28/07/20

Make it matter: How to promote behaviour change

How do you encourage positive changes to behaviour with new habits that stick? In a recent webinar for Learning & Skills group, Owen Rose shared some expert insights...

How can we cut through to human emotions to encourage people to change behaviour?

In the L&D profession, we are all striving to help learners change their behaviour – to make shifts in daily work habits that help to make individuals and organisations more successful.

But changing behaviour is hard to do. We humans know that we should behave responsibly, eat healthily and exercise regularly… so why don’t we?

Speak to the human
In a webinar with Learning and Skills Group on 9th July, Acteon’s Managing Partner Owen Rose shared lessons from behavioural science and from the advertising industry to 'speak to the human'.

Owen drew on insights from these sectors to consider how we can use human traits like curiosity, surprise, humour and pride to make our learning messages matter. At the heart of the challenge is to find effective ways to move away from telling people what to do, and instead create irresistible behaviour-changing content that gets through to busy human beings.

Alongside some entertaining examples of memorable advertising for products such as Red Bull and Shreddies, Owen considered some current issues around changing behaviour during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Remember that song?
Owen also shared examples of using songs and videos to grab attention, and create memorable messages which shift behaviour. One of Acteon’s recent projects has been to work with the Co-op to raise awareness of asbestos safety across all Co-op stores and Funeralcare homes. We used animated song, with a parody of MC Hammer’s classic 90s hit ‘U can’t touch this’, to add humour and make the messages stick:

In this vein, Owen explained how ‘important but dull’ required learning like compliance and health and safety can be made memorable to your audience, and can underline why it matters.

Acteon Lab
Owen finished the webinar by explaining how Acteon is working with organisations to design methods for creating positive behaviour change to address their own challenges.

‘Acteon Labs’ are workshops which bring together key internal stakeholders, and use an approach based on ‘Design Thinking’ to help you identify interventions and campaigns that will work within your company culture.

Find out more about Acteon Lab here.

ICYMI
You can watch a recording of Owen’s Learning and Skills webinar at:
dreamtektv.adobeconnect.com/_a842251127/pdl6jsn0klfk