Beyond Covid-19 and Netflix: 3 Say Institute webinars to watch now

ESCP Business School is currently inviting managers and leaders to the free webinar series Beyond Covid – 19 Inspiration for Change. Watch the recap videos!

ESCP Business School is currently inviting managers and leaders to the free webinar series Beyond Covid – 19 Inspiration for Change. Watch the recap videos in which our entrepreneurship researchers and teachers share their knowledge about behavioural science, uncertainty, art thinking and the corona crisis. How might we deal with it?

What behavioural science can tell us about buying behaviour in the wake of a Pandemic

In this talk, Benjamin Voyer addresses the behavioural and psychological reasons for stockpiling, speaks to how we might motivate people to stick to current rules and discusses the rules of culture in behavioural changes. He explains that there has been a shift from a collective focus on promotion (what can go right) to prevention (what can go wrong), and stresses the importance of communicating the long term benefits as well as short term goals of social distancing measures.

On an individual level, Ben advises limiting exposure to bad news, to only consume news from a few trusted sources, to refrain from speculation and to not relay information. All of these tips aim at reducing the information overload that most of us are currently experiencing.

What we can do to feel better in the corona crisis ESCP webinar by Ben Voyer

Building uncertainty competence: applying the entrepreneurial method

While re-gaining some control over which news we consume and to not spread them unnecessarily is one way of dealing with uncertainty, Martin Kupp and René Mauer discuss what we might learn from the uncertainty competence of entrepreneurs. They start off by differentiating certainty (you know that you will draw a purple ball), risk (you know that there are 2/3 yellow and 1/3 balls in the urn), uncertainty (you know that there are purple and yellow balls in the urn, but you don’t know the spread), and true uncertainty (you don’t even know what shapes and colours are in the urn).

In a second step, they show that different entrepreneurial and management tools make sense for different situations of uncertainty. While business planning is useful in a relatively certain project, methods like Art Thinking are more appropriate when uncertainty is high. In practice, this means that organizations have to build an uncertainty competence, which allows them to choose the right tools at the right point in time and empowers employees to try different approaches.

Entrepreneurial tools for different levels of uncertainty by Rene Mauer and Martin Kupp in an ESCP webinar

Working in an improbable world: What can we learn from artists?

So far, we have learned that Art Thinking is a great way to deal with highly uncertain situations. But what is it? Sylvain Bureau, who created the method, explains it in this webinar and especially highlights the importance of deviation at the beginning of the process. Deviation means totally changing the way an artefact is viewed – on all layers from the initial frame or existing norm, the object itself, the situation that is created and the emerging vision, which leads to a new norm.

Next to deviating and making things, Sylvain speaks to the importance of criticizing and being criticized, as well as exposing your work. In this way, Art Thinking helps practitioners to find their Blue Oceans (uncontested markets).  Sylvain teaches Art Thinking to students, managers, and entrepreneurs in a 3-day Improbable workshop.

The Art Thinking method by Sylvain Bureau in an ESCP webinar

Inspiration for Change

You are intrigued and want to know more about ESCP’s webinars? You can check the full curriculum here. If you are interested in innovation and entrepreneurship, you might want to sign up for Marc Sasserath’s class on Identity. Innovation. Impact. How to create a better future in the context of a profound crisis? on 1 July from 6 to 7pm (CEST). You will learn how to leverage the power of identity to accelerate innovation and how to create a sustainable future for your organization. We’re excited to see you there!