59. From Dreaming to Doing: How We Set and Achieve Goals

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

May 25, 2022

Duration

19m

Channel

Stanford Graduate School of Business

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Why do we do what we do? What factors drive us? And how do things like competition with others help us achieve our goals? These are the questions most interesting to Szu-chi Huang, an associate professor of marketing with a specific interest in motivation. “Competition definitely increases motivation,” says Huang. “It makes attaining the goal more valuable.” In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Huang and host Matt Abrahams explore the intersection of human psychology, behavior, and goal attainment—and how communication connects them all.

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Matt Abrahams

  host

  Strategic communication lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business and host of the Think Fast, Talk Smart podcast.

• Szu-chi Huang

  guest

  Associate professor of marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business and motivation scientist studying goal pursuit and decision-making.

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Stanford Graduate School of Business, featuring Matt Abrahams and Szu-chi Huang, 59. From Dreaming to Doing: How We Set and Achieve Goals explores How motivation shifts over time in goals, competition, and feedback Szu-chi Huang traces her interest in motivation to advertising work that raised the question of how to motivate customers to return and buy more, leading her to study motivation and goal pursuit across contexts.

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