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The Best of Nudgestock

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Three things you can rely on.

A CPD-accredited Mini MBA.

Credit you can verify, learning you can actually use. Signed, dated, and easy to track.

Reviewed by humans, not automated systems.

Real feedback from a real person, usually within 24 hours.

Built around your role.

We tailor each lesson to your day to day job, so you can put it into practice as soon as Monday comes.

About this course

Fancy taking yourself back through a decade of the most interesting behavioural science and creativity talks?

If yes, you're in the right place.

Nudgestock is Ogilvy Consulting's annual festival from their behavioural science team, and people have called it everything from genuinely brilliant to 'a Glastonbury for nerds'. That part is accurate.

It's hosted by the sharp mind of Rory Sutherland and his crew, bringing together some of the best thinkers around to share how they see the world.

In previous years, you've had speakers like Ruby Wax, Daniel Kahneman, John Cleese, Dan Ariely, Laurie Santos, Dave Trott, Diana Fleischman, Tim Harford, Meik Wiking, BJ Fogg, Richard Thaler, Paul Dolan and loads more.

In this FREE course, we've sifted through the top talks from the last ten years of Nudgestock and turned them into something you can work through, with practical takeaways you can actually apply.

Start building your behavioural science toolkit today.

What you'll learn:

Come up with creative answers to difficult problems.
Get a clearer picture of why people behave 'irrationally' in certain situations.
Build a stronger understanding of human psychology.
Learn how to use 'nudging' to your advantage.

Who's it for

Designed with you in mind.

If you're a:

Someone who wants to influence how people behave
Marketing professional looking to sharpen the impact of your messaging
Anyone who wants to rethink the way the world works
Person who wants to apply behavioural science to real-life problems

A peek behind the curtain.

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Inside a lesson

Short lessons with great stories. Never boring, never dry. About 15 minutes each. You'll get video, writing that actually sticks, and a question to confirm the idea landed properly.

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Personalised to your role

Matched to your job and goals. Tell us what you do and what you want to change. Each lesson is reworked so it fits your world, with practical takeaways for your specific role. The core frameworks and data stay the same; the examples turn into ones you can use.

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Real feedback

A real human team member in your corner. Some questions are reviewed by a person from our team. Need direction? You'll get it. If you're stuck, we'll happily jump on a call to help you untangle it.

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The certificate

A Mini MBA you'll want to keep. CPD-accredited with your certificate signed, dated, and trackable. Our completion rate is above 80%, compared to an industry average that's usually around 10%.

42courses vs typical online courses.

Feature	42courses	Typical platform
Marking & feedback from real people	Within 24 hours	Often auto-quizzes only
Tailored by role & sector	Lessons are customised for you	Same content for everyone
Taught by people who work in the field	Practitioners who wrote the material	More commonly academics or actors
Average completion rate	Over 80%	Roughly 5 to 15% (industry average)
CPD-accredited Mini MBA certificate	Included with every course	Sometimes
30-day money back, no questions	If you're not happy, we'll sort it	Usually a 7-day refund window

Questions you might be wondering about.

You'll have about eight hours of content total, broken into quick lessons, usually around 15 minutes each. Most people wrap it up in roughly two weeks. There's no strict deadline though. You can pause whenever life or work takes over.

No prior study needed. We begin with the basics and build from there. You'll get a fresh way to think about the topic thanks to insights from respected experts. Whether you're starting from zero or already know the field, you'll still pick up something useful.

Each lesson ends with a short question to check your understanding. For every course, a selection of questions is marked manually by our team. If you need a nudge, a real person comes back with guidance. And if you get stuck or just want to talk it through, we're always glad to jump on a call.

You can request a full refund within 30 days of enrolling. No tricky hoops, no exit interview, and no awkward back-and-forth. We respond to refund requests within 24 hours, often quicker. If you're not feeling it, we won't either.

Books can give you the theory, sure. This course is where the ideas become something you can actually use. It's tailored to your role and goals, so each lesson ends with practical takeaways that feel relevant, not generic.

Yes. Learners have used these ideas across tech, healthcare, retail, banking, government, charities, and education. We tailor every lesson to your role and goals, so the examples and exercises fit your situation, not someone else's.

Most learning and development budgets can cover this without stress. If you need it, we can send a VAT-friendly invoice on request. Just email us at groundcontrol@42courses.com . And if you're buying for 10 or more learners, have a look at Team plans .

It's a CPD-accredited certificate recognised across the UK and internationally as part of continuing professional development. Your certificate is personalised with your name, signed, dated, and trackable. Add it to LinkedIn, your CV, your performance review, or even your fridge if that helps motivate you.

Tools You'll Explore

Rory Sutherland

Rory Sutherland is one of the most influential voices out there when it comes to advertising and behavioural science. He's President Emeritus of Ogilvy Consulting, where he helped create their pioneering behavioural science practice, and he's also the bestselling author of Alchemy: The Surprising Power of Ideas That Don't Make Sense. Rory joined Ogilvy in 1988 as a graduate trainee, then spent over twenty years working as a copywriter and creative director before digging into a bigger question: why do people really do what they do? His broad answer is that humans are wonderfully illogical, and that's not a flaw, it's how we're built. The practice he helped build focuses on small psychological shifts that create surprisingly big results in behaviour. His TED talks, including the fan favourite 'Life Lessons from an Ad Man', have been watched millions of times, making him one of TED's most viewed marketing thinkers. He also writes The Wiki Man column for The Spectator, has served as a former President of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), and launched Nudgestock, the world's largest festival of behavioural science and creativity, described by many as 'Glastonbury for nerds'. Beyond Alchemy, he's written The Wiki Man and Transport for Humans, co-authored with Pete Dyson. Across the board, there's a common theme: logic gets overrated, sometimes the 'opposite' of a good idea turns out to be good too, and the biggest improvements in work and life often come from thinking differently rather than doing more. Rory lives in Kent, England, and is still one of advertising's most quotable defenders of the illogical.

Bri Williams

Bri Williams is one of Australia's standout Behavioural Science specialists. She started her own behavioural change company, People Patterns, back in 2011. Bri is the author of five books on Behavioural Science, and before that she worked across finance, HR, and product management for major Australian brands.

Richard Thaler

Richard H. Thaler is an American economist and the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In 2015, he served as president of the American Economic Association.

Laurie Santos

Laurie Santos is a cognitive scientist and Professor of Psychology at Yale University. She leads Yale's Comparative Cognition Laboratory, directs Yale's Canine Cognition Lab, and also serves as Head of Yale's Silliman College. Laurie is also the host of the widely praised The Happiness Lab Podcast.

Meik Wiking

Meik Wiking is Danish, and famously optimistic. He's the head of the Happiness Research Institute and the author of The Little Book of Lykke and the New York Times bestseller, The Little Book of Hygge . He's helped more than 2 million people build happier, more hyggelige lives. LinkedIn: Meik Wiking

Michael Pawlyn

Michael Pawlyn is a British architect known for work in biomimetic architecture and innovation. He also helped kick off the 'Architects Declare' movement in the UK. He's lectured internationally, and in 2011 he became one of a small group of architects whose talk was shared on TED.com, where it has since racked up more than 1.8 million views. His book 'Biomimicry in Architecture' has been the publisher's top-selling title.

Tricia Wang

Tricia Wang is a global tech ethnographer. She's always been focused on one idea: technology should serve people, not the other way around. That belief runs through her work across the private, public, and non-profit sectors. She's also the co-founder of Sudden Compass, a consultancy that helps companies rethink how they use data so it better serves customers.

Tim Harford

Tim Harford is an economist, journalist, and broadcaster. He's the author of 'The Next Fifty Things That Made the Modern Economy', 'Messy', and the bestselling 'The Undercover Economist' (which many people have read more than once). In 2019, Tim received an OBE for services that improved economic understanding in the New Year honours.

What we'll cover, in order.

2013 - 2015: The Early Years

We review the top talks from Nudgestock’s foundational years including what monkeys can teach us about our own biases, why designers shouldn’t ignore the people they design for and how businesses must learn to ‘nudge’ responsibly.

An Introduction to Nudgestock

2013: Laurie Santos ‘Monkeynomics and the Origins of Irrational Decisions'

2014: Dr Dan Lockton ‘Designing With People in Behaviour Change’

2015: Richard Thaler 'Private Sector Nudging: Norms, Ethics and Manners'

2016 - 2019: The Middle Years

From creativity and happiness to biomimicry and social networks, we review the best talks from Nudgestock’s middle years. Highlights include the best-selling author Tim Harford and one of Rory Sutherland’s own heroes, Gerd Gigerenzer, took to the stage.

2016: Tim Harford ‘Why Frustration Makes Us Creative’

2017: Meik Wiking ‘Secrets of the World’s Happiest People'

2018: Michael Pawlyn 'Biomimicry & Biophilia: Nudge or Shove?'

2019: Tricia Wang ‘How Marketing Mistook Clicks For Customers'

2020 - Onwards: Nudgestock goes digital

A global pandemic forces the event online for the first time. We revisit the best talks from the past few years.

2020: Bri Williams ‘Lazy, Scared and Overwhelmed’

2021: ‘Happy Hour’ with wine expert Joe Fattorini

2022: The Tenth Anniversary of Nudgestock

2023: Messiness In The Brain

2024: The Future of Nudgestock and Behavioural Science

Certification Process

Complete all the classes

Attend classes, ask questions, and finish your homework. We check your activity and support your learning journey every step of the way.

Get the Summary Notes

Receive high-quality supporting documents, summary notes, and recommended readings. Ensure you have access to all tools and resources.

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Complete the final assessment to validate your learning. Earn your certificate and share your achievement with your professional network!

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This Course Includes:

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1h of Content

Certificate of Completion

English

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