How can we use Behavioral Science and Systems Thinking to design for sustainability?
In our projects at Aim For Behavior, we often create behavioral systems maps together with our clients, so we can better understand:
1) The Outcome: It is important that we define the actual outcome we want to reach
2) The Actors: Who is involved and who needs to be part of the success of our intervention (who can/can't enable our outcome)
3) The Behaviors: What are the specific, observable, and measurable actions that need to happen
4)The Drivers: What are the things that could either enable the behavior or stop the behavior - from a Capability, Opportunity, and Motivation standpoint (using the COM-B model)
5)The strategies: We can also add the specific strategies we would need to deploy in order to address these drivers
6) The relationships: How does each element of the map connect, and what kinds of feedback loops exist - do we have positive or negative relationships?
Working with systems maps is by nature messy, so what we tend to do in our projects (or trainings) is to slowly get people comfortable with the mental model of how to build a map - step by step and broken down into small parts, that eventually build up into the big map and show the wonderful and intricate messiness of the system and the people involved.
With these maps, we can then zoom in on specific areas and work on adding a more linear process (say a journey map or something like it) that can give us more details of the experience, so we can then work on that priority area, and so we can then feedback the changes back into the system and see what changes.
The image shows an example of an activity we would use with an organization that wants to increase the purchase or reuse of second-hand items, something that is on the minds of many organizations today, from clothing to electricals and so much more.
If you want to get people to do these new behaviors, then your best chance of success is to really understand the system, the actors, and the drivers, and design to address them.
This is where behavioral science can be useful, as we look at the dimension of behavior from different vantage points, and work on addressing those to increase success.
Have a look at the map, and try and think about how you would connect the drivers to the behaviors. (In the example we only have one actor, but in the main map you would have multiple actors.)
How would this look like if you thought about it from a large clothing retailer's perspective?
#circulareconomy #behavioralscience #innovation