“The problem with logic is it kills off magic”
Recognise this phrase ? If you do, then you know of the author. If you don’t, then you are in for a treat.
One of the favourite books I’ve read this year is “The Art of Fairness” by David Bodanis (see: “A spellbinding storyteller“). David is a great storyteller with a focus on human behaviour. This neatly brings me to another favourite for the year, “Alchemy” by Rory Sutherland, or. to give the full title: “Alchemy – The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don’t Make Sense”.
Rory too is passionately curious about human behaviour and a great storyteller, with the added bonus that, should you choose to listen to the audiobook, rather than read it, the man himself narrates it (with more than a few ad-libs and laughter at the sheer fun of the stories and his own ideas!
I first encountered Rory at my favourite annual event, Kilkenomics, an Economics festival held each November in Kilkenny, as you might guess from the name. It is the opposite of a dry event about numbers, it is all about how odd we humans are in how we behave, with much humour taken from that. Rory is a regular at Kilkenomics, and last year (gosh was it only last year?) a massive highlight for me was listening to Rory in conversation with Dan Ariely, a behavioural economist and another storyteller.
A saying I repeat often is “business is simple, people are complex”, as I feel the easiest way to lead is to focus on understanding and aligning people. Numbers are a given, structures are needed, but people drive business, not the other way around.
Rory’s “day job” is as resident “people geek” (my title, not his) at Ogilvy, so they help brands find different ways to connect to their audience, hence his line to open the talk I will now share: “here are 10 rules you can adopt that can help you profit from being less logical than everybody else”. However, if Rory did this from a cynical place, it would have zero impact of me, and, I imagine, you. To the contrary, I sense he loves people and our illogical behaviour, that is what drives his insatiable curiousity.
So, first a link to the 18 minute talk from Rory, one that I hope has you download and listen to the audiobook of Alchemy. After that, a great infographic outlining the “10” rules. Finally, hope to see you at Kilkenomics 2021!
