Behaviour Change in the Community at Large
When governments wish to bring about changes in the community on a large scale (e.g. tens of thousands of households in a short time) they usually find that using a behaviour change approach leads to change that is much longer-lasting and well-accepted by the community. This is based on the principle that people are more likely to sustain a behaviour where they have opted for the changes themselves.
This is particularly so when there is a direct personal benefit, such as improved health, reduced costs or increased leisure time.
Successful behaviour change projects have incorporated conversations with people to help them identify their own issues and problems and then help them to make the changes they have chosen by providing them with resources and encouragement. In trying to reduce car use, for example, people might be stimulated by an initial question such as “When was the last time you were in a car and wished you weren’t?” The types of solutions they build to address the problems they themselves articulate can range from occasionally using a bus to get some reading done, to working from home, to getting someone else to do an errand on the way home. Reductions in car use have ranged from 5-23% across the community.
SKM behaviour change team members have worked on numerous projects – initially in transport, but now also in waste and water – in most states of Australia, in the UK, USA and Chile.
SKM also has experience in designing how to measure change in these types of projects.