Behavioral & Implementation Science for change, adoption, and better decisions.

We help organizations understand why a new process, product, policy, or leadership practice is not changing what people do. Then we identify what to change first, and design and test it with you.

Tell us how we can help See the SHIFT method

Workflow:

The new process adds an approval or handoff, so the old spreadsheet remains the quickest route through the day.

Choose a type of work

Tell us how we can help See the SHIFT method

Client experience

Organizations we have worked with.

Sharpen the problem

Three questions help us get specific about the problem

What needs to happen?
We define who needs to do what, where, and when.
What makes that hard?
We observe the work, speak with the people doing it, and check the data.
What should change first?
Using that evidence, we identify which part of the work is keeping the current pattern in place.

Services

How we help

Some organizations need to understand the problem first. Others already have evidence and need help designing, testing, or implementing a response.

Behavioral diagnosis

Find out why the change is not happening

We investigate what people are expected to do, what happens in the setting, and which explanation the evidence supports.

The result is a clear behavior brief, evidence from the work, a map of what is getting in the way, and a decision about what to test.

See how diagnosis works

Intervention design and pilots

Design and test what should change

We turn the diagnosis into changes to a workflow, service, product, message, or manager routine, then test them on a small scale.

Design options and prototypes are organized into a pilot plan, with measures tied to what people need to do.

Design and test a response

Implementation support

Help the change work in day-to-day practice

We work with the team to fit the change into routines, responsibilities, leadership decisions, and measures.

Your team receives implementation support and repeated measurement while learning practical methods it can continue using.

Plan for implementation

Behavioral design

Make a product or service easier to use

We investigate where users stop, hesitate, or work around a product or service, then design and test the part that needs attention.

This work produces evidence from the user journey, clear behavioral requirements, prototypes, and tests at the point of use.

Shape a product or service

The Barrier Atlas

The same behavior can be difficult for different reasons

A condition is part of the setting around the work, such as time, tools, incentives, or confidence, that can make a behavior easier or harder.

Can people do it?Does the work support it?Will people choose it?

Can people do it?

Know-how

What must someone know to act correctly?A team can explain the new policy but cannot tell which action belongs to each role.

Practice

Can the action be rehearsed under realistic conditions?The process works in training, then breaks when a live case is incomplete or urgent.

Memory at the moment

Will the step come to mind when it is needed?A required check is remembered in review meetings but missed during a busy handover.

Attention

How noticeable is the trigger?A warning exists, but it appears among several routine notifications.

Decision capacity

How much room is left to make the decision well?The choice arrives at the end of a queue when time and attention are already depleted.

Seeing progress

How will people see whether the action is working?The team records completion but cannot see whether the behavior changed the case.

Does the work support it?

Time

Does the available time match the intended action?The official route takes twelve minutes while the workaround takes two.

Usable tools

Are the necessary tools available at the decision point?A system asks for information that is not available at the point of decision.

Incentives

Which outcome is rewarded, measured, or penalized?Speed is praised while the safer route adds a visible delay.

Workflow fit

Where does the action sit in the way work actually moves?A new approval sits outside the case-management route, so decisions return to email.

Work setting

Can the physical or digital setting support the action?A confidential conversation is expected in a space that offers no privacy.

Team norms

Which shortcuts have become normal?New starters copy the shortcut used by experienced colleagues.

Permission

Who is understood to have permission to act?Managers ask for ownership, but every difficult decision is still escalated.

Information flow

Will the relevant information reach the right person?The service team learns about a policy change after customers begin asking about it.

Leader example

Which behavior do leaders demonstrate in practice?Leaders endorse the new process, then request the old spreadsheet in reviews.

System friction

Where does the official route add friction?People must enter the same information twice to use the official path.

Handoffs

At which handoff does ownership become unclear?A case moves teams, but the next decision has no named owner.

Escalation path

Who can resolve an exception?An unusual case circulates because nobody knows who can approve the exception.

Will people choose it?

Expected value

Will the action seem worth the effort?The new record is seen as reporting for headquarters rather than help for the team.

