Posts tagged “Behaviour”

…the North Wind and the Sun?

In Aesop’s fable, these two characters argue over who is the strongest, and decide to settle the matter by seeing who can get a traveller’s cloak off his back.

For those of you unfamiliar with Greek tales, the denouement can be found here.  And while you read it, you might reflect on our behaviour change strategies – and which are most effective.

When I wanted to lose weight and get a bit fitter, I did what millions of women and quite a few men have done around the world – I joined Weight Watchers.  In doing so, I got interested in the parallels between the support and motivations that work for slimming, and the ones we use to promote a low-carbon lifestyle.

So I used them to write an article for the environmentalist in November 2006.

Changing behaviour, encouraging and enabling pro-environmental behaviours in particular, is endlessly fascinating.  There are lots of theories of behaviour change, and lots of practitioners getting out there and trying to make it happen.  And some of them even succeed from time to time!  This article – Behave – which I wrote in 2007 – covers some approaches.  There are also other models, like the six sources of influence which I came across recently.

Start your exploration of that model with this great video!

The UK Government’s Defra (Department of Food and Rural Affairs) has its own behaviour change models, which I wrote about here in the context of audience segmentation.  NESTA also produced a great report on the use of established social marketing techniques to sell ‘low carbon’ living.  My September 08 column in the environmentalist covered that.

Which approaches to behaviour change do you see being used by environmental organisations?  And which are used by multi-national FMCG organisations? (That’s Fast Moving Consumer Goods to you and me.)  Clue: the behaviour FMCGs want to influence is purchasing behaviour.