Creating Extraordinary Experiences

Humans at Work with Michael Glazer

How can businesses create extraordinary experiences for customers, employees and learners? Through 20 years of neuroscience research, Dr. Paul Zak has discovered what it takes to create it. Find out what characteristics define extraordinary experiences, how immersion is being used by movie studios and business, and its application in creating effective learning and training.

Dr. Paul Zak is the founding Director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies and Professor of Economics, Psychology and Management at Claremont Graduate University. He is a regular TED speaker and his most recent book is titled Immersion: The Science of the Extraordinary and the Source of Happiness. Dr. Zak is ranked in the top 0.3% of most cited scientists with over 180 published papers and more than 19,000 citations to his research. Dr. Zak is a recognized expert in oxytocin. His lab discovered in 2004 that oxytocin allows us to determine who to trust. This knowledge is being used to understand the basis for civilization and modern economies, improve negotiations, and treat patients with neurologic and psychiatric disorders.

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Episode Highlights

2:13 Research on oxytocin that led to the discovery of Immersion

5:02 How Immersion helps advertising, entertainment and corporate training

7:35 Why asking "did you like it" doesn't give us good data

11:22 How long does Immersion last?

12:37 Applying Immersion to help drive movie ticket sales

16:32 Three keys to create Immersion in business settings

20:59 Why social learning is more effective than learning alone

22:48 Group size to maximize the benefits of social learning

23:49 Caseworx and designing learning around storytelling

25:39 How Immersion is measured with smartwatches

28:32 The 20-20-20 rule for effective learning design

30:41 How Accenture uses Immersion in their training

31:58 Privacy and ethics for collecting biological data

Paul’s view on the greatest unmet wellbeing need at work today

"My inclination, which is going to make you laugh, is to say love. In the philia sense, I really mean caring...Real camaraderie, that teamwork, that cooperation, caring, love, and again, that friendship kind of notion where people really have each other's backs, they're really working together."

What “working with humans” means to Paul

“It means recognizing every individual you work with as a human being who has his or her own concerns, own gifts, [and] own failings, will have good days and bad days. [It's] seeing that person, not as an employee or a worker, as a human being a fully developed human who is imperfect like all of us... just wants to get better at what they're doing and be a contributing member of their organization. So, it really is a call not only for tolerance for the beautiful weirdness of the human beings really accepting and again, embracing our diversity as human beings.”

Resources

Follow: Paul on LinkedIn

Read: Immersion: The Science of the Extraordinary and the Source of Happiness

Visit: Paul's website

Visit: Get Immersion

Visit: Center for Neuroeconomics Studies

Visit: Caseworx website