Confidence

How confident are people that they can do it well?A manager avoids a feedback conversation because the likely response feels difficult to handle.

Immediate consequence

What follows immediately after the action?Raising a risk creates extra work for the person who reports it.

Decision risk

Where does acting create exposure, blame, or risk?A local decision may be welcomed when it works and questioned personally when it does not.

Identity

Will the action fit how people understand their role?A specialist sees the new triage step as administrative work rather than professional judgment.

Emotion

Which feeling is attached to the action or setting?A previous failed rollout makes another request feel tiring before the work begins.

Framework basis: the Theoretical Domains Framework, translated into practical conditions around work.

Design and implementation

What needs to change depends on what is getting in the way.

Once we know what is getting in the way, we design a response that fits the workflow, available time, leadership support, and people affected, then test it under real conditions.

Question to settle

Can the response work inside the current route, tools, and responsibilities?

Candidate implementation moves

Adapt the response without losing its purpose
Change a step or handoff that blocks use
Test the revised route with the people doing the work

Local testCan the intended action still happen when demand is high?

Framework basis: CFIR and the ERIC compilation of implementation strategies. The strategy still has to be selected and tested against local evidence.

Selected work

Problems examined in context

An Amsterdam city map held by a visitor beside a phone.

Tourism · city destination

A route beyond the obvious visitor sites

A city wanted visitors to spend time around lesser-known cultural sites and support nearby businesses.

Behavioral journey
Strategy map
Playbook

Read the case

A designer examining a small 3D-printed prototype beside a printer and laptop.

Innovation · city government

Intellectual property as a commercial tool

Businesses saw intellectual property mainly as a legal obligation. The city wanted a digital platform that could help people treat it as a commercial asset.

Research plan
Barrier analysis
Workshop
Prototype input

Read the case

Cybersecurity · global health insurer

Secure email handling at the moment of risk

Employees were sending sensitive information to unauthorized or insecure email addresses.

Mixed-method research
Co-design
Prototype

Read the case

Colleagues meeting in a glass-walled Amsterdam office.

Organizational change · consumer goods company

Friction after an organizational restructure

Feedback and meeting practices were getting in the way of productivity and wellbeing after an organizational restructure.

Behavioral analysis
Two pilots
Evaluation

Read the case

Learning

Build your capabilities with us

Participants working together during an in-person behavior-change session. — In-person practice with evidence and diagnosis

Interactive training built around current work

Interactive training is a facilitated engagement built around a live behavior-change brief. Self-paced courses are a separate route for individual study.

Six in-person sessions around one current case
Bring a live behavior-change brief
Work with evidence and diagnosis
Leave with a reviewed case and next step

Explore interactive training

Self-paced courses

Learn at your own pace

Self-paced course

From Change Plan to Behavior Change

The course works through stalled adoption and the conditions surrounding the work.

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Online course

Behavior Design

Behavioral design starts with a defined problem and ends with something that can be prototyped.

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Online course

Behavioral Analysis

Build a diagnosis from chosen frameworks and relevant data.

Explore the course

Free email course

5-Day Behavior-Ready Diagnostic

A guided five-day email course for finding why adoption is stalling and identifying the condition worth changing first.

Explore the course

Tools

Tools for the decision you need to make

Choose the tool that matches the question in front of you. Each card tells you when to use it, what it helps you decide, and whether it is available now.

Available now · Interactive self-checkBehavior-Ready Self-CheckUse it before a rollout or when adoption has stalled. It helps you decide which condition around the work needs a closer look.Open the tool

Preview of the Behavior Design Framework V2 workspace.

Available now · Interactive Miro toolBehavior Design Framework V2Use it when a team needs to turn a broad behavior problem into something it can investigate, design, and test. It helps you decide what to examine and prototype next.Open the tool

AFB Labs · Closed beta testing

Tools that connect the evidence, the decision, and the work that follows.

The SHIFT platform is in closed beta testing. It helps companies investigate why a change is not happening, design and test what should change, and measure what happens after implementation.

Investigate