In the next few posts, I’m going to outline how to get started on a behaviour change process to improve outcomes for people affected by business activity. Today, I’m going to focus on those initial first steps of understanding the behaviour(s) that you are trying to change.
The broad process I’m referring to here is outlined in the Behaviour Change Wheel[1]. Today we’re focusing on ‘Stage one: Understand the behaviour’
Understanding the behaviour
Within stage one of the behaviour change process, the first step is understanding the behaviour you are trying to change. This has several components:
First, define the problem in behavioural terms
Second, select a target behaviour to focus on
Third, specify the target behaviour
Fourth, diagnose what needs to change
Step one: Define the problem in behavioural terms
This involves understanding how your high-level goals relate to behaviours. A high-level goal might involve something like losing weight, or reading more, or being recognised as an ethical company. These goals are important but to make them actionable we need to define the behaviours that will get us there.
These behaviours might be performed by ourselves or by others. If we are trying to lose weight, the behaviour might involve reducing calorie intake or exercising regularly. If we aim to be well-read, we might want to read 30 books per year. If we want to be recognised as an ethical company, we may need procurement and purchasing managers to adhere to responsible sourcing policies. This begins to get us thinking more concretely in terms of behaviours, yet still aren’t specific enough…
Step two: Select a target behaviour to focus on
Taking our high-level goal, we can generate a long list of potential behaviours that might help us meet this goal. If we want to reduce our calorie intake, relevant behaviours might include:
Purchasing fruit and vegetables in a weekly shop
Pre-planning healthy meals for the week ahead
Refusing desserts and sweets
Eating two servings of vegetables with every meal
Preparing a packed lunch at home to avoid convenience food
Replacing soft drinks with sparkling water
Refraining from eating after 6pm
If we want to adhere to responsible sourcing policies, we might need procurement and purchasing managers to*:
Improve accuracy of expected production orders
Provide suppliers with accurate production plans
Give suppliers accurate and on-time technical details for production orders
Order consistently from suppliers without monthly fluctuations
Pay a fair price that accounts for costs of production and compensation
Pay suppliers on-time and as-agreed
Offers adequate time for suppliers to fulfil the order
Refrain from last-minute changes to orders (without adequate adjustments)
Communicate social compliance goals to suppliers
This generates a long list of potential behaviours for us to focus on. This is our ‘system of behaviours’ that contribute to our achievement of our high-level goal. It’s now important to decide where to prioritise and focus. This is because the solution that’s needed to pay a fair price to suppliers is likely going to be quite different to the solution that will improve accuracy of expected production orders. We can ensure that our solutions are fit-for-purpose and more likely to succeed in contributing to our overall high-level goal, if we are able to focus on target behaviours.
We can consider selection criteria to help us understand which behaviours to prioritise and focus on. These selection criteria include:
The likely impact on our high-level goal if the target behaviour changes
How easy it is likely to be to change the target behaviour
The centrality of the behaviour in the system of behaviours (aka how important it is)
How easy it is to measure any changes in behaviour
We can plot our behaviours and score them against our selection criteria to indicate where we may want to prioritise and focus.
Step three: Specify the target behaviour
Now that we have identified a target behaviour (for example - refrain from last-minute changes to orders (without adequate adjustments), we want to specify this behaviour. We can do this using the AACTT framework[2]. AACTT encourages us to specify the:
Action: What do people need to do?
Actor: Who needs to do it?
Context: Where does it happen?
Target: Who does it benefit?
Time: When do people need to do it?
In our procurement example, we might specify:
Action: Refrain from last-minute changes to orders without adequate adjustments to cost or delivery time
Actor: Procurement/purchasing managers globally
Context: At terminal. Over the phone.
Target: Suppliers and workers in the supply chain
Time: Throughout the life-cycle of a supplier production relationship
So that’s my piece on how to begin thinking about targeting and specifying behaviours. In my next post I’m going to talk about behavioural diagnoses. This is our fourth step to understanding behaviours. It involves diagnosing and understanding what needs to change to result in the target behaviour. It’s a critical stage in developing effective interventions, and it just so happens to be the topic of my UCL Behaviour Change MSc research project. In future posts, I’ll keep exploring the behaviour change process steps and sharing what I’ve been learning.
*Note: These behaviours were developed in a behavioural mapping process to identify the specific behaviours of purchasing and procurement manager which contribute to, or undermine, responsible purchasing practices. This work is unpublished and was conducted by the author, Shift and Better Buying.
[1] Michie S, Atkins L, West R. (2014). The Behaviour Change Wheel: A Guide to Designing Interventions. London: Silverback Publishing.
[2] Presseau, J., McCleary, N., Lorencatto, F., Patey, A., Grimshaw, J. & Francis, J. (2019). Action, actor, context, target, time (AACTT): A framework for specifying behaviour. Implementation Science.