The Considered_ approach to Behavioural Innovation Part 01

A strategic approach to the practical application of behavioural science.

Interest in behavioural approaches to change has grown rapidly over recent years. In academia, government and commercial sectors we've seen a surge of new papers and graduates, units and teams, departments and consultancies - all focussed on the application of behavioural science to real-world challenges

Growth spurts rarely happen without growing pains

However, growth spurts rarely happen without growing pains. A frenzy of activity builds momentum, but also kicks up dust; generates energy, but obscures clarity; makes a splash, but muddies the waters. Without a strategic framework to bring focus, clarity and method to practical application, we run the risk of limiting impact, eroding confidence and losing talent.

Over the years, the Considered_ approach to behavioural innovation has evolved into a well-defined process, tried-and-tested through hundreds of training programmes, multi-disciplinary collaborations and behavioural design projects.

It's certainly not the only or first strategic framework for the practical application of behavioural science. However, I share it here - along with some of the insights I've picked up using it over the last decade - in case it provides some useful guidance, especially to the thousands of recent graduates and career-entrants that have recently joined our community of practice.

6 Key Stages

The framework comprises 6 key stages. Each building on the insights of the previous and each with its own objectives, tools and resources:

1.   What - are the target behaviours?

2.   Who - should we focus our resource on?

3.   Why - do/don’t those people manifest the target behaviours?

4.   How - can we empower people to change?

5.   So What? To what extent were our interventions effective?

6.   What Now? How do we apply our learnings at scale?

In the first of a series of articles covering each of the framework elements, we start at the start with the What.

What... are the target behaviours?

Define and refine the target behaviours that are to be the focus for the project. This is often easier said than done, as clients tend to start with an overarching issue, rather than a specific behaviour. Examples from my own work include:

1. Obesity rates are increasing
2. We need more people to use our digital services
3. Too many people are paying late

Firstly, we need to articulate why this issue is an issue: what are the commercial and social impacts driving the need to take action? Establishing the wider business or social context in this way helps to do three things:

1. Locate the design of any intervention properly within its wider system context.
2. Prioritise target behaviours based on the extent to which they contribute to wider commercial and social impacts.
3. Establish impact and value-for-money metrics to give teeth to the core trial outcomes.

Secondly, if we are to apply a behavioural approach to these broad aims, it's essential that we translate the ovearching issue into precisely articulated target behaviours:

• Eating sugary snacks
• Setting up an online account
• Pay within 7 days of receiving an invoice.

The fact that you often need to work through several layers of non-behavioural objectives to get to this level of precision is testament to the extent to which we’re not used to framing change challenges in behavioural terms. For instance, to refine ‘Reduce obesity rates’ down to ‘Reduce consumption of sugary snacks’, you may have to move through...

1. Reduce obesity >
2. Help people lose weight >
3. Empower people to eat more healthily >
4. Reduce consumption of sugary snacks.

It’s often possible to arrive at target behaviours through a combination of domain knowledge, literature review and stakeholder discussions. However, access to operational or administrative data sets can help take a more evidence-based approach and identify the behaviours that have greatest impact on the general objective.

For instance, through analysis of income collection data, you may find that the main driver for people falling into debt isn’t simply missed payments, but failure to access support services. With this knowledge, we can then focus on the behaviour that we know will have greatest impact on the higher-order issue... and the wider commercial/social context.

Clearly articulating target behaviours is a key step in creating a ‘good problem’. To strengthen this further, we now need to turn to the Who – which people should we focus our design efforts on and where should we prioritise resource? We'll take a deep dive on this in Part 02 of this series - watch this space!

Key Questions

• What's the overarching issue?
• Why is it an issue: what are the commercial / social consequences?
• What specific behaviours are driving this issue?
• Which of these behaviours have more/less impact on the issue?
• Which of these behaviours are more/less easy to influence?
• Can we access quantitative data to help us answer some of these questions?