The Power of Surprise - Part 1 (with Rory Sutherland)

What is the value of surprise to us in becoming more interesting? And how does one of today's most stimulating thinkers stay so consistently surprising himself? 

In Part 1 of a two part conversation, Adam sits down with Rory Sutherland - Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, behavioural science evangelist, and endlessly fascinating reframer of what we thought we knew - to talk about why surprise matters. 

As he points out, sometimes the right thing to be is completely unsurprising: there will always be, after all "a market for "the drearily predictable." 

But if you're trying to change behaviour - to challenge, disrupt, or eat the big fish - then surprise becomes essential. 

Because the brain isn't built to notice what it expects. It's built to notice what breaks the pattern. 

In this first half of the conversation, Rory explores: 

• What is ‘Just the right amount of weird’?
• Why it is that we give disproportionate attention to what find surprising
• How all human perception is context-dependent, and why recontexting is so powerful
• Why the healthiest creative human activity is to try on as many frames as we can
• What it means to bring a Game Theorist’s mindset to everything we do - even the way we take holidays. 

And why, in fact, surprise might be the most cost-efficient way to earn attention there is. 

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Let's Make This More Interesting is a podcast from eatbigfish: the strategic consultancy that helps ambitious Challengers to grow.

Follow Adam on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-morgan-3a473a/  

Thanks to our editor Ruth and our producer Rachael. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.