Ep 78: BJ Fogg, Director, Behavior Design Lab at Stanford

Today's guest is BJ Fogg, Founder & Director, Behavior Design Lab at Stanford, with an appearance by William Shan, one of his students who is project managing the launch of his new Behavior Design for Climate Action online training program.

BJ teaches good people how behavior works so they can create products & services that benefit everyday people around the world. He is a behavior scientist, with deep experience in innovation and teaching. At Stanford University he runs the Behavior Design Lab. He also teaches his models and methods in graduate seminars with students from various majors.

On the industry side, BJ trains innovators to use his work so they can create solutions that influence behavior. The focus areas include health, financial wellbeing, learning, productivity, and more.

BJ wrote a seminal book, Persuasive Technology, about how computers can be designed to influence attitudes and behaviors. That book, together with his early innovations, inspired an annual global conference on the topic. His Stanford students have gone on to co-found Instagram, as well as launch a global movement focusing on “time well spent” and the Center for Humane Technology. Starting in 2010, BJ’s Stanford lab started shifting focus away from Persuasive Technology toward a new domain they named “Behavior Design,” a set of models and methods about human behavior (with nothing to do with technology.)

BJ’s new book Tiny Habits will be published in over 15 languages.

Fortune Magazine named BJ a “New Guru You Should Know” for his insights about mobile and social networks.

In today’s episode, we cover:

Overview of BJ’s work How his work has evolved since he started doing it Who BJ’s work is meant to help, and some details on the framework/process it follows How (and why) BJ first became interested in helping address climate change What he and Will are going to do about it, and how they plan to help How others in similar positions might apply their skills and station to help with the climate fight BJ’s advice for others looking to find their lane.

Links to topics discussed in this episode:

BJ Fogg: https://www.bjfogg.com/ Behavior Design for Climate Action: https://www.behaviordesign.info/climateaction Tiny Habits book: https://www.tinyhabits.com/

You can find me on twitter @jjacobs22 or @mcjpod and email at info@myclimatejourney.co, where I encourage you to share your feedback on episodes and suggestions for future topics or guests.

Enjoy the show!