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Ep 37 - How To Harness The Science of Human Instincts, with Andrew O'Keeffe

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Introducing Andrew O’Keeffe

It was only 250 years ago that most humans changed their habitat from hunting and working together in villages, to working in offices and factories. But those human instincts from the Savannah, from the bush, from our villages still exist within us.

Andrew O’Keeffe has taken the science of human instincts and looked at how to apply them within organizations. He strives to understand those instincts and how we can harness them in how we work together.

In speaking with Andrew, my overall question was ‘how might we use the science of human instincts to improve how organizations work with communities?’ and the fascinating answer is that human instincts tells us to embrace things that are sometimes looked down on in the workplace.

We tackle things like office gossip and chit-chat, and Andrew debunks the myth that humans are averse to change. He talks about how you can communicate, how you can talk, how you can listen to really embrace what we are hardwired to be thinking about and working through within the back of our brains.

We only scratched the surface, but if you do any work with communities, this will be a really valuable episode for you.

In today’s episode you’ll learn:

  • How to encourage the change you’re looking for by tapping into what we know about human instincts.

  • How to create an organisational culture based on human instincts and how to engage externally based on them

  • Examples of human instincts and how they play out in the workplace.

  • Tackling the myth that people resist change and diving into what instincts are really at play.

Resources mentioned in this episode


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