess. Unfortunately, our subconscious often substitutes these guesses for absolute truths. That all pilots are male. That all pilots should be male. This is unconscious bias at work.

As part of my ongoing series to make business psychology models more simple and practical, I seek to address the question:

What is Diversity & Inclusion?

Equality. Diversity. Inclusion.

Three words that, in my experience, are thrown around in organisations with wanton abandon. Having worked with many different companies on their diversity and inclusion agendas, it is obvious that companies want to “do something about it” but that there is a huge amount of confusion about what “it” is. These three terms are often confused, misunderstood or seen as one and the same thing. But there are key distinctions.

As part of my ongoing series to make business psychology models more simple and practical, I seek to address the question:

What is Leadership?

Ask ten random people in the street to define “effective leadership” and you’ll get ten different answers. Ask Google the same question and you’ll get nearly 150 million hits! But, despite the many (often confusing) that ways leadership can be defined, there are a number of core components that are central to most definitions.