Rory Sutherland: Sweat the small stuff

www.ted.com It may seem that big problems require big solutions, but ad man Rory Sutherland says many flashy, expensive fixes are just obscuring better, simpler answers. To illustrate, he uses behavioral economics and hilarious examples.
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[@swedishnitro]

You can tell him from me that I really enjoyed his book, and more importantly, his bit at the end about 'the ministry of detail' and the no-cost/high impact is the focus of my entire PhD.

[@mailbox5ravi]

Your comment is 10 years old, not sure if you will read my comment... I am Curious to know more about your Research Topic / Project.

[@Fmeson]

@rarrmonkey I think he was pretty clever not naming it actually. By posing it as a question viewers might continue to think about his speech and its message. He is in effect applying the very principle he is talking about.

[@crudhousefull]

What he says is VERY significant. As a manager you are expected to 'spend' the alloted money and you often go for big budget options just to fill the gap. Sometimes of course there's a gap between what you want to do and the amount of money available...but a lot of the time it's the other way around...especially when there's a big budget. Very intelligent guy

[@LOGOASSASSIN]

Rory my old mate/colleague, he smoked a pipe at work when he was a nobody. He still works at the same company and is now the big cheese.

[@kumulumbus]

whatched the animation on the end, is great

[@SashaRancic]

Talking about details: those people who edit these videos for KZbin should either lower the volume of the TED intro and outro (including the cartoon at the end), or boost the volume of the more important part - the lecture. Every time I watch a TED video on KZbin I have to correct the levels myself. If I set the level during the intro I find the lecture too quiet. I can't speak for others, but this really annoys me. Is it just me? p.s. Great lecture by the way.

[@GraphitePen]

@flexcapacitor1 That is a very idealistic way to look at things in - trusting people to divulge the necessary info. I work in customer support and I find that most people will be aware of a problem but will not have a semblance of understanding of the cause or how to fix it. What is then required is someone asking the appropriate questions. This is where the main problem lies. Customer input is essential but it will many times point you away from the solution or even the problem itself.

[@chaotk15]

Chiming in from 2020: User Experience? I'm studying Game Design: UX and i'm loving Rory. Add Wifi, Improve the from, encourage community. Little things focused on how the user experiences the product/service

[@Truedoogie]

Same! But from 2024.

[@popstar10000]

he is my dad; I promise! he was really happy you said that. he says thanks!

[@eagletsar5700]

Your dad is awesome!

[@PrincipledUncertainty]

Really? Lucky you. Science dictates that you must be at least 75 per cent genius.

[@jeffmonk6359]

I would pay to hang out with your Dad for a week. HIs talks are the best things I have seen in a long time. 8 year ago...whoops. Nerco-post!

[@i_habeeb_rahman]

Do you know how awkward it is to see your same comment all over KZbin under your dad’s videos. Grow up daddy’s girl.

[@adame636]

@@i_habeeb_rahman hahaa you're replying to a comment from 9 years ago probably written by a young girl. Has another human being ever enjoyed your company?

[@TheStepItUpQueen]

I agree - Do the small things first to grow your business.

[@stapleinmyfinger]

Talk was good and all but the animation at the end was priceless haha

[@Stewart5225]

Rory is a Genius and he has a superb sense of humor!

[@lazygamerz]

That means you reach a short distance to get an easy to reach proportional gain. Its the mechanical thing he mentioned, fex 1:1 ratio (or some other ratio, minus some friction in the process, thermodynamics is king). What he is talking about fex, to get almost everyone to be organ donors, you don't have to do much, you just have an opt-out form when you take your drivers licence instead of an opt-in form (so "check the box if you don't want to be an organ donor in the event that (...)").

[@anaselghafari4146]

A name for those details he is talking about already exists: nudges (plural of a nudge: a gentle push meant to give a signal or direct attention). Thaler & Sunsteing have written a book about that. The title of the book: "nudge".

[@frezzingaces]

I do believe the job of the "Chief of detail" is called the User Experience designer. Their job is to make sure the user/customer experience is consistant all the way through the buying/consuming/whatever process.

