Behavioural Insights Community Of Practice
Behavioural Insights Community of PracticeEmbedding the use of behavioural insightsDecember 2018Add photo here
Overview – the presentersEmbedding the use of behavioural insights in your agencyBehavioural insights has the potential to help us understand how people and organisations actually behave. We can usethis evidence to implement more effective policies and to identify the best levers to use to effect change. The practice ofbehavioural insights in government agencies in New Zealand is still evolving. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, anddifferent agencies have adopted different approaches to introducing the use of behavioural insights in their agency.The Community of Practice event provided an opportunity to share the experiences of three government agenciesregarding how they have developed behavioural insights capability in their agency. The Community of Practice eventfeatured presentations from the speakers below, followed by a question and answer session.Kamal Acharya shared her reflections on contracting inbehavioural insights expertise from a consultancy tosupport the Client Experience and Service Design Team atthe Ministry of Social Development.Reed Inwood spoke about the experience of the Ministryfor the Environment, in setting up and running a coalitionof the willing to take on behavioural insights projects,including cross-agency work.Vee Snijders discussed her experience of setting up abehavioural insights team at the Ministry of Justice,which works across the organisation and the widerJustice sector.1
Using a behavioural insights consultancyKamal Acharya explained how the Client Experience andService Design Team at the Ministry of Social Developmenthas been working with a behavioural insights consultancy,called the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), for the past 18months.“BIT spoke to senior leadersand other areas of the Ministryto explain the process and putpeople at ease.”BIT initially ran a workshop to generate ideas on howbehavioural insights could be used. A number of areaswere identified that led to the following work beingcompleted: A text message reminder to increase the uptake ofclients within the In Work Support trial. A mixture of surveys and interviews to betterunderstand the drivers of client behaviour to helpinform programs administered by the Ministry.Through this work, the team demonstrated to leadershipand other areas of the Ministry the value of applyingbehavioural insights. The team is now taking more of ahands-on approach, working with BIT on projects to helpbuild their internal capability.Lessons Learned By contracting in BIT, the team had immediateaccess to a wealth of international knowledge andexperience. The lessons learned from using abehavioural insights consultancy were: Don’t underestimate the time and investment tochange mindsets and established processes in youragency in order to apply behavioural insights. There will be differences in perspectives andculture between your agency and the consultancyand the best way to work through these is bycommunicating regularly. Co-locate the consultancy staff with your team tobetter enable working together as one team withshared goals and shared resources.Ethics and Behavioural InsightsThe Behavioural Economics Team of the AustralianGovernment (BETA) has recently established anethical framework for behavioural insights.The Ministry for Social Development is engaging withBETA to explore how this type of framework could beapplied in New Zealand.2
Establishing a coalition of the willingReed Inwood explained how the Behavioural InsightsGroup at the Ministry for the Environment operates: it isa coalition of the willing who donate their time topromote and apply behavioural insights to policychallenges. The group has focused on three areas:Staff DevelopmentProject WorkBuilding skillsand knowledgeof behaviouralinsightsApplying behaviouralinsights to projects(e.g. reducing waste,barriers to use ofelectric vehicles)Behavioural InsightsPanelA cross-agency panelthat provides adviceand tests ideas forapplying behaviouralinsights to projectsAdvantages of the approachThe Behavioural Insights Group has proven effective atsharing discrete parts of a project across the group todistribute the workload. It also benefits from strongleadership support across the Ministry. The voluntarynature of the group means everyone wants to be there,and there is freedom to operate as they want.Challenges of the approachThe voluntary nature of the group also means that: attendance and project uptake waxes and waneswith other work requirements marketing the group within the Ministry depends oninterest and willingness to try new things the group is vulnerable to staff turnover andchanging work priorities.Behavioural Insights PanelAre you considering using behavioural insights for aproject but would like to test your thinking?Contact the Behavioural Insights Panel at the Ministry forthe Environment: behaviouralinsightsgroup@mfe.govt.nz3
Establishing a behavioural insights teamVee Snijders described how the Ministryof Justice has formed a behaviouralinsights team to provide services to otherteams within the Ministry and otherJustice sector agencies. The team startedsix months ago and has two staff.The following factors were central toestablishing a behavioural insights teamand demonstrating the benefits:Example: Unpaid Fine Reminder LettersThe problem: Not all people pay their court fines within the required 28day period.The trial: The team conducted a randomised control trial over a fewmonths, applying different behavioural nudges to the content andformat of reminder letters. The trial replicated international evidenceon behavioural insights such as salience and social norms. The results ofthe trial are shown in the graph below – comparing the control groupwith the three letter options. Having people on the team withbehavioural insights expertise tobuild credibility. Building trust at two levels – seniorleadership and operational staff. Building a reputation by startingsmall with quick wins that are easy toimplement, using behaviouralinsights that have worked elsewhere. Evaluating the findings todemonstrate the results and financialbenefit.The results: The social norm letter increased the proportion of clientswho paid by 7.2% (3.13 percentage points) compared to the standardletter (control). If the results are projected across the entire clientgroup for a year, it would result in an additional 300,000 to 1.7million in fine payments.4
Establishing a behavioural insights teamEarly on to generateinterest, the team met withother teams across theMinistry to explain theservices they could provideand seek out projects.By undertaking straightforward and ‘easy win’ projectsthe team could demonstrate the benefits of usingbehavioural insights. The success of the early projectsbuilt the team’s reputation and credibility, withproject teams now seeking out the team’s services.The vision for the future is to expand the size of theteam and more actively work across the entire Justicesector.Useful informationKeep up-to-date with what’s happening in the worldof behavioural insights by subscribing to thefollowing Challenges moving forwardThe team faces some challenges: People regarding the team as providingcommunications advice, given the early projectsfocused on applying behavioural nudges to letters.Moving forward, the team is keen to select projectsthat demonstrate the breadth of work that can benefitfrom behavioural insights. Securing ongoing funding is time-consuming for a smallteam. Being overwhelmed by demand, which requires theteam to be clear about priorities and what can bedelivered. Limited diversity given the small size of the team. Theteam is addressing this risk through reaching out toother areas of the Ministry to leverage different skillsets. Maintaining a focus on evaluation. There is moreinterest in applying behavioural insights, thanevaluating the results. Processes also don’t alwaysallow for randomised control trials (e.g. automatedprocess for generating letters).5
Concluding discussionThe Community of Practice event concluded with aquestion and answer session with the panel and audience.The main points discussed are below. It is important to have a behavioural insights championat the senior leadership level in your agency, to helpcreate the authorising environment. Share the results with your Minister to socialise themethodology and demonstrate the value of usingbehavioural insights. When building your behavioural insights capability,start small with multiple, quick and replicatedrandomised control trials for quick wins. Be clear on the behaviour you want to change. Not allprojects are suitable for using behavioural insights, andthere will be some people whose behaviour you can’tchange. Applying behavioural insights often requires deepexpertise and should be well evaluated to test whatworks in which situation. Behavioural insights has not yet become business asusual in the public service in New Zealand, but theinterest in it is growing.Want to get help or find out more?For information on why you should use behaviouralinsights, what it involves, what you'll get out of it,when to use it, limitations, guidance and tools andexisting expertise, check out the Policy Project’sPolicy Methods Toolbox.Ideas42 is another useful source of information. Theirmission is to use the power of behavioural science todesign scalable solutions to some of society’s mostdifficult problems. Check out their playbook on how toset up a behavioural design team in government.The Behavioural Insights Team’s Wellington Officeoffers consultancy services to help you think aboutapplying behavioural insights to your policy problems.Contact the Wellington office at info-nz@bi.team.The Behavioural Insights Team’s website also containsuseful publications on behavioural insights. Thisincludes the test, learn and adapt framework forrunning randomised control trials.For any other help or to share lessons or trainingmaterial please email the Policy Project.6
The practice of behavioural insights in government agencies in New Zealand is still evolving. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, and . mission is to use the power of behavioural science to design scalable solutions to some of society’s most difficult problems. Check out their playbook on how to
develop behavioural science solutions. Test, Learn, Adapt – This is the framework developed by the Behavioural Insights Team as part of the Test phase to help practitioners test what works and improve what doesn’t. 4 Behavioural Science in Practice Executive Education 5 Morning schedule Introduction to key concepts
behavioural science researchers have helped reveal the often hidden forces that shape our decision making. Behavioural science offers . in practice to improve demand-side management, the broader approach to applying behavioural insights can be used for a host of different
Applying behavioural insights to drug policy and practice: opportunities and challenges . Sara Rafael Almeida . Joana Sousa Lourenço . Emanuele Ciriolo . Joint Research Centre, European Commission, Foresight, Behavioural Insights and Design for Policy Unit, Rue du Champ de Mars 21, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
behavioural insights to increase referrals report and recommendations (September 20171 Overview of the intervention The interventions were designed using behavioural insights techniques. Behavioural Science is the study of how people make decisions in real life, which recognises that people often behave in ways that are
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Behavioural policy implications 13 The structure of Behavioural Economics and Finance 14 A note on mathematics 16 Further reading 16 Some introductions to behavioural economics 16 Behavioural game theory/classical game theory 16 Experimental economics 17 Experimental software 17 2
behavioural science can help us with such issues, to the benefit of all. Dr David Halpern CEO of The Behavioural Insights Team and National Advisor of the UK What Works Centre Helping people back to work has been a focus of BIT efforts since the early days of the team. It is a clear win-win. If we can help people get back to work faster,
development teams. In Agile Product Management with Scrum, you’ll see how a product owner differs from a traditional product manager having a greater level of responsibility for the success of the product. The book clearly outlines and contrasts the different behav-iors between the traditional and the agile role.
