The Latest from Big Think

To engage your audience effectively, psychologist Robert Cialdini suggests using "pre-suasion" to prime them with subtle cues, ensuring they are receptive to your stories and emotional appeals.

Humans, unlike robots, can't produce identical results consistently, but Pulitzer Prize-winning author Charles Duhigg suggests we can channel our natural curiosity and creativity toward achieving our personal goals and passions.

Join former CIA officer Andrew Bustamante to discover how espionage strategies and psychological insights can enhance your business and leadership skills, helping you motivate teams, safeguard secrets, and unlock your inner secret agent.

Philosopher Daniel Dennett offers time-tested techniques from philosophy and cognitive science to help navigate modern challenges like "fake news" and AI, emphasizing the importance of inquiry and critical thinking in uncovering the truth.

Complexity is the primary challenge organizations face today, and training in equanimity, flexibility, and clear thinking, as emphasized by Harvard psychologist Susan David, is essential to unlocking the true potential of individuals and teams.

Journalist Claire Shipman argues that societal conditioning often leads women to avoid speaking up and taking risks, hindering their leadership potential while allowing others to gain experience through assertive decision-making.

Primatologist Frans de Waal argues that studying chimpanzees and bonobos not only fascinates but also provides valuable insights into human behavior, particularly in areas like leadership, emotions, and gender, which are essential to our identity and societal functioning.

High-level negotiators, like former FBI agent Chris Voss, view negotiation as a science governed by consistent rules that anyone can learn to enhance their chances of achieving better deals, despite the inherent unpredictability of outcomes.

Aristotle's notion of man as a political animal highlights that 21st-century career success hinges on effectively navigating complex relationships and the social and political dynamics within organizations, as emphasized by Harvard Business School professor Linda Hill.

In a world filled with distractions, success hinges on your ability to connect, making sales skills essential for everyone, as emphasized by author Daniel Pink.

Negative stereotypes, whether conscious or unconscious, harm individuals by fostering feelings of exclusion that can diminish their concentration, authenticity, and overall performance at work, as noted by Columbia University psychologist Valerie Purdie-Vaughns Greenaway.

Michelle Tillis Lederman defines a connector as a relationship-focused individual, emphasizing that nurturing professional networks with the same intent as personal relationships can significantly enhance career development, allowing connectors to achieve their goals more efficiently.

Despite the pitfalls of multitasking leading to burnout, productivity expert Cal Newport advocates for "slow productivity," which emphasizes focused, intentional work that prioritizes long-term output over performative tasks, ultimately enhancing both accomplishment and well-being.

In a world overwhelmed by confident yet often misleading claims, research professor Alex Edmans emphasizes the importance of critical thinking and informed decision-making to combat misinformation and enhance our freedom.

In this expert class, Kaufman explores how gendered expectations, such as boys not crying and girls playing with dolls, persist into adulthood and offers strategies for advocating for gender equality by reevaluating these societal norms.

Strategic thinking, as defined by Michael Watkins, involves critically and creatively envisioning potential futures beyond the current situation, and he outlines six specific disciplines to intentionally cultivate this mindset.

Professor Cass Sunstein defines "sludge" as the unnecessary bureaucracy and frictions, like long wait times and excessive paperwork, that hinder access to desired outcomes, suggesting organizations can improve experiences by minimizing these obstacles.

Leadership speaker Jon Acuff emphasizes that while no job or life is perfect and starting over is sometimes necessary, you can successfully navigate transitions by leveraging the skills, qualities, and connections you've developed throughout your career.

In this expert class, executive coach Alisa Cohn shares principles and practices designed to help you overcome self-doubt and insecurity, enabling you to become a more natural leader for your team.

Professor Valerie Purdie Greenaway highlights that while overt discrimination receives attention, subtle, unintentional biases can be equally or more harmful, yet everyone has the ability to recognize and address these biases.