[@Alex-ps5ok]

Seems you were right… but also seems now that that title and the perceived value of it has pushed it into the high cost quadrant. Onto the next…

[@briansmobile1]

Call the ministry of detail Ygetarts. It sounds unheard of and complicated enough to be respected, but is simply strategy backwards. Very simple.

[@Draw2quit]

Flashing signs that tell you whether or not you're speeding promote guilt. Speed cameras are a challenge to try and beat.

[@colin-nekritz]

There was a speed camera with a display showing how fast you were going on my street and all it did for me was egg me on to continually beat my high score.

[@michaelcollins1211]

Speaking of little details , terrible sound ..so I guess he's rite

[@SometimesYouJustGottaSayIt]

Talks so much sense!

[@hellalpha]

This talk is absolutely brilliant.

[@vijayarya9528]

Thank you all very much

[@ZerqTM]

8:30 i would love being able to see the balance before hand...

[@frasmus]

"Touché" might work. A touch is elemental. In fencing it conveys that you hit the target.

[@mike28110]

I don't know why, I love this guy lol.

[@WavyMinds]

@SashaRancic Ummm...I agree to some extent..especially the intro literally bumping you from your seat...and yea actually problem with sound in lectures is maybe due to when speakers move their head to see slides...the mic got less voice..just a guess...

[@chuckmartin935]

This guy is the man. great ted ex speech. Hit the ball out of park!

[@Truedoogie]

I love the animation at the end, but why is it there?

[@ChaosmanOne]

Inspiration, genius, eureka, ingenuity...there are a TON of words that describe the fourth thing precisely because people are so attracted to it.

[@roidroid]

the word he is looking for is "Art". example: while riding my bike yesterday i came across a dead parrot lying on the dirt on the side of a path near a school. I stopped my bike, took some sticks, and layed the sticks around the parrot like a photo frame. It took 10 seconds. It's going to confuse a lot of people who see it.

[@wendyturner7047]

You need to look at the leaders of small charities for people who have mastered cheap but effective solutions and strategies

[@kunalgawlani]

The fourth quadrant in the chart has a word in India and that is called "Jugaad". Perfectly fits the description.

[@GreningerProductions]

Invention or innovation, it can have a small cost and a large impact, it includes synergy, one might include the term tactical, or calculated, the scope is that of detail, rather than the greater scope of strategy. This leads to the interesting area of disruptive innovation research, such innovations overtake large organizations by means of cheaper processes and better products using newer technology. In the end the best term would be disruptive innovation research.

[@barakau]

Call it SSUL = Small Stuff Users Love... Then you can say.... What's the SSULUTION? 😅

[@zarkoff45]

the name for that stuff. Well, "detail" is good. I like "micro-strategy" - or - "detail strategy" - psycho-strategy might be an entirely different and equally important thing. "Ingenuity" doesn't cut it because ingenuity can happen at the largest scales also.

[@aseri93]

What about "resolution"?

[@LudicrousTachyon]

@rarrmonkey I think the point was that there is no paid position for that 4th square.

[@ayjay10016]

MINISTRY OF DETAIL is a fabulous fabulous idea however for staffing this ministry you have to head hunt those rare administrators who have the mental faculty of attention-to-detail. Another way to find such people is to add an input in the Annual Performance Reports Proformas which states this mental faculty on a scale of 1-10.

[@AttentiontoDetail]

beautiful idea. thank you.

[@SomethingSea1]

@Saerain Yeah, that part of it really confused me. Why the hell would you log in except to see what your balance is? Do you have enough money to pay for something that you want? No? Then it'll have to wait.

[@roidroid]

@Sporin47 agreed, my thought was "Art" as well.

[@kirby570]

@10Pups "Common Sense" is two words... But I agree with that statement nonetheless.

[@nekopariah6306]

Detail. He said it himself, the fourth quadrant is detail.

