New book shows organizations how to incorporate insights from behavioural science

Toronto – Every organization is ultimately in the business of behavioral change. Whether it involves advocating for a social cause, building customer loyalty, or delivering government services, behavioral change is critical to organizational success. Even so, most groups don’t have a clear roadmap for embedding insights from behavioral science into their operations. To address this need, Professors Dilip Soman and Catherine Yeung co-edited an anthology,


The Behaviorally Informed Organization


, that provides a comprehensive framework for using behavioral insights (BI) to achieve better outcomes, improve overall efficiency, and engage stakeholders.

Soman and Yeung’s collection, published this month by Rotman-UTP Publishing, an imprint of University of Toronto Press, brings together many of the world’s leading thinkers and practitioners in the field of BI. These contributors offer an enterprise-wide, strategic perspective about how governments, businesses, and other organizations have utilized BI. Several essays build upon work conducted by the

Behaviorally Informed Organizations Partnership

, which is housed at the Behavioral Economics in Action Research Centre at Rotman (BEAR) at the University of Toronto.

Featuring a foreword by Cass Sunstein, this landmark work helps professionals of all stripes understand both why and how they can incorporate BI into their day-to-day practices.

An indispensable resource for practitioners,

is written for people who’ve read popular BI books like

Nudge

and

Misbehaving

, but are not quite sure how the ideas therein relate to their own lives as citizens and consumers.

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Dilip Soman is a professor of marketing and holds the Canada Research Chair in Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. He serves as director of the Behavioral Economics in Action Research Centre at Rotman.

Catherine Yeung is an associate professor of marketing at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Among the contributors are seven alumni of the Rotman School including, Daniel Cowen, MBA’20, Sophie Duncan, MBA’20, Bing Feng, MBA’19, Niketana Kannan, B’Com’20, Melanie Kim, MGA/MBA’16, Kim Ly, MBA’08 and, Jennifer Nachshen, MBA’17.

SELECT ADVANCE PRAISE FOR

THE BEHAVIORALLY INFORMED ORGANIZATION

“Soman and Yeung have assembled a dream team of thinkers and doers in the service of a single mission – to nudge the nudgers. This elegant combination of theory and practice will help leaders of every variety make wiser decisions, build better systems, and rethink how they do what they do.”

Daniel H. Pink, author of When, Drive and To Sell Is Human

“More and more, it is the behaviorally informed organization that is the successful organization. This collection of essays brings leaders up-to-date with the most recent – and practical – insights from behavioral science. Invaluable. Authoritative. And inspiring!”

Angela Duckworth, founder and CEO of Character Lab and Rosa Lee, Egbert Chang Professor, University of Pennsylvania, and author of

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance

“This book is the ultimate guide to effectively using behavioral insights in organizations. Rooted in science, it offers down-to-earth, practical advice and relevance for a wide array of practitioners.”

Francesca Gino, Harvard Business School Professor, and author of

Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life

”

The Behaviorally Informed Organization

is the

Gray’s Anatomy

of the behavioral insights discipline: a reference manual chock full of valuable tools, methods, figures, and charts. It is a well-written and practical guide to nudging the world for the better. Keep it on a nearby shelf and pull it out often.”

Roger L. Martin, Former Dean and Professor Emeritus at the Rotman School and author of

When More Is Not Better: Overcoming America’s Obsession with Economic Efficiency

.

Rotman-UTP Publishing is an imprint of University of Toronto Press. Founded in 1901, University of Toronto Press (UTP) is Canada’s leading academic publisher and one of the largest university presses in North America. UTP has published over 6,500 books, with well over 3,500 of these still in print. Each year, UTP publishes approximately 200 new scholarly, course, reference, and general interest books. For more information, visit utorontopress.com.

The Rotman School of Management is part of the University of Toronto, a global centre of research and teaching excellence at the heart of Canada’s commercial capital. Rotman is a catalyst for transformative learning, insights, and public engagement, bringing together diverse views and initiatives around a defining purpose: to create value for business and society. For more information, visit rotman.utoronto.ca.

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For more information:


Ken McGuffin

Manager, Media Relations

Rotman School of Management

University of Toronto


mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca