Calling DIBS

Karen Smallwood, Product Manager in Connected Services BC, BC Public Service. Karen Smallwood has an eye for how to use BI to save lives! Her capstone project team tackled organ donation from a new angle: It turns out many people assume they're registered donors when they're not! Drawing on her work in emergency management, Karen shares BI barriers faced by folks trying to prevent, prepare for, respond to, or recover from emergencies. She also tells us about Connected Services BC, which will majorly reduce sludge for the people of BC.

Faraz Haqqi, Principal Behavioral Designer at ideas42.Even highly skilled workers can struggle to find work. Faraz Haqqi provides a snapshot of ideas42’s projects tackling this challenge from Rwanda to Jamaica to Malaysia to the US. The projects approach the problem from a number of different angles, including helping employers provide apprenticeships and internships, helping training programs synch their curricula with market needs, and helping jobseekers complete job placement programs. 

Katherine Flaschen, Principal Behavioral Designer at ideas42. ideas42's Katherine Flaschen explains how to tackle complex challenges like "improving educational outcomes" by using a step-by-step process and focusing on meaningful, movable, and measurable behaviours. To illustrate, Katherine shares a project using social norms and present bias to encourage caregivers to enroll girls in school. Katherine also shares key advice like centring target populations and building partner capacity to increase impact.

Nicholas Chesterley, Author of "Future-Generation Government".Nick Chesterley's new book, "Future-Generation Government", uses a behavioural insights lens to explore why governments underweight the long term, and how we can help them better balance the present and the future. Nick and I talk about the importance of measurement, experimenting with new ideas, and iterating as we learn what works (and what doesn't). We also discuss strategies to make it easy and attractive to govern for tomorrow today.

Dave Hardisty, Associate Professor of Marketing and Behavioural Science at UBC Sauder School of Business.Dave Hardisty returns to the podcast to talk about A/B tests, which are a popular and useful tool to help us determine which version of something works best. However, A/B tests run on online platforms like Google and Facebook aren't actually true experiments because of the way platforms try to optimize engagement for each version. Dave shares why this matters, options for online true experiments, and best practices for online platform A/B tests. 

Greg Lockwood, Senior Analyst at Global Affairs Canada.Greg Lockwood returns to the podcast to tell us about recent projects using mixed methods to explore optimal hybrid work strategies and to encourage deep work in the age of distraction. Drawing from his experiences at the Public Health Agency of Canada and Global Affairs Canada, Greg also shares lessons learned about experimentation, communicating with internal vs. public audiences, and working in BI-specific vs. generalist roles and teams.

Jordana Composto, Postdoctoral Researcher at UBC Decision Insights for Business & Society (UBC-DIBS).We're thrilled to welcome Jordana Composto as our new DIBS postdoctoral researcher. Through her contributions to the 2022 IPCC report and her research on the mechanics of social norms, Jordana works across disciplines and levels to tackle the climate crisis. She shares helpful ways to categorize behaviour change, gaps that new research can address, calls to better measure and report impacts, and goals for collaborating to implement research insights.

Alison Schatz, Senior Communications Specialist at Metro Vancouver.After completing the Advanced Professional Certificate in Behavioural Insights, Alison Schatz is finding a wide range of ways to weave BI into her work. Among other uses, Alison is drawing on BI concepts and methods to write action-focused communications, to coordinate with colleagues, to connect with difference audiences, and to lay the groundwork for herself and others to do full BI experiments to improve services and sustainability for the community.

Takuro Ishikawa, Senior Behavioural Scientist with the BC Behavioural Insights Group (BC BIG).Tak Ishikawa returns to the podcast to help us understand the recent "debate" about boosts and nudges. To help ground the conversation, we disentangle terms like heuristics, biases, nudges, and boosts. In the end, Tak and I firmly agree that there is no debate -- both boosts and nudges are extremely valuable. Instead, it's about nuance and choosing the right intervention (or combination of interventions) for the situation.

Clea Stone, Associate Director at The Sound.Because Clea Stone recently completed the Advanced Professional Certificate in Behavioural Insights to complement her existing skillset from a decade of work in market research, she's perfectly equipped to help us explore the intersection of market research and behavioural insights. To wit, Clea brainstorms opportunities for integrating BI into market research and profiles qualitative research techniques that can round out the BI repertoire. 

Yann Cornil, Associate Professor of Marketing and Behavioural Science at UBC Sauder School of Business.As a French food researcher, Yann Cornil was surprised by North American eating habits and messaging about good vs. bad foods. Yann's research with Pierre Chandon suggests that we eat less and enjoy it more when we eat mindfully (read: with our TVs and phones off) and focus on the Epicurean or sensory pleasure of eating. So, listen to this episode and then go savour a small portion of your favourite, delicious, delectable snack!

Kieran Findlater, Lead for Behavioural and Data Science at the Impact and Innovation Unit.Kieran Findlater shares how his cross-disciplinary background prepared him to work at the Canadian federal government's Impact and Innovation Unit (IIU). Kieran explains the IIU's approach to projects and how it has evolved. He also provides an overview of the recently completed Program of Applied Research on Climate Action or PARCA, which promoted climate action through a combination of longitudinal surveys, online experiments, and in-field testing.

Julie Szabo, Principal at Capulet.At Capulet, Julie Szabo has worked on a wide variety of online communication campaigns. In addition to sharing general wisdom for creating social media campaigns and measuring their impact, Julie tells us about recent projects promoting HPV vaccines in Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Julie also shares the exciting news that Capulet is creating a digital library, which will make their rich history of campaigns and data publicly accessible.

Joana Katter, Research Lead for Policy & Program Research at Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada.Drawing on her experiences working in academia, government, and the private sector, Joana Katter shares advice for finding BI roles and creating community. We discuss the importance of leading with curiosity and humility, especially when you're part of a cross-functional team. We also talk about the many different contributions BI projects bring to the table and the value of planning projects so that there are wins along the way (and not just at the very end).

Lea Dunn, Principal Quantitative Researcher at Brooks Running.Lea Dunn unpacks the value of behavioural science for firms like Brooks, the performance running company. With their passionate customers and culture of curiosity, Brooks creates opportunities to use behavioural science, including both qualitative and quantitative research methods, in everything from developing strategy to evaluating customer satisfaction. Lea also talks about how to champion BI, what to outsource, and how to find opportunities for BI.

Piyush Tantia.After 15 years at ideas42, Piyush Tantia reflects back on big successes, including completing over 600 projects around the world and scaling impactful interventions like behaviourally-informed cash transfers. Piyush also shares challenges, such as finding funding for social science research and development. Lastly, we discuss opportunities ahead, including building BI into policy and practice at all levels to create truly behaviourally-informed organizations.

Kirstin Appelt, Research Director of UBC Decision Insights for Business & Society (UBC-DIBS).To celebrate our 100th episode, host Kirstin Appelt reflects on her top takeaways so far: (1) There are multiple roads to BI and the field is richer for it. (2) BI is everywhere, which means there's no shortage of opportunities for doing the work of BI! (3) BI has a strong foundation and it's constantly evolving and improving. (4) BI is a kind, passionate community where everyone from newbies to long-time experts are generous with their time and knowledge.

Adrian Camilleri, Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of Technology Sydney Business School.Adrian Camilleri provides an overview of his research nudging greener car choices: He shares his earlier work testing different fuel economy metrics and activating different purchase goals. Adrian also gives us a sneak peek into his ongoing research exploring personalized nudges--the idea that different folks respond to different nudges, and that matching the right nudge to the right person might best help them achieve their goals.

Crystal Hall, Associate Professor at the University of Washington’s Evans School of Public Policy & Governance.Drawing on her book Antiracist by Design, Crystal Hall shares an updated model for working on behavioural science projects. The model emphasizes actively and collaboratively planning and managing projects so that they involve the right people, ask the right questions, identify the correct problems, iteratively design fitting solutions, measure for differential impacts for different groups and downstream consequences, and share results through multiple channels. 

Jade Radke, PhD student in Psychology at UBC, & Jiaying Zhao, Associate Professor of Psychology and the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at UBC.As part of the "Happy Climate" project, Jade Radke and Jiaying Zhao are exploring how to increase both climate action and happiness. Across projects, they've found that positive frames and probabilistic rewards work: Framing actions as doing more good (vs. less bad), framing climate change as an opportunity for action (vs. a disaster to survive), and offering lotteries (vs. certain rewards) all lead to more climate action. That said, as we discuss, context matters!

Holly Caggiano, Assistant Professor in Climate Justice and Environmental Planning at UBC’s School of Community and Regional Planning.Holly Caggiano shares her research combining the disciplines of behavioural science and planning to explore climate equity, community-led solutions, and community solidarity and care. We also discuss some of the opportunities that arise when behavioural science and planning come together, including more exploration of the forces shaping human behaviour and more progress toward community-led planning and nudging.

Eva Koromilas, Project Lead with the OECD’s Behavioural Science Unit.Sludge is baked into many processes, from filing taxes to renewing licenses to accessing services. Fortunately, folks like Eva Koromilas are paving the way for organizations worldwide to undertake sludge audits to find and eliminate the points of friction and psychological costs that keep us from completing processes. Eva explains the value of sludge audits for organizations, for service users, and for BI enthusiasts hoping to start weaving BI into their work.

Penny Norman, VP of Strategy & Communications, Rescue Agency.Penny Norman applies behavioural science to tackle a variety of pressing behavioural and mental health challenges. She provides a snapshot of the work Rescue has done to promote harm reduction behaviours within the context of the fentanyl crisis. The takeaways are widely applicable to behaviour change projects -- approach with an open mind, look for restraining forces, move beyond raising awareness, empower people, and learn and iterate.

Jeremy Gretton, Behavioural Scientist with the Ontario Behavioural Insights Unit. Jeremy Gretton reflects on his time applying BI in academia, the private sector, and government. We discuss why many "a or b" questions are better answered with "both/and": Combining academic and applied expertise, qualitative and quantitative approaches, behaviour and systems change, and rigour and impact are all more powerful than choosing "either/or". Jeremy also shares recent work on public trust and vaccination by Public Health Canada.

Paloma Bellatin, Principal Advisor with BIT. The term "digital innovation" covers a lot of (quickly-changing) ground. Paloma Bellatin provides an overview of three different areas where behavioural science is making an impact: creating new technology to bring interventions online accessibly, improving existing technology to better serve users, and protecting against online harms, whether from well-meaning companies, deliberate misinformation, or the impacts of technology use itself.

Dilip Soman, Professor of Marketing at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, & Bing Feng, Manager of Behavioural Finance at TD Wealth.In our second episode on the Behaviourally Informed Organizations partnership, Dilip Soman and Bing Feng tell us about international collaborations to reduce sludge in governments and work applying behavioural science to poverty reduction. Throughout, Dilip and Bing highlight the power of partnerships, the importance of context, new areas of research and application for behavioural science, and (of course) advice for embedding BI into organizations.

Dilip Soman, Professor of Marketing at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management, & Bing Feng, Manager of Behavioural Finance at TD Wealth.Dilip Soman and Bing Feng share the story of how BEAR's Behaviourally Informed Organizations partnership has both impacted people's day-to-day lives and advanced the field of behavioural science. Dilip and Bing tell us about a research project that increased organ donations in Ontario while building credibility for BI in Canada, and another project that increased retirement savings in Mexico while pushing BI to design for different types of people.

Rachel Yang, Senior Behavioural Scientist with Technical Safety BC.Rachel Yang rejoins the podcast to provide updates on how Technical Safety BC is integrating behavioural insights into their vision of "Safe technical systems. Everywhere." Rachel shares two examples: a project encouraging contractors to comply with new regulations, and a project encouraging skiers to ride chairlifts more safely. Throughout, Rachel weaves in takeaways about linking results to organizational mandates and tracking projects' ripple effects.

Kerstin Behrens-Bolt, Manager of Knowledge Management, Training, and Quality Assurance with the BC Ministry of Citizens’ Services.Kerstin Behrens-Bolt walks us through some of the intersections between service design and behavioural insights, including their shared goal of helping people. Kerstin also happens to have a fantastic eye for opportunities to use BI. She shares some of the opportunities she sees for including BI in the design of services, how knowledge is managed and shared, how quality is assured, how training is delivered, and more.

Shellee Ritzman, Division Manager for Corporate Communications with Metro Vancouver.Shellee Ritzman joins the podcast to help us explore the overlap between social marketing and behavioural insights. We discuss their shared goal of understanding and changing behaviour for good, their different approaches to measurement and evaluation, and our hopes for a future where the two fields come together to maximize positive impact. Shellee also shares opportunities and challenges for using BI in corporate communications.

Brent Novikoff, Public Opinion Research Advisor with the Government of Canada.Building on his background in market research and public opinion research, Brent Novikoff helps us explore those fields, their intersections with BI, and opportunities to use BI in different roles. Brent also shares his takeaways from the Advanced Professional Certificate in BI, including the importance of ethics and the impact of removing barriers. Throughout the episode, we discuss a number of ways BI either is used or can be used to make life easier. 

Alan Shapiro, Principal with Shapiro & Company.Alan Shapiro has spent a decade working on the climate crisis and the related, but distinct water crisis. In explaining some of the challenges within the water crisis and possible roles for behavioural science, Alan introduces the idea of changing not only individual-level behaviour and system-level factors, but also network-level behaviour. Alan also shares a few recent case studies about tackling persistent drought and reducing human-wildlife conflict.

Jeff Mackey-Murdock, Senior Manager, Organizational Change Management with the City of Vancouver.Jeff Mackey-Murdock brings a combination of skills to his role at the City of Vancouver. We talk about how powerful it is when folks add BI to their toolkits and leverage the complementary strengths of their various skills. Digging into BI specifically, Jeff shares the many opportunities and challenges for using BI in local government. He also tells us about some of the newer projects in the City of Vancouver's growing portfolio of BI case studies.

Rhiannon Mosher, Human-Centred Design Researcher with the Behavioural Science Office within the Public Health Agency of Canada. In our second episode on mixed methods, Rhiannon Mosher explains how mixed methods are a crucial part of an anti-racist, Indigenized practice of behavioural science. She shares the value of deep learning about people and their context and remembering that results don't always generalize across contexts. Rhiannon also underscores the importance of involving people in research that impacts them and working together to bridge different ways of knowing and being. 

Rhiannon Mosher, Human-Centred Design Researcher with the Behavioural Science Office within the Public Health Agency of Canada. Rhiannon Mosher returns to the podcast for a two-episode series about mixed-methods approaches. In this first episode, Rhiannon defines qualitative methods, shares examples of qualitative techniques, and explains the importance of doing them well. She also walks through the benefits of mixing methods at each stage of a BI project from scoping to scaling. For further learning, she recommends Sam Ladner's Mixed Methods. 

Meghan Martin, Regional Immunization Leader working in Population and Public Health. Meghan Martin discusses how the intersection of behavioural science and public health draws on the longstanding public health mantra: "make the healthy choice the easy choice". Meghan shares recent examples of how BI is influencing public health practice, including work on the pandemic response, legal substances, and childhood immunizations. She also talks about opportunities ahead, including reducing sludge and tailoring to meet the needs of different populations.

Stephanie Papik, the Moose Hide Campaign Society’s Director for the Public Service. Stephanie Papik returns to share how we can work together to simultaneously Indigenize behavioural science and use Indigenized behavioural science to tackle issues impacting Indigenous peoples. Stephanie discusses the power of two-eyed seeing and the ABCDE framework, which encourages us to consider our Assumptions, who we've left Behind, who've we Consulted, what's the Data, and are the outcomes Equitable? Visit our new wiki page for more resources: https://blogs.ubc.ca/biwiki/anti-racism/

Lindsay Miles-Pickup, Methods Specialist with the BC Behavioural Insights Group (BC BIG).In part two of this two-episode series inspired by Michael Hallsworth's "Manifesto for Applying Behavioural Science", Lindsay Miles-Pickup and I continue our conversation about the evolution of the practice of behavioural insights. In this episode, Lindsay walks us through a recent BC BIG project on active transportation to illustrate how BI can be used as a lens and why it's important to take humility to heart.

Lindsay Miles-Pickup, Methods Specialist with the BC Behavioural Insights Group (BC BIG).In part one of this two-episode series inspired by Michael Hallsworth's "Manifesto for Applying Behavioural Science", Lindsay Miles-Pickup returns to the podcast to talk about how the practice of behavioural insights is changing and improving. Lindsay uses a recent project with BC