157 — Why should we care about behaviour change?

Many learning interventions start out from the position that people would perform much better in their roles if they just did what we told them. But what if this approach is misguided?

What if the mistakes that people make aren't due to a lack of awareness, but because of a host of environmental factors that incentive the wrong behaviour?

On this week's episode of The GoodPractice Podcast, instructional designer and author Julie Dirksen joins Ross G and Owen to ask why behaviour change matters - and how we can nudge it along.

We discuss:

• why behaviour change should often be our goal, rather than learning
• why it's so hard to change behaviour
• techniques for encouraging behaviour change

If you'd like to share your thoughts on the show, you can find us on Twitter @RossGarnerGP, @OwenFerguson and @UsableLearning.

To find out more about GoodPractice, visit goodpractice.com or tweet us @GoodPractice or @GoodPracticeAus.

The book the team kept referencing was Thaler and Sunstein's Nudge, available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nudge-Improving-Decisions-Health-Happiness/dp/0141040017  

The podcast episode Owen recommended, on cellophane, was from 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csz2w3

Julie's website, usablelearning.com, has links to her book: Design for How People Learn. She has also launched a course at designbetterlearning.com

Ross doesn't want to link to his What I Learned This Week, because he doesn't want anyone to see the film.