[@MaxRoaldEckardt]

or pragmatism

[@weppan]

The word you are looking for is, or is close to: Amelioration. I draw this conclusion by the bipolar logic. By the definition of axis, Strategy and trivia are each conterparts. The conterpart of Concultancy (defined as: High economical cost (individual driven) and commonly associated idéas) is someone with low economical cost (group driven) and has uncommon association idéas. otherwise a word like am-al-crea (good natured with a relation to creating) is needed.

[@Elaina43]

PERKS practically inconsequential free stuff that adds inordinate value making an acronym out of this shouldn't be too difficult - but I couldn't do it... Pleasurable Extras Rewards Keepsake Stuff see? not good. But I still like the word.

[@yogabija]

How about Tintategy for the strategy of the small things which deliver results.

[@TonyBongo869]

Just found this. In my public company all the senior people couldn’t become the director, so the three or four also rans became the details guys. There was always something that needed senior attention but little budget. They were the first laid off or retired when the company downsized, all the business suffered.

[@girlyvoice3210]

@EyeMonniker No its not important, not urgent.

[@lazygamerz]

He should read Dan Ariely's work. That we are incredibly irrational (but all believe we're rational) fits perfectly with this. Most of what we do, we do because we have close to zero actual insight into how our neurons came to do what we did (fex, I have no evidence from an MRI machine or other recording device to determine how I made the decision between 2 or 3 slices of bread, thus, neither answer is rationally correct (not accounting for the day-calorie requirement divided by kcal per slice).

[@Gerar2891]

Your dad is one of the few people in this world with a well developed common scence. If he his your dad give him my cheers

[@antuntun]

brilliant lecture!

[@daltonmortimer7735]

Does this remind anyone else of Granny Weatherwax's "Headology"? His " Detail Officer" concept sounds EXACTLY like Terry Pratchett's concept of "an edge witch"

[@onsapplikasies8620]

Great stuff

[@nolickspittle4753]

The guy is a total rockstar!

[@SE4GY7]

"HACKS" THATS THE NAME

[@lillielime]

@SashaRancic i completely agree with you!

[@brandonmontgomery7461]

I'd call the fourth quadrant "Feedback"

[@vitalinguist]

The term is “efficiency”

[@samwilliams4979]

Love Rory and his ideas and insights are fascinating BUT as an accountant in the railway (maybe biased) his usual example of spending £6bn to create dedicated high speed track for Eurostar and South Eastern services instead of on models always bugs me… First, £6bn CAPEX investment to increase speed, capacity and create a dedicated terminus for the trains is not really comparable with spending more on operational expenditure that will be year on year spend indefinitely Second, Eurostar was always meant to terminate at St Pancras as there wasn’t the capacity at Waterloo so either new track would have to have been built and cost benefit ratio of building it at high speed spec made too much sense vs conventional track Eurostar created a competition vs airlines (Ryanair and easyJet were early in their creation) so there is value in faster services for business and leisure passengers if it gets you from central London to central Paris/brussels etc faster than flying Added benefits include more capacity which means more south eastern services which is great for communities in those areas There is a psychological impact if you’re travelling through northern France at 186mph then trundle though Kent when out of the tunnel I think he definitely has a point that there is a market for people who don’t mind a slower travel duration if the travel experience is more comfortable/luxurious (Concorde is classic example). Having the terminal at St Pancras has the business lounge which wasn’t really possible without that investment in the first place. Really though more should be put in to make rail travel different from air as at the moment you’re stuffed in that tiny room in St Pancras and still need to arrive a long time before to get stamps and security which should definitely be reviewed Either way interesting stuff. The rail industry is very uninnovative and stuck in old ways of doing things so a lot of his points on creativity could for sure be taken

[@alexsv9310]

13 years have passed, but I thought it would be possible to borrow some thoughts for the article, and of course, I will indicate the source..

[@saerain]

The #1 reason I ever log into my bank account online is to check my balance. In fact, I can't recall ever logging in for anything else. There's nothing much else to do. To actually transfer money I have to use PayPal.

[@oayabacnhoj6855]

I love Canada for diamond shreddies

[@RickImus]

A suggestion from an intern at Nabisco / Post in London, Ontario. 2008.

