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People generally appreciate having a pleasant working environment, so when we came across this location, we didn't hesitate long. Our office used to be in Hoofddorp. Although it was very nicely decorated, it was inside a big concrete building that was next to a lot of other concrete buildings like ours. Not very inspiring! We had vague plans to move but nothing specific.
That is until we came across this location. Quite by accident, we ended up having lunch in the basement of this castle.
Yes, it's really a castle! And it's one that is very centrally situated in Houten close to Utrecht. It’s called Castle Heemstede. 
Out of modesty, we must point out that it is a small castle and we occupy only one floor of it. 
The reason we fell for it was the space. Castle Heemstede is located among big, old trees and cornfields. These surroundings are inspirational to say the least, and we thought this might also be the case for the people who visit us. We have  in-house training facilities, cozy tower rooms for private conversations or for sitting alone with your thoughts. Going for a walk in the grounds is a great alternative for sitting in an office all day.
Let me tell you a little more about the castle itself. It was built in 1645 in a very symmetric style, with a focus on comfortable living. It has been owned by number of families over the centuries. Tragically, the castle was burnt almost to the ground in 1987. Castle Heemstede remained in ruins for some years afterwards, and it took until 1999 for it to be thoroughly restored. There are the remains of some old, fire-damaged oak beams in the attic.   

We are very proud and very honoured to call this place our office home. Driving up the driveway feels like being on holiday rather than arriving at work.  


Our new office home

Our new office is in Kasteel Heemstede. We have moved to this wonderful new location and we want to share the story with you. Read all about it.

Our new office | Behavioural Science Blog | BSB-training

If you like, we recommend taking a look at the website of the restaurant. It is very good and an experience all of its own.  

We have moved to a  wonderful new location and we want to share the story with you.

Image Pre-Mortem

The Pre-Mortem

The Pre-Mortem, identifying future outcomes. Prevent project management failures, find strategic blind spots. Must Read.

 The Pre-Mortem, Identify Outcomes | Behavioural Science

Image The Fundamental Attribution Error

The Fundamental Attribution Error

The Fundamental Attribution Error. When we misunderstand the context. Must Read.

The Fundamental Attribution Error| Behavioural Science Blog | BSB

Picture The Peak-End Effect 

How would you judge an experience over time? Many people think that adding up all an event's negative and positive experiences and finding the mean is the answer to this question. For example, when judging your holiday experience when you have returned home, you could reflect on everything you have done.

Perhaps you had three awful meals, spent four days in the rain, and the roller coaster ride was so-so. But this was pleasantly offset by five great meals, ten days in blistering sun, and great windsurfing. So, on average, it was a good vacation. There were more pluses than there were minuses. Or, as economists would say, the utility of the event was positive.

Interestingly, this is not how we, as humans, judge events at all, and we often don’t realise how this works for our minds.

We tend to judge events with a phenomenon called the Peak-End Effect. This means that our mind only focuses on two aspects of the event that stand out: 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭. We compare those with each other, and that’s our overall feeling about the experience. This would look like the graph below.

As you can see, the mean between the green peak and end is higher than the mean between the red peak and end. It matters how high the highest peak and the peak at the end are. In holiday terms, the peak of the outstanding dinner that you had in a French Château in the middle of your vacation and the exceptional windsurfing in Biarritz on your last vacation day are the things your mind will use to judge your vacation. The red holiday had fewer negative experiences, but your mind will only consider it an “ok” vacation.

How can we use this effect to our benefit? Now that we know that the peak and the end of an experience are significant to our brains, we can use this to structure a narrative to be much more pleasant. This could be, for example, a customer’s journey, which is structured around the Peak-End Effect. A customer who engages with your website will stay longer on the website if there is a Peak-End effect incorporated. A side effect of the Peak-End effect is that people tend to lose track of time.

This effect can be used commercially and in our daily lives. Want more sales, attention, or just a great holiday experience? Create a high peak and end.

Want to know more about the Peak-End Effect? Get in touch with us.


The peak-end effect

The peak-end effect. Harnassing the power of people's reflections on the past can greatly influence your business. Must Read.

The peak-end effect | Behavioural Science Blog | BSB

Judging events

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Getting published by the Harvard Business Review (HBR) was not the end of the story… (see our blog post about our HBR.org publication).

After our successful article on HBR.org, in which we'd focused on strategies for better group decision-making, we received a message from HBR that our article would be published as a chapter in a hard copy version of a HBR guide in the summer.

