Welcome to my podcast: What Monkeys Do. This is a podcast about what it takes to make a change and make it stick.
Why have I started this podcast? Because change is hard. And you know that. For some reason, you don't always do what you set out to do. I will talk with experts to find out what it takes to make a change. Because success leaves clues, and we have more knowledge and experience than ever about what is required to change well. Let's find out what that is.
So, if you are looking for insights, tools, and ideas to help you change yourself or the person standing next to you, you have come to the right place.
My name is Morten Kamp Andersen (@mortenkamp) and I'll be your host. I am a part psychologist, part finance guy and part just someone who struggles to change himself.
Hi, you must be new here. Welcome to my podcast, What Monkeys Do. My name is Morten Kamp Andersen. This is a podcast about what it takes to make a change and make it stick.
Morten 0:21
Change is hard. We've all tried to make a change. It's not always easy. Think back to a time when you tried to change something about yourself. Maybe it was a small habit like eating less meat or call your mother more often. Or maybe it was something to do with your personality, something bigger. Maybe you tried to be more extrovert by learning how to do small talk. Or maybe you have had somebody really close to you who were doing things that were not good for them, like drinking too much. And you wanted to help them change maybe even against their will. Or maybe you had a change imposed on you. Maybe your manager wanted you to work in a different way, use a new IT system or work with new people. Or maybe you know somebody you want to help change the way they feel about themselves. All of this is about change. And we all face it all the time. And therefore we all know that change is hard.
Morten 1:20
What Monkeys Do can help us understand how to change. We're human beings. And we have a highly developed brain and many unique abilities. And that makes us king of all animals. But we also share about 99% of our DNA with the chimps. And that means that we have similar DNA, but we have different behaviors from the chimps. The less our behavior is determined by our cortex, the stuff that makes us humans more unique, the more we rely on human behaviors, and this is where we share behaviors with monkeys. So to understand how to change is also to understand how we function as human beings and what is unique about us as individuals? What is truly unique about you. Only then can we fully understand what we can change and what we must accept. So let's find out what monkeys do.
Morten 2:17
In this podcast, we will look at change from many different angles, changes complex, and we will only understand it if we look at it from different angles. My own perspective is the field called behavioral economics. It's a relatively new discipline, which mixes psychology and economics. You may know it from people like Daniel Kahneman, you know, the guy who wrote Thinking Fast and Slow. Anyway, that's my perspective, because those are the two fields that I've been working in in my entire life. I started out in finance, where I with a finance degree in my pocket worked in investment banking for 11 years. I learned a lot about economics and a lot about finance in some of the world's largest Finance banks. And later I returned to the university. I studied psychology for five years. And with that mix the mix of economics and psychology. I've been really interested in how do we make decisions in real life? And in particular, how do we make decisions to make a change? In each episode, I will interview and discuss change with different peoples on different topics. Some will approach it from psychology, some from the business life, some from the medical profession and others again, just by being a mom or dad. The common denominator is that we look for what seems to be in place when people change well. So I hope you'll get on this journey with me and look at change from many different angles.