6. Kurt Nelson | The Iowa Idea

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“Context Matters.”

In this episode of The Iowa Idea Podcast, I sit down with Kurt Nelson, PhD. Kurt earned his bachelor’s degree and his MBA at The University of Iowa. He is a business owner and co-founder, along with Tim Houlihan, of Behavioral Grooves, one of the world’s top podcasts on behavioral science.

In honor of Behavioral Grooves podcast, I force Kurt to answer “coffee or tea?” Turns out, with most things in life, context matters. We discuss his road to becoming a behavioral scientist and podcaster; and how working on honing one’s craft can improve their approach to business.

We cover the endowment effect and how it can hamper our decision making. We explore ways to mitigate our own ego and biases to make better decisions. We get to dig in to Annie Duke’s “Thinking in Bets” approach to making better decisions and being a more socially mature collaborator.

I enjoyed being able to nerd out with Kurt, discussing how design and behavioral science lenses can help us better collaborate, iterate, and improve our decisions. I really appreciated Kurt taking the time to join the podcast and sharing “the importance of not holding ourselves and our ideas on a pedestal.”

Thanks for checking out The Iowa Idea Podcast. I hope you enjoy the episode.

About Kurt

Kurt is a sought-after speaker and recognized leader in human motivation and behavior change. For over 20 years, Kurt has worked with global companies to apply behavioral science principles to drive change in their organizations.

He is founder and president of The Lantern Group, a behavioral change and communication agency. He also is the co-founder, with Tim Houlihan, of the Behavioral Grooves podcast, where they interview leading academic and business executives from around the world and explore how they apply behavioral science to their work and lives.

All his work focuses on understanding ways to positively influence how people behave. Kurt has his MBA from The University of Iowa and his Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Capella University.

Credits

Thank you to Kurt Nelson.

Episode produce by Spark Consulting Group (www.inspiredbyspark.com) in Iowa City, with support from Executive Podcast Solutions (https://www.executivepodcastsolutions.com/)

The Iowa Idea Podcast music written and performed by Paisley Bible.