Matt Wallaert on how to design the future you want (and actually get there). Applied behavioral science to go from insight to impact: leadership, profits, your life.

Season 2025

Ever wondered why changing habits feels like an uphill battle?

Behavioral scientist Matt Wallert pulls back the curtain on how human behavior can be systematically designed and changed – not through wishful thinking, but through a scientific process.

What if culture change, product design, or even personal transformation wasn’t guesswork but a process as reliable as engineering?

In this episode of Change Wired, I sit down with behavioral scientist, author, and “empathetic scientific activist” Matt Wallaert to talk about the science - and the humanity - behind designing change that actually happens.

We get into everything from M&Ms to meeting culture, VR boxing to corporate ethics, and why fuzzy words in leadership are killing your results.

Matt breaks down how all behavior results from competing forces – promoting pressures that make behaviors more likely and inhibiting pressures that make them less likely. Through practical examples ranging from M&Ms to VR boxing to parenting, Matt demonstrates how small environmental changes can create massive behavioral shifts.

Perhaps most fascinating is Matt's insight into organizational change. While companies obsess over changing customer behavior, they often neglect internal behavior design. "Fuzzy leadership language" about wanting "more engaged employees" or "better culture" fails because it doesn't translate to specific, observable behaviors. Matt provides a framework for creating workplaces where people thrive by applying the same rigor to internal behaviors that companies apply to customer acquisition.

The conversation takes a thought-provoking turn when Matt and the host discuss the ethics of behavior change. When is it appropriate to change someone's behavior? How do we ensure we're helping people align their actions with their intentions rather than exploiting cognitive weaknesses?

Whether you're looking to transform personal habits, lead organizational change, or design products that genuinely improve lives, this episode offers effective frameworks for making behavior change systematic, ethical, and effective.

We dive into:

Why defining specific behaviors is the missing first step in almost every change effort
The difference between naïve behavior change and evidence-based design
How to think about promoting vs. inhibiting pressures (and why it matters more than motivation)
Real-life examples from parenting, product design, and internal culture change
Ethics in behavioral science: intention–action gaps, autonomy, and long-term thinking
How leaders can stop hiding behind values statements and start engineering cultures that work

It’s practical. It’s funny in places. And it might just make you rethink the way you design… everything.

Links & Resources Mentioned

Matt’s Website: mattwallaert.com
Free Behavioral Science Course: SIDE Model Training (recently made free)
Matt’s book: Start at the End: How to Build Products That Create Change
Connect with Matt on LinkedIn

If you lead people, build products, or want to change your own life, this episode will give you a toolkit

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Brought to you by Angela Shurina

Behavior-First Change Leadership & Culture Transformation Consultant
EXECUTIVE & OPTIMAL PERFORMANCE COACH

Published on 1 week, 3 days ago

Podcast Episode Details

Matt Wallaert on how to design the future you want (and actually get there). Applied behavioral science to go from insight to impact: leadership, profits, your life.