What the Nobel Prize in Economics has to do with presentation training

Richard Thaler is now the fourth behavioral economist to visit the concert hall in Stockholm this year for the award ceremony. In 2002, the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics went to Daniel Kahneman and Vernon Smith, and in 2013, Robert Shiller, another behavioral economist, received the prize.

Kahneman and Smith were honored for their foundational work, and Shiller for applying the insights of behavioral economics to the field of financial markets.

Thaler is also an applied behavioral economist. He showed how psychological tricks (“nudges”) can be used to manipulate people’s behavior in all sorts of areas of life, and has thus provided policymakers with a powerful tool.

I am particularly pleased that VWL is becoming more reasonable as a result and is moving away from the idea of the hyper-rational human being, the “homo economicus”.

This has a parallel with my presentation training. Because in many trainings I see managers who try hard to pack as much content as possible into their presentation – but hardly think about how they can move their audience to the desired behavior. Daniel Kahneman in particular has presented revolutionary things that actually belong in the basic education of every manager who gives speeches and presentations.

Let’s talk about it – it’s an incredibly exciting topic!