Inspiring Change: The final chapter!

The night started with a witty and engaging performance by the master of ceremonies, Geoff Paine,  who took the audience on a journey with the insightful, wise and engaging panellists, a book reading by Dr Kun Zhao, a humorous video of the authors, and ending with plenty of drinks and nibbles to go around. The launch was the final chapter in a long journey that has absorbed the attention of 25 authors and four editors for over two years.

The panel discussion probed into the origin story of BehaviourWorks Australia and how you go from the idea of an organisation to a book. So, how did this behaviour change organisation start?

An Idea to an Organisation

First of all, you need a group of people with an idea. In the beginning, BehaviourWorks Australia started with four experts in a room: Bill Shannon (public campaigns), John Thwaites (policy and government), Liam Smith (behavioural science) and Cheryl Batagol (regulations). The idea was to create a research unit, bringing together science, government, and industry to address sustainability, health, environmental and social issues from a behavioural science lens. 

John outlined the need for such an organisation, as he witnessed first-hand - in his role as Deputy Premier of Victoria - how many societal problems were not technological, but instead had behavioural roots. For  example, some hospitals had much higher rates of infection than others, due to the practices of doctors and nurses. By changing their behaviour (like regular hand washing), the number of infections in that hospital could be reduced. Essentially, a lot of issues in society could be improved by changing the way that humans interact with the world and each other.

An Organisation to a Method

In the years following its inception, BehaviourWorks Australia completed many projects with industry and government, where they began to see patterns in the way that behavioural interventions could be developed and implemented. Thus, the “The Method”, a behavioural change research toolkit, was born. The Method, essentially, details the steps required to create a behavioural intervention that addresses a particular issue. Rather than being prescriptive, it instead prioritises a list of tools that increase the chances of a behaviour change intervention being successful; that is, that the incentive achieves its outlined aims.

A Method to a Book

People and partners began to ask BehaviourWorks Australia if The Method could be made widely accessible, so that more people could also use these tools to implement behavioural changes in their own lives or organisations. So, like that, began the process of meticulously documenting the different stages with The Method. Each chapter in the book outlines a stage of The Method. It is constructed with past experiences and case studies interwoven throughout the theory and frameworks, so the reader can witness the real life applications of The Method and whether an intervention was successful (or not!) and why.

Putting Pen to Paper

The process was not easy. After the chapter reading the participants were treated to a humorous video of several authors describing the trials and tribulations of writing the book. According to Dr Sarah Kneebone, one of the authors, it involved watching a lot of deadlines fly out the window! This was partially due to the unique way that the book was written. Over the course of 2021, one chapter was published each month, with the idea that readers had one month to apply the previous month’s theory, and would be ready for the next stage by the following month.

As you can imagine, this placed a lot of pressure on the authors, who were also all working from home due to the 2021 lockdowns. Altogether, it was “not a simple process”, as Professor Peter Bragge (one of the four book editors) admits. Luckily, each chapter had a chapter lead who was responsible for tying together all loose ends and constructing a well-rounded piece of writing.  Additionally, the book editors (Liam Smith, Jim Curtis, Peter Bragge and Paul Kellner), also played a crucial role in producing the final, polished product.

What Happened Next?

After all the chapters were written, the idea of publishing sprouted. BehaviourWorks Australia approached Monash University Publishing who supported publishing The Method. A new title was coined ‘Inspiring Change: How to influence behaviour for a better world’ and the BehaviourWorks Australia editorial team sprung into action. Combing through each chapter in detail to ensure it came together cohesively. After months of reviews, proofing graphics, and waiting impatiently for print runs the book was finally delivered.

Everything culminated in the launch held on Thursday 18 April, where the associated partners, authors, editors, and participants celebrated the book and all the hard work that had preceded it. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the synthesis and execution of the book, and to all who  attended the book launch last Thursday.

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Interested in getting your own copy of ‘Inspiring Change: How to influence behaviour for a better world’? Click here to find out more.

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