How to make a case for behavioural science?
Tips on how to evangelise behavioural science and build a culture of experimentation
It has been more than a decade since books such as Nudge and Persuasion popularised behavioural science. Behavioural science principles are increasingly being adopted to inform the design of public policies and business strategies. However, as behavioural practitioners, we still spend considerable time and effort making a case for behavioural science and upskilling stakeholders and potential future customers.
To support you on this journey, I have summarised some key lessons learnt across the field, informed particularly by BVA's E3 approach in "Applying & Infusing Behavioural Science" and practitioners in the Habit Weekly community.
Introduction
First off, why is making a case for behavioural science such an uphill battle? Scott Young and his colleagues at BVA suggest that there are three forces at play:
- Paradox of choice — given behavioural science can be beneficial anywhere in a business that touches on humans, ranging from product development to marketing and HR, it can be hard to identify where to start.
- Status quo bias — people tend to stick with the familiar, and it can be uncomfortable to break out of existing practices to try something new. I would add that the lack of current capabilities (or feelings of self-efficacy) can also hold people back from applying behavioural science in the field.
- Structural challenges within organisations — behavioural science projects often work across teams, leading to a lack of clear ownership and budget.
So, what are some tried & tested approaches?
The BVA's E3 approach laid out some straightforward steps to help behavioural science practitioners gain momentum in organisations. I will focus on the first two here: evangelise and experiment.
1. Evangelise — educate the organisation to generate interest and curiosity
This can be through organising internal knowledge-sharing events or inviting guest speakers to share learning & case studies in the field. Education generates interest and can create a shared understanding and language across organisations, which would be important for implementation.
Some top tips from Scott's team:
- Make it relevant — customise insights to the company's industry and audience
- Upskill stakeholders — a greater understanding of the underlying science behind behavioural interventions can build greater confidence in their application.
- Get people excited!
💡 Some great tips from behavioural science practitioners on how this could look like in practice:
Frame behavioural science as a complement to existing knowledge
Considering the status quo bias, we might start by framing behavioural science as a complement to the traditional approach rather than a replacement or something new.
“We can introduce behavioural science as something additional to already existing knowledge and link it to what people are already doing. Think how you can make your change look as small as possible and keep in mind: ‘You can’t boil the ocean but you can boil a cup of water.’”
— Adam Hansen, Innovation Process Consultant, Ideas To Go
“The best way to apply behavioural science is to combine it with other disciplines (e.g. UX design).
— Edward Gardiner, director CogCo
Partner up with someone
Partner with someone who values your insights inside and outside the organisation. Find pockets in the organisation with behaviour questions to solve — usually the HR department or designers, for example.
“They [designers] usually don’t know psychology well, so networking with the design team might be a good place to start.”
— Noemi, BeHive consulting
Similarly, SUE started as a marketing agency and transformed into a behavioural design agency years later. This can apply to other fields, such as product development, where existing agencies could benefit from collaborating with you.
Build in time to upskill your clients and instil a 'behavioural mindset'
“We typically start new client engagements with behavioural training, from an hour of behaviour 101 to in-depth training up to 2 days. We try to include background on a few relevant behavioural principles in presentations so that solutions are viewed through a behavioural lens rather then the client’s baseline marketing, nonprofit, UX, etc mindset”
— Sparky Witte, Live Neuron Labs (from this great slack thread)
Create content and proactively share your knowledge
a) Share your take on how you would tackle a problem differently
One way to approach gaining internal buy-in is through doing an audit of your company's product or process and sharing the analysis. The same goes if you are making the case outside of your organisation.
“I recommend anyone who would like to be an applied behavioural scientist to actively practice your behavioural science skills. Want to work in tech? Every time you see a behavioural principle being applied in an app, take a screenshot. Would you have applied it in the same way? What would you do differently, and why? Get specific. Think about the copy they used. Would you use the same? Would you word it differently? Actively practising developing these skills. Practice taking the theory that you’ve learned into concrete application.”
— Evelyn Gosnell, Irrational Labs
b) Reach out to local newspapers
Matej Sucha at Mindworx suggests reaching out to local newspapers and proposing a topic to write an article on. The winning formula is to choose a topic related to something happening in the world.
From my experience, I can only say this strategy works. Since getting this advice, I have posted two articles already in quite sophisticated Slovenian newspapers.
- If you need additional inspiration, listen to the news, see what's happening in the world, and address it from a behavioural science perspective.
- Make a list of potential newspapers or editors, find their contacts on the internet, or reach out via Linkedin and send them your piece of content.
- The first time might not work, the second time neither, maybe even the third time you run into a "no". In that case, always remember Dory's advice to Marlin: Just keep swimming.
Offering training could become a stepping stone toward other opportunities.
Offering training has worked well for Sucha from Mindworx. Back in 2016, when MW was only starting, Sucha did training on sales about the principles of persuasion from Cialdini. They rented a place, invested some money in Facebook advertising, charged 200 euros per person, and attracted attendees from interesting companies, some of whom later became their clients.
Find a specific problem you want to solve
“It’s not about finding a niche, but finding a problem. Ideally one that is a common pain point in the sector.”
— Graeme Newel, Behavioral Finance Speaker
2. Experiment — build a culture of experimentation and make success salient
Given behavioural interventions are highly context-dependent, experimenting in context is one of the true sources of power behind the behavioural science process. Instilling a 'test & learn' mindset early on is one of the key drivers for success in a behavioural science project. This lowers the hurdle of engagement and helps set the right expectations for stakeholders when tests come back with null or even negative results.
💡 Some great tips on how to get started
Start small
The key objective of your first experiment in the organisation is to demonstrate the potential ROI of behavioural interventions. As such, Scott's team suggests we should choose this project carefully:
- Have a very clear, narrow, and specific topic
- Is easy to test and measure impacts
- Require only a tiny budget
- Is not time & resource intensive to execute
Make it salient
Following a successful first pilot, success should be shared and leveraged quickly to generate more experiments across new topics, teams, and strategic projects to demonstrate the breadth of potential for behavioural interventions.
How to manage stakeholder expectations
- Instil a 'test & learn' mindset early on
- Be humble and transparent about the knowns & unknowns, and have a response plan if tests outcomes are not as expected
- Frame values around learning over outcomes — emphasise the importance of organisational safety and open discussions around failure.
How to communicate the need for an experimentation culture
- Leverage Halo Effect — successful and innovative companies, such as Amazon and Netflix, make experimentation an integral part of their everyday process.
- Value data over opinions — instead of guessing what customers need or what solutions are effective, we can listen directly through the data.
- Experiments lower costs & risks — enabling the organisation to test its hypothesis and get data as early as possible before significant investments are made.
- Avoid the HiPPO effect (highest paid person's opinion) — which can throttle innovation. Instead, give autonomy for people to drive innovation from the bottom up.
Last but not least, leverage the messenger effect
Having strong and visible senior sponsorship can go a long way in helping to embed behavioural science in an organisation and avoid some of the common pitfalls in behavioural science engagement.
“Applying behavioural science, or building behavioural science capabilities within a company, requires support from the highest levels of the organisation.”
— Tim Houlihan, Chief Behavioral Strategist at BehaviorAlchemy
In summary, education that gets people excited and well-chosen experiments that demonstrate impacts are key in making a case for behavioural science. Since the field is still emerging, people need to see value in this approach to trust it. To properly address that, you might start by combining behavioural science with other disciplines and instilling a 'test & learn' mindset.
Even the smallest step will take you closer to your final goal — you got this! Good luck.🍀