Naturally, we were very honoured and proud to have our article included in a  Harvard Business Review guide! The HBR guide to Collaborative Teams gives practical tips on how to solve problems as a team and how to deliver great results. The book focuses on how to collaborate within teams, how to build a team and how to make decisions within a team, and our article suited this framework perfectly.

Our chapter in the book describes seven ways to improve decision-making in a group. In it, you can read our thoughts on matters such as how to approach expert advice, the ideal group size, and shared responsibility.

Our current decision-making training modules incorporate these insights, and during our classes we delve deeper into these topics by means of group discussions and exercises. 


Getting published

Gettting published. Naturally, we were very honoured and proud to have our article included in a Harvard Business Review. But is was not the end of the story.

Getting published | Behavioural Science Blog | BSB-training

You can buy the book on Amazon but it can also be found around the world at numerous bookstores, airports and libraries or just read it on your Kindle.


We are very proud to have our article included in a HBR guide.

Afbeelding blogpost Devil's Advocate

Counter Group Think, introduce a Devil’s Advocate

Counter Group Think. Introduce a dissenter into your team. A dissenter, Devil's Advocate in your team might be a pain, but it also might be necessary.


Counter Group Think | Introduce a Devil’s Advocate | BSB-training

Group Think

HBR.org

Last year, together with my fellow London School of Economics (LSE) classmate, good friend and Affective Advisory partner Torben Emmerling we published an article in HBR.org. After our studies in Behaviour Science at LSE, Torben and I remained strongly interested in group dynamics. Over the years, we had encountered some exciting ideas that we wanted to share with the broader public in our work. In particular, we wanted to share our thoughts on how better decisions can be made in a group setting. 

At first, we wrote a more academic version that we sent into HBR for review and potential publication. However, our hopes were not that high as we realised that getting published in Harvard Business Review would be quite challenging. Fortunately we received a very positive response and started a very engaging and interactive process with the HBR the editorial department. 

HBR provided tremendous feedback and support that helped us to adapt our article for the intended audience. We managed to condense the paper down to a two-page format. We had to learn how to embed references into the article. The traditional academic approach is to incorporate multiple references into a sentence, but that doesn't make for easy reading. Instead, we opted for a feature in which references can be retrieved by clicking on a different coloured portion of a sentence.

After a few months of this collaboration, we finally received a message from HBR that our article would be published the next day. We were delighted to see our article appear online and were very grateful for the opportunity to get published by HBR. They even highlighed us as Management Tip of the Day.


Harvard Business Review. About our publication in hbr.org, group decision-making. Incl. link. We love to discuss this topic further, please get in touch.


Harvard Business Review | HBR.org | Behavioural Science Blog 

We had never anticipated reaching such a large audience, and were delighted to receive many positive responses from around the world. We are extremely grateful to Harvard Business Review!

If you would like to discuss this topic further, please get in touch with us.

The following is the link to the article in HBR. We hope you like it!


Let me share with you my process of writing this article for Harvard Business Review.

pexels-janko-ferlic-590493-min

As you may have already discovered by reading our bio, we love studying. Or at least, we're both very eager to learn. That's actually also how we met, through an event run by the School of Life. This was totally unknown territory to both of us and it inspired us. It turned out that we shared interests, which led to many conversations, brainstorm sessions and coordination, but it was this love of studying in particular that led to our collaboration. What triggers this love of learning?

Naturally, this is different for everyone, but it is clear that all forms of studying have their advantages. For me, it is about discovering our world over and over again in new ways and making new or more complete connections. For Duncan, it is about personal growth, with a changed perspective giving a different view of things.  

Another aspect of continued learning is the environment in which it takes place and encounters with other people who have different opinions or new knowledge. We all tend to surround ourselves with people who think more or less the same way we do. However, our society is much more varied than our own opinions and outlook on things. Coming into contact with people who think differently forces us to continue thinking, arguing, reflecting on our own thoughts and maybe even adjusting or radically revising our opinions. This process has two advantages. By using your brain, you keep it active, preventing some of the effects of old age and associated conditions such as dementia. Having an active brain also ensures that you acquire new knowledge faster. A win-win situation!

Always learning

Always learning. We love studying. Or at least, we're both very eager to learn. All forms of studying have their advantages. Read about our experiences.

Always learning | Behavioural Science Blog | BSB-training 

The other benefit of continuing to learn is the opportunities for continued growth. By this, I mean growth primarily as an expansion of your own development, whether you use it for professional or private purposes.  

Thoughts and stories

Our new office home

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