The Method Book
The BehaviourWorks Method is a tried and tested approach to helping organisations understand why, how – and at what points – research can be used to identify which behaviour change approach is most likely to address policy problems. Here we share The Method as a practical toolkit for helping behaviour change practitioners better define the problem (Exploration), identify 'who needs to do what differently' (Deep Dive) and trial interventions (Application).
Aims, schedule and introductory chapter
The Method is being published chapter-by-chapter via the Monash Bridges/Figshare platform over 2021. The aim the book is to clearly explain the thinking behind The Method and provide instructions on how specific tools within it can be used to design better behaviour change programs. View the video by BWA Director, Liam Smith (right), and click on the images to download the chapter.
Chapter 1 - Evidence Review
How research reviews make knowledge available and useful to policymakers and other leaders who need to make decisions and take actions to solve problems, often within short timeframes.
Chapter 2 - Understand the system/systems mapping
How systems, actor, process and influence mapping gives us a 'big picture' view of the problem and helps us pinpoint solutions.
Chapter 3 - Understanding the problem with data
In Chapter 3 we introduce some common methods for analysing data to better understand a problem. They cover a mixt of simple and complex analysis techniques, as well as audience segmentation approaches.
Chapter 4 - Stakeholder consultation to improve behaviour change
In Chapter 4 we explore the many ways in which stakeholder consultation can be undertaken to help understand and ultimately address behaviour change challenges.
Chapter 5 - Defining, identifying and prioritising behaviours
Here we prepare for a Deep Dive by delving into and understanding the behaviours we want to target for our interventions.
Chapter 6 - 'You are not normal!' Understanding the influences on behaviour
In this chapter, we introduce you to a practical synthesis of the influences on behaviour to remove the guesswork and misplaced assumptions of your behaviour change endeavours.
Chapter 7 - Researching your target audience: Why do people do what they do?
How do we find out what motivates or prevents a target audience from engaging in a desired behaviour? By conducting audience research. In this chapter, we introduce you to a selection of tools that are commonly used to engage with audiences and understand what matters to them.
Chapter 8 - From insights to interventions
Learn how to match audience insights from our Deep Dive research to behaviour change frameworks and design interventions with the maximum chance of success.
Chapter 9 - General Models
In Chapter 9 we learn how to use general tools to design behaviour change interventions when your most valuable assets, like time and funding, are scarce.
Chapter 10 - How to choose good success measures
We've now moved into the Application phase of The Method, where we trial our interventions. What measures will we use to establish if our trial has, in fact, changed behaviour? In Chapter 10 we provide some tools.
Chapter 11 - Trials and Evaluation
All the work that we have done to date brings us to the point of putting our insights into practice via trails. The focus of this chapter is on setting those trials up in a way that will give us the clearest picture of its success - or not!
Chapter 12 - Making the most of an effective intervention
In this final chapter, we explore three approaches to ensuring that effective interventions lead to impact. They are scaling, dissemination and knowledge translation.