[@atakd]

SE quadrant = serendipity

[@leeelliott8611]

Always the little things that make a big difference

[@gilmijar]

12:04 the fourth quadrant is kaizen

[@RickImus]

Kaizen meaning, continual improvement

[@garethjones2746]

This guy is great

[@nicksmithworld]

Fascinating stuff

[@marijandesin8226]

I have been baffled by up and down buttons the first time i came to heathrow.

[@smartbiz4u]

that think is called "Value Added" or Leverage

[@swedishnitro]

Very good!

[@rmvanroosendaal]

kicking ass. the fourth group is kicking ass.

[@runawayjury]

Is it really that inconvenient to turn down the volume, and then up again?

[@photoallergic]

Rightfully so, he is a bright guy.

[@Lee-qj4hk]

00:22 So public money can flow into (a select few) private pockets?

[@georgecaplin9075]

Ingenuity. Research costs money. Ingenuity doesn’t. It also has a big effect.

[@velara314]

rory, they desparately need that position. but that can be supplemented or complimented or substituted by another source. who? ...the customers and users of your products. they use the product every day and are completely qualified to tell you what they want. :) listen corporations (they won't read this), the answers have already been given to you. listen to and work with your customers. ask the people in the trenches what they notice, want and need. great speech!!!

[@kidneystones8449]

4th Box is Innovation

[@gojiack]

I'd call that word "Veritizing"... based on the name of Verity Lambert - the founding producer of the classic series of Doctor Who. If there's ONE show that showcased how you can create a ton of value with no budget - that's Doctor Who... the New Series also showcases why a bigger budget doesn't always mean better results as well. ^_^

[@RiyadAbouJaoudeh]

How many people here are only staring at his shirt? I am asking myself: How do I reconcile what he is talking about with his choice of shirt 😂

[@popstar10000]

I know :)

[@happytailsspa]

I think the fourth quadrant should be called "Tweaklidge"-- Strategy's anti-particle... small tweaks and (hopefully) disproportionate results :-)

[@bigtimedriller]

The bottom right quadrant may be called creative expression, but I like the 'low hanging fruit' comment also

[@GudLawdHammercy]

That 4th thing is "Thoughtfulness"

[@nosafespace]

@rarrmonkey i didn't like his graph all together, complete bs if u ask me but his message is still good.

[@CharacterString]

Amplification.

[@XxmattitudexX]

its the butterfly effect when the smallest thing can have the biggest effect. i suppose butterfly efficency officer dosent sound to good for a job title but it is accurate to what he is describing

[@MechVince]

Creativity, that is the fourth thing.

[@PanacheFashion]

how many times did he say actually? i lost count..

[@sunrainmisticon]

BRILLIANT!!! BRILLIANT!!!

[@Baronsamsam]

How about butterflies as a name for it. As in the butterfly effect

[@joeykimura]

same here

[@bobojr456]

it's called Ingenuity

[@popstar10000]

thats my dad :) im really proud :)

[@LondiniumEspresso]

Know how?

[@gabydewilde]

sophistication

[@wodahsking]

It's called the Ministry of Efficiency

[@belliebum12]

4th quadrant... perspective-based decision making. That could probably be shortened a great deal.

[@CityzenJane]

@JudgeWapner actually - this sort of thinking is completely NOT common.

[@ShallowBeThyGames]

If they executives occasionally asked the guy who works for them, for minimum wage, how his job could be made easier, I'm sure they'd have better ideas than the people sitting around the board-room table. Obviously the obligatory "longer breaks" and "better looking co-workers" are par for course, but basically the big-guys should work WITH the little-guys. It's a two-way street too, the boss might get some astounding ideas, the workers are motivated too just by asking for their opinion...win-win

[@scorpionkings]

I like to run my life under the kiss rule! It works great and I achieve my goals in doing so.

[@zeffii]

fantastic talk! inspired by the small stuff :)

[@KnightsofEmerald]

name= risk

[@LiLCuZ94]

Fourth word = Truth