"The Power of a Public Commitment Device:" Steve Martin on Five Years of GAABS

The former Board Chair and Influence at Work founder reflects on the origins of the world’s leading association for applied behavioural scientists — and where the field is heading next.

When people hear ‘co-design,’ they sometimes picture a friendly workshop and a wall of sticky notes. That can be part of it, but co-design is more specific, it’s a structured way of making decisions about services with the people who use and run them. The promise is better ideas grounded in real experience. The challenge is that group dynamics can quietly distort what the group ‘decides,’ which is why how we facilitate co-design matters as much as who is in the room.

It can produce better services, but only if the workshop avoids an ‘echo chamber,’ where the same views get repeated, quieter perspectives drop out, and early opinions set the direction. This blog sets out some suggestions to break that pattern, so groups can think more clearly, disagree safely, and make better decisions together.

Co-design is a way of designing services with the people who will use and deliver them. That often means bringing service beneficiaries, practitioners, and commissioners into the same room to make sense of needs, test ideas, and try out early versions of solutions. The opportunity is getting closer to what matters in real life. The risk is that group dynamics can produce false consensus, scattered priorities, or polite agreement that hides real disagreement, all of which can keep the group in an echo chamber.

Just a few short days ago, GAABS welcomed Katy Milkman, host of the popular podcast "Choiceology" for a special webinar. The reason … to take a deep dive into what makes Katy’s podcast, sponsored by Charles Schwab, so impactful – it’s a two-time GAABS award-winner and has won awards for edutainment as well from other organisations.  

New GAABS Board Chair, Torben Emmerling interviewed Katie about her approach to science communication, how she balances academic research with public engagement, and the production process behind "Choiceology." They discussed the podcast's successful format of combining storytelling with scientific insights, cultural considerations in content creation, and the challenges of translating academic research into practical applications.