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In this episode, we look at 3 ways you can use behavioural science to help ease NHS pressures.  ‘Long waits for emergency care, previously only seen in the depths of winter, are now commonplace. In April, more than 24,000 people waited more than 12 hours to be admitted to hospital from A&E – a more than 45-fold increase compared to a year ago.” April 2022, Siva Anandaciva, Chief Analyst at The King’s Fund   Tip one. Don’t talk to your patients  When we are in a state of emergency behavioural science tells us that our evolutionary survival defaults and social norms will kick in. This is called System 1 and it is where our subconscious will drive our default decisions. And in our society, for so long our default norm, when faced with a medical emergency, has been to contact 999 or go to the Accident & Emergency department. So the question is - can we reset that social norm? Can we influence people to reset their automatic choices so that when with they need to make a health service decision they choose the best service for their needs and not automatically A&E?This means we need to communicate with patients outside of health settings  - in other words - not only as patients but as people going about their everyday lives.  Public Health prevention messaging has always been upstream and now with the emergence of the newly formed Integrated Care Services, there is the opportunity for NHS health messaging to shift beyond the patient and talk to people. This episode shares two examples 'Help Us Help You' as an NHS prevention campaign and 'Listen to Your Gut' as an example of a more upstream prevention campaign. Tip two: Remove all uncertainty The gods of behavioural science are used to illustrate how they reduce uncertainty in their homepage design and copy and I share how when running behavioural deep dives one key insight was people's uncertainty around diagnosing and treating health concerns.  Tip three: Use social proof to remove uncertainty When we are uncertain we look around for social proof.  We want to be part of the group and we will look for social proof to guide us in our decision-making and choices.  Fitting in was once essential to our survival and our evolutionary code can still demand that of us.  That’s why social proof, case studies, testimonials and stories are so important. Social proof is closely linked to the 'Band-wagon' effect.   AHA moments 💡🧠 1. Ensure your upstream prevention work is still clearly aligned with strategic goals of easing pressures.  2. In behavioural science we talk about the barriers a lot - understanding our audience so we can reduce them. In this context - we must understand what is making them uncertain. Why are they hesitating to call 111. Without addressing this head-on all the marketing is pure noise. 3. Plan strategically Integrated Care Services are a unique opportunity for change communications.    NHS Bootcamp on Wednesday 6th July  Join as a Team or at  the next Bootcamp to get this stuff nailed!  Wednesday 6th July - NHS pressures “A really fun, interactive, and informative day which provided a wealth of information in a short space of time. Well worth making space in your diary for this course." Sarah, Head of Communications NHS "A really interesting course for anyone who is either at the start of their comms career, or is looking to build upon their knowledge and practice. Ruth was down to earth, friendly and extremely knowledgeable, without being intimidating."  Laura, Head of Communications & Engagement, NHS        

Grab your free COM_B cheat sheet via our newsletter Brainfuel - it will really help when listening to this episode or email me at bootcamp@socialinsightmarketing.co.uk  COM_B introductory podcast episode E21 The busy communicator's guide to COM_B (socialinsightmarketing.co.uk) This episode welcomes Elina Halonen, behavioural science advisor at Square Peg Insight to talk about her favourite tool for thinking behaviour change framework C.O.M._B Elina’s experience draws from 20 years market research with 10 years within behavioural science space, she uses COM_B on her projects with public sector and commercial organisations. Elina highlights the importance of defining the problem and defining the audience and however tempting it is not to skip past this – BEFORE using COM_B. (This temptation is based on two things – this is the hard part and two pressure to get going and just do something!) Unless you are as specific as possible and you clarify what you are talking about stakeholders will talk across each other. When you stay vague you can go in circles.  (We’ve all been there!) “It’s like building a house on shifting sands.” It’s also important because without understanding the behaviours you won’t in turn understand the scale of change needed – different behaviours have different scales of change. Elina also highlighted how “time pressure can lead to thinking errors” so use COM_B as a checklist to support your thinking. Use COM_B to group data and expand thinking.  Books & links  The Behaviour Change Wheel by Susan Michie  The Centre for Theory of Change Engaged: Designing for Behavior Change by Amy Bucher  3 AHA moments  To clarify your thinking. Start with your outcome and work backwards. What set of behaviours is needed to achieve this goal. Then go deep into each behaviour to understand the scale of change. Use COM_B as a thinking tool and group existing data under each heading. Use COM_B as a facilitation tool with experts and partners. Ask ‘have we considered the findings in this bucket’ where do our assumptions fit? How do they fit?    Connect with Elina via LinkedIn or via her website Behavioural Design | Square Peg Insight   Behaviour Change Marketing Team training days Your team, your priorities, bespoke day built around behavioural science. Perfect for bringing a team together – at partnership level Integrated Care Service level or your immediate teams. Book your training day before the end of 10 July and get a special bonus – one -to – one campaign planning session with Ruth. These 90-minute sessions (RRP£299) take place after the training day where we go step-by-step through your plans to ensure your application of behavioural science is the best it can be. This can include the insight, behavioural proposition, channels & content, chosen behavioural framework (usually COM_B or E.A.S.T or both) and stakeholder plan.

This episode welcomes award-winning communicators Nicola Bonas, Keri Ross and Amanda Nash.   Nicola and Keri both work at NHS Devon Clinical Commissioning group soon to be Integrated Care System for Devon. Nicola is the Associate director of communications, involvement and inclusion and Keri Ross is the Senior communications manager. Amanda is based frontline as Head of communications at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust. This is a jam-packed episode! The theme for this show was winter pressures but as you will hear we cover so much more than that including 1: the importance of marketing as a system. “working as one team with one plan that we all contribute to has been definitely something that we’ve continued to grow and seen massive success from” Nicola Bonas 2:  From the pre-pandemic days. Nicola shares her experience of developing the childhood flu vaccination campaign #thumbsupforcoby. This campaign was based on the tragic death of young Cobi, and driven by his parents. “it came from a really real place, two parents experience and a community behind them is what led it to be successful” Nicola Bona 3:  Winters here Jon Snow! It’s all year round. For two reasons increased demand is all year resetting social norms takes all year  “Winter did used to be a very defined time period with a very defined set of pressures that came with it I think those pressures now run right through the years and they have been for the last few years” Keri Ross 4: Insight is the core to the message development. Insight tips from Keri include good relationships with voluntary sector organisations, community groups and networks to draw down resources and expertise such as the  Academic Health Science Networks.  “Insight is really the core of everything we then design and develop. We need to understand what peoples experiences are of services and what their understanding of services to really know how to reach them and design something that will connect with them and make a difference.” Keri Ross 5: Case study: Think 111 is a campaign built out from insight. An understanding of the need to reset social norms, make it easy and reach people all year round – when they are not in an emergency situation. The team worked with Healthwatch to run qualitative research sessions to understand their audience and why they had attended the Emergency Department.  Because the team evaluates they know that 78% people had tried another service before attending the Emergency Department. The constant pressure is keeping up with demand 6:  Understanding people is at the heart of what we do: You can do this by reviewing published work too. Lift and shift!   “Insight is core to behavioural change, its about understanding the people whose behaviour you are looking to change, understanding what motivates them, what barriers they face and what will drive them and sustain them -  intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.  That’s what we’re good at – we always come back to – what do the people that we are trying to influence what are they currently doing and why?” 7: Case study: Reducing Do Not Attends (DNAs) at outpatient appointments Amanda used the learning from a randomised control study at Barts Hospital (2015) that successfully reduced DNA’s by 3% following some simple word changes in outpatient text message reminders. Text-based reminders: (messaging not exact)  Control group received a reminder along the lines of “Remember you have your appointment at xxx on xxxx”  Easy-call group received a reminder along the lines of “your appointment is xxx at xxx to cancel or rearrange call”  Social norms group received a reminder along the lines of “we expect to see you at xxx at xxxx date 9 out of 10 people attend.”  Specific costs “we are expecting you to attend xxxx not attending costs the NHS xxx ££ xxxx per missed appointment call if you don’t want to attend” Plymouth University Hospital achieved their lowest ever rate of DNA’s to new and follow-up appointments. To read more about this study click on this link.   Recommended Books Nicola’s books: European Dictators by Steven Bailey Lean in Sheryl Sandberg Keri’s book: This Is Going To Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay Amanda’s books: The Behaviour Change Wheel by Susan Michie Social Psychology, by Michael Hogg and Graham Vaughan The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman   3 AHA moments The NHS pressures are constant all year round. Insight will help ensure messaging is as impactful as possible to support pressures.  The team work as a system and draw insight from across organisations and so elevate the standard of their work as they deepen their understanding of the challenge.  Shift and lift! Publish your work so others can benefit. You don’t always need to run qualitative research – start with seeing what’s out there and try it. N      Behaviour Change Marketing Team training days Your team, your priorities, bespoke day built around behavioural science. Perfect for bringing a team together – at partnership level Integrated Care Service level or your immediate teams. Book your training day before the end of 10 June and get a special bonus – one -to – one campaign planning session with Ruth. These 90-minute sessions (RRP£299) take place after the training day where we go step-by-step through your plans to ensure your application of behavioural science is the best it can be. This can include the insight, behavioural proposition, channels & content, chosen behavioural framework (usually COM_B or E.A.S.T or both) and stakeholder plan.

Today’s episode is dedicated to career progression, building confidence and motivation. We welcome Carrie-Ann Wade, NHS Director of Communications & Engagement and founder of Cat’s Pajamas where she mentors communication professionals to grow and thrive in their careers. We talk all things confidence, stepping up as the expert and the importance of clearly demonstrating to stakeholders and senior management the high level of expertise that communications brings to the table. Carrie-Ann stresses how essential it is to really nail the brief in order to be able to shift from output to outcome.   “Communicators have the knowledge but need to have confidence to articulate it and join the table.” Carrie-Ann Wade Career progression Build your network get peer support and mentors. Say Yes to opportunities (within your boundaries!) Invest in yourself! (Can your organisation fund or support this?)  Carrie-Ann is available for mentoring and also runs a  12-week online THRIVE programme. This is a dedicated safe-space for communication managers and heads of communications to grow and thrive. Where you can have ‘unfiltered conversations’. The next programme starts in September.  Carrie-Ann and her NHS Team also undertook the one-day Team Training we’re forever grateful for her kind words. It was a fantastic day. "My team undertook Bootcamp...it was just brilliant for us..when you're embedded in an organisation that has lots going on and you're involved in so many projects sometimes it can be about just getting through the work and not applying the theory and evaluation. It was such a huge reminder about how important that is. I just wanted to say a massive thank you. It was such a brilliant day we all took something from it" Guest Resources/useful links Thrive Programme Bootcamp Team training   3 AHA moments Demonstrate to your senior team how much strategic value communications has played and across your organisation. For example a communications annual report or steal from the world of Social Enterprises with a Impact Report  Celebrating success. Keep your feedback. Show your boss. Keep a brag file. Make it a habit! C  Set boundaries. Don’t apologise for setting boundaries. Thank people for their patience in emails. Thank you Carrie-Ann. Cat’s Pajamas everyone! 💡❤️‍🔥   🧠 Limited offer ends June 15 2022 Behaviour Change Marketing Bootcamp Team training days Bootcamp team training days are all about your team, and your priorities, they are bespoke days built around behavioural science. Perfect for bringing a team together – at partnership level Integrated Care Service level or your immediate teams. Book your training day before the 15 June 2022 and get a special bonus one–to–one campaign planning session with Ruth. These 90-minute sessions (RRP£299) take place after the training day where we go step-by-step through your plans to ensure your application of behavioural science is the best it can be. Aka the cat's pajamas. This can include the insight, behavioural proposition, channels & content, chosen behavioural framework (usually COM_B or E.A.S.T or both) and stakeholder plan. Email Ruth directly ruth@socialinsightmarketing.co.uk or book a call to chat through your needs via calendy here -

Today’s episode welcome’s Adrian Searle and Steven Carroll from Police Scotland to talk about the incredible award winning ‘Don’t Be That Guy’ campaign. THAT guy aims to reduce rape, serious sexual assault and harassment by having frank conversations with men about male sexual entitlement. It won the Drum Awards 2022 Public Sector campaign and is nominated for many more.  ‘Don’t be that guy’ went viral with excess of 6 million views of the hero video. The microsite that-guy.co.uk was  viewed excess of 160,000 page views. Adrian and Steven talk through the process of the campaign from understanding the challenge to the importance of the ‘north star’ aka your behavioural goal or value proposition in execution. They share their tactics and how they shifted the narrative around this incredibly important subject. They share how they developed the challenge into a strategy and from there the strategy into powerful creative. The insight and the strength of the value proposition was integral to the success. They highlight how your communications should reflect your values – something we all strive for. Book recommendation Stephen recommends – How To Stay Sane: The School of Life by Philippa Perry Adrian Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping by Paco Underhiill Crime recommendation: Dark Winter – Look into his eyes and prepare to die by David Mark Guest Resources/useful links that-guy.co.uk 3 AHA moments Understanding the insight was step one and dedicated time to understanding the problems and seeking out the experts, capturing the insight and developing a clear narrative.   Next step is to take the insight and turn it into a marketing strategy with a guiding north star – the proposition: Sexual violence starts long before you think it does and men have a key role in ending sexual violence by reflecting on their own behaviour and look out for their mates behaviour.   Use the proposition across all agencies to ensure all content and creative is in sync. Use the strategy to ensure the creative stays objective not subjective.  Bonus aha…. Using influencers to create shareable content – this proved to be enormously important as it captured a tone the target audience could relate to and using talented young men built credibility that helped ensure the phenomenal success in sharing the asset. Good briefing behind the value proposition so everyone is just as important when recruiting influencers – conversations at the start are crucial so everyone has clear expectations.  

 Today’s episode welcome’s Jude Hackett to take us through the incredible free insight tool – The Empathy Map. Jude is a behaviour change and social marketing consultant with 18 years of experience in Marketing and Strategic Communications, with specialisms in marketing for social impact, behaviour change and brand. Jude is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM). Basically a total pro! The Empathy Map is a visualisation tool developed by Dave Gray in 2017 that we can use on our own, or with teams and stakeholders to capture our understanding of our users, patients, and residents. It helps build a shared understanding of our user needs plus aid decision making and shift messaging. Dave Gray is a leader in the field of creativity. His website Gamestorming is well worth a visit for the wealth of resources he shares. Dave is dedicated to teasing creativity out of everyone by sharing the tools and systems of design thinking.   Book recommendation The Power of Ignorance: How creative solutions emerge when we admit what we don’t know. Dave Trott, 2021 Guest Resources/useful links Get your empathy map by visiting the Gamestorming website here. Plus have a look around it’s amazing! Contact Jude on LinkedIn or email Jude@Creatinggood.co.uk 3 AHA moments 1) How well do you understand your audience? Are you clear what you want people to do? Using the empathy map captures what you know but flags what you don’t! 2) The ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ sexual health research published by Dan Ariely in Predictably Irrational is a great example of demonstrating how our understanding of are audiences can completely change when and how we communicate. 3) A clear behaviour change goal is essential. (or value proposition!) Use the map to find yours. Happy mapping and thank you Jude!  If you enjoyed this episode please leave a review and share with anyone you know wants to get started and is passionate about making a positive change. Kickstart your journey into behavioural science Want to know about how to use behavioural science in your comms & marketing? We love empathy mapping so much we have incorporated it into our Bootcamp training  days on 6th & 8th July and into our Team Training days. Join us to kickstart your skills or book a call with me.  

Today's episode is all about making behavioural science real in the comms office. Leanne Hughes and Polly Durrant both attended Behaviour Change Marketing Bootcamp earlier this year. Leanne and Polly kindly came on the podcast to share their experience and share how simple it can be to use behavioural science in-house. Even though behavioural science is a relatively new skill set it is sometimes seen as ‘hard’ or complicated. But it doesn’t have to be -  you can use it – you don’t need a science background!  It’s also not just marketers with big campaign budgets it’s for all comms including internal, crisis and socials. Thank you Leanne & Polly for making it real. Book recommendation Polly’s choice - Why we resist: The surprising Truths about Behavior Change: A Guidebook for Healthcare Communicators, Advocates and Change Agents - Kathleen Star and Lee Householder Leanne’s choice  - The Choice Factory: 25 behavioural biases that influence what we buy, Richard Shotton   3 AHA moments Meeting people where they are is fundamental – start there.  COM_B is a tool that can be used in-house for projects and strategies – not just big campaigns and interventions. You have a  much higher chance of success breaking through (information overload) when you use the science.   Come find out for yourself at the next Bootcamp we'd love to meet you            

This episode welcomes Dr Taylor Willmott behavioural scientist and thought leader in social marketing. Taylor is a lecturer in marketing at The University of Adelaide and also works with industry and government, climate change, reducing sexual violence, chronic disease, obesity prevention and much more. This episode is all about why we need to use theory in our behaviour change intervention/campaign  design. With so many people tackling similar problems we need to be able to share learning openly, transparently and evaluate with confidence – and that means using theory. Using theory will reduce stress,  build confidence and Taylor talks us through her recently published TITE process can help us get started and stay the course. TITE stands for: T – theory selection. I – Iterative schematisation.  T – Test Theory E- explicit reporting Taylor is very happy to take any questions and connect. You can reach her via Taylor Willmott | Researcher Profiles (adelaide.edu.au)   Book recommendation Taylors book recommendation: “Think Big: Take small steps and build the future your want”  by Grace Lordan (I have since read it and am saving it for my teenage son. I wish I had this book when I was starting my career. Deep lightbulb moments alert!)   Guest Resources/useful links TITE Process Paper: Willmott, T. J., & Rundle-Thiele, S. (2022). Improving theory use in social marketing: the TITE four-step theory application process. Journal of Social Marketing, 12(2), 222-255. doi: 10.1108/JSOCM-05-2021-0117 *GEM Database (for theoretical measures): NCI (2019), “Grid-enabled measures database [online]”, National Cancer Institute, available at: www. gem-beta.org/public/MeasureList.aspx?cat=2 *SOBC Database (for theoretical measures): SOBC (2019), “The measures [online]”, Science of Behavior Change, available at: https://org/measures/ 3 AHA moments 1) Use theory to design evaluation before you get started. Don’t let theory stop at the insight planning stage include it in your process evaluation as well as outcome evaluation. 2) If we don't use theory to evaluate we will be forever circling the drain! Revisiting the same challenges because we cant confidently share what works and what doesn't.  3) Process evaluation is important – some of the intervention may work. Some may not. You need to know, so you don’t throw the theory out with the bath water!  Evaluation isn't black or white we need safe spaces to be able to share what doesn't work as well as celebrate what does. 

Today's episode explains COM_B the behaviour change framework for busy communication and marketing professionals.Designed for busy pro's to get started in behavioural science and use this tool to define and understand the behaviour they are tackling. Don't let the idea of using theory or behavioural science in your campaign planning stop you.Using COM_B will illuminate the stages of your campaign planning and help ensure you don't go down the wrong road. Instead, go down your audience's road.Don't simply step into their shoes - but look at the behaviour through their eyes. Only then will your content truly influence and activate change. Further Resources:Email bootcamp@socialinsightmarketing.co.uk for your free interactive worksheet. 

ONE:  Systems Thinking is a fundamental term coined by Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman who through is research established there are dual processes within the brain that function together. He published a ground-breaking book called Thinking Fast & Slow in 2011 which quickly entered the New York Times bestsellers list. He called  them System 1 and System 2 TWO: System 1 also known as the homer brain (yes as in Homer Simpson) or the hare (yes the one from the tortoise & hare analogy) it is fast, automatic, dominant, developed over evolutionary to keep you safe. Making thousands of decisions a day on your behalf.THREE: System 2. Aka Spock (yes the one from Star Trek) is slow, methodical, concentrates and is pretty lazy. FOUR: It’s important to understand that these processes work together and we should value both systems – although system 1. Challenge can be when using the right one.  FIVE: This Heuristics or biases or rules of thumb all mean the same thing. They are shortcuts that sit in our System 1 brain.  They have evolved with the human race, designed to keep us alive they make tens of thousands of decisions on our behalf – subconsciously  - every day. They pick up on the cues, the triggers, the fears within our environments and assign actions. They have been very popular in marketing and advertising for some time, for example anchoring the price or product, using scarcity or a sale to drive sales tapping into our emotions with powerful sensory tactics and using social norms to influence change. Why do I care as a communicator? Well because Spock is lazy and he doesn’t want to be used very often so if your work is confusing or unclear at any level Spock will kick in….and did I mention we’re lazy…. It is by no accident that advertising giants such as Ogilvy have been tapping into our emotions to prime us to associate that brand with emotions.  In Behaviour Change Marketing Bootcamp Live & OnDemand we go deep into the world of behavioural biases to skill up on how we can use them inhouse to brief agencies, set strategy, develop copy and frame insight development. To ultimately understand our audience so we can communicate change, influence behaviour and increase impact.Further reading: Thinking Fast & Slow by Daniel Kahneman Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely