Selfish, Scared and Stupid: Stop Fighting Human Nature And Increase Your Performance, Engagement And Influence

Survival of the species comes down to three basic instincts, say behavioural research strategists Dan Gregory and Kieran Flanagan—fear, self-interest and simplicity. These basic human behaviours come into play in all types of relationships, including those between businesses and customers. Selfish, Scared and Stupid: Stop fighting human nature and increase your performance, engagement and influence, demystifies these behaviours and examines the psychology behind why even the best ideas sometimes fail.

This book helps businesses design their organisations for reality rather than perfection, and also offers strategies to head off unprecedented levels of disengagement within, and outside, the business. It answers baffling questions around why the public sometimes fails to engage despite overwhelming data suggesting otherwise, why so many new products end up on clearance shelves and why so many great salespeople often fall short of their monthly targets.

• Learn how the survival of the species plays into business, including delusionary realities and the reasons ideas can fail
• Discover how to offer customers strategic rewards, thereby making the buying process more attractive to selfish natures
• Examine the link between fear and the unknown, including strategies for quelling fears and turning them into action
• Learn to use a simple mindset to create low-involvement products, helping appeal to instinct and making products hard to resist

This provocative book is built on the idea that businesses must return to a more human engagement methodology in order to succeed. It is an informative read for anyone interested in improving influence, growing business reach, improving sales figures or understanding the complexities of human behaviour.

About the Authors

Dan Gregory and Kieran Flanagan are behavioural researchers and strategists and the founders of The Impossible Institute™, an innovation and engagement think-tank founded ‘to make what’s not … possible!’

Their specialisation is human behaviour and belief systems — our motives, our drives, the things that make us buy and the things that make us buy in.

Over the past 25 years they have helped develop new product lines for Coca-Cola and Unilever, invented new media formats for Murdoch Magazines, created interaction systems for categories as diverse as fast-food chains and government departments, and launched internal and external engagement campaigns for companies as varied as News Ltd, Vodafone and MTV.

They have also worked as directors and lecturers at Australia’s premier creative school, AWARD, lectured at the Miami Ad School, taught postgraduate students at Macquarie University, Sydney and the University of Sydney as well as privately coaching and mentoring CEOs and non-executive board members.

Dan and Kieran are also captivating speakers whose business acumen is matched by a rapier wit and rare human insight — skills that Dan puts to great use in front of 1.4 million viewers as a regular on ABC TV’s Gruen Planet.

Their mission is to turn Impossible Thinking™ into an epidemic.