For the whole of October, we’re going to be dedicating our Twitter, LinkedIn and blog features to our behavioural science work. We’ll be sharing insights from our projects (and some of our favourite diagrams!) and exploring some of the issues a behaviour change approach raises, from ethics and risks to the opportunities for local authorities. Head of Research, Ed Houghton leads our behaviour change practice and explains more…

Promo image for #nudgemonth at DG Cities. Text overlaid on aerial view of people walking on a pedestrianised street. Reads: all this month we're focusing on Behaviour Change.

Too often, we see innovation projects fail to deliver as expected because they aren’t adopted or welcomed by the people they were intended for. In smart city innovation, this is particularly common. For example, new smart lighting is installed or an e-scooter service deployed, but they have little impact, or worse, actively frustrate or even harm their target communities. Sometimes the technology may be at fault, but more often than not, it’s because people and their behaviour just haven’t been taken into account.

The best new technology interventions put people and human behaviour front and centre of their design. That is because the most sustainable change comes from choice – not through some anonymous form of implementation, or the deployment of an opaque new technology, but by encouraging people to make better choices for themselves and their community. This is where the concept of behaviour change comes in, and why we see it as vital to local authorities and communities across the UK. Using practical tools and methods developed from the worlds of economics and psychology, we use this approach to facilitate better informed, healthier and more sustained decisions and actions, and we support communities to make the most of new technologies.

Photograph of two young women walking along a pavement pushing e-scooters, they are smiling.

Behaviour Change at DG Cities

People have always been at the heart of what we do at DG Cities. As much as we are fascinated by technology and excited by its potential benefits, we put people first, and consider technology as a facilitator and enabler of improvements, and not an end in itself. We have a wealth of experience in stakeholder engagement and user-centred design. Whether we are tackling fly-tipping on a housing estate or trialling new self-driving cars on public roads, we always start with an understanding of what change means to people – the impact of new technologies and services on their lives. For these innovations to bring positive benefits, councils need to illuminate how citizens’ lives might change as a result. Our behaviour change practice works to ensure innovation and technology projects not only meet the needs of real people, but also supports them to make better decisions.

In the years ahead, our towns and cities will be under pressure to do even more with less. Behaviour change offers a powerful, robust and practical approach to maximising impact with minimal resources. And it’s not just something to consider for new projects; established services and projects can also take advantage of fresh thinking. This is one of the core benefits of our methodology. Through evaluation, we can help to unlock hidden opportunities and enhance services that are working ok, but could work even better, through the application of behavioural science.

Understanding risks, ethics, processes and opportunities

All local authorities can make use of behavioural change interventions, but it requires expertise and experience to spend time understanding patterns of behaviour, drivers and motivators, messaging channels, designing interventions, and creating robust tools and processes to deliver projects in the real world. This is no small task and it requires a focused methodology, a keen sensitivity to risk, ethics and skill to get it right. But with the right steps and support, all local authorities can benefit from a focus on people and their behaviour, and access to the latest insights and evidence. Later this month, we’ll be introducing some of our team and the valuable quantitative and qualitative expertise they bring to behaviour change projects.

While some local authorities are already on their journey to empowering citizens by utilising behavioural science, many are still to get started. Wherever you are in the process, we’d love to help you make the most of behaviour change to meet climate targets, save public money and improve people’s lives. Discover more about our services this month and get in touch at [email protected].