Climate News 25:28
Before we break for summer holidays, it’s a good time to not only reflect on what we’ve managed to achieve during year (as well as what stuffed up) and think about what we want to do next year and whether we need to alter ways of working to do it.
In behaviour change, this is called a ‘pause period’. It usually sits and the beginning and end of a behavioural cycle and can go by different names (e.g. ‘preparation’, ‘reflection’, ‘contemplation’). It’s designed to help project designers think carefully about the next steps in their behavioural intervention. Years ago, when my kids were young, we used to go back to the same beachside town in WA where I grew up every summer, which afforded plenty of opportunities for long walks along the beach. That was my pause period and those walks consisted of a few days of internal railing against the bureaucracy of a state government department, then some more constructive thinking. Not all of it paid off but usually there were one or two good ideas that flowed into new projects. As behaviour change practitioners, we can often overlook that while we are trying to induce change in how others move, consumer energy, think about sustainability etc., we’re doing that from a context that itself often needs to change. These can be internal at work (e.g. who else do I need to collaborate with to ensure my intervention will be most effective?), external within the community (e.g. which households should I be working with?) or personal (e.g. do I have the necessary skills and knowledge to drive behaviour change?). Whatever it is, I hope you enjoy your pause period and at least set some time aside for reflection and re-charging and we’ll see you in 2026.
|
Previous
|
