Britain’s Conservative MPs have been told to read Nudge, a book that explores how businesses and policymakers influence behaviour at a subconscious level (see this post I wrote in June for a fuller summary).

David Cameron, the party’s leader, has embraced one of the book’s tenets: that politicians should use these techniques to “nudge” people into changing bad habits or adopting good ones. 

I saw Richard Thaler, one of the authors, speak in London last month. ”Don’t use bans and mandates, just nudge,” he declared. He convinced me that careful study of the way people make choices would improve market regulation and policy formulation.

However, his alternative to “bans and mandates” seemed too reliant on bombarding the public with information in the name of transparency. It’s worth checking out the Nudge blog, though. And here’s a video of Prof Thaler at the Royal Society of Arts.

Elsewhere:

1. Dealing with the talent shortage in China
2. Fostering leadership skills in Muslim women
3. How to raise capital without giving away your company
4. Confessions of a bank’s risk manager
5. The art of raising prices to offset cost inflation without alienating shoppers

In spite of his penchant for purple cows, Seth Godin’s blog frequently contains sensible, practical advice for managers that won’t activate the gag reflex in jaded Europeans. Here he is on how to use graphs in a presentation.

Elsewhere:

1. How the success of Pixar’s new film shows the value of keeping the same team in place.
2. The top 35 under-35: the UK’s female managers and entrepreneurs ranked.
3. Harnessing play for creativity.
4. McKinsey and the matrix management merger muddle.
5. Indian companies are inefficient, rely too much on debt-funded acquisitions and neglect R&D.

If you’ve stumbled across any good content that illuminates management issues this week, please post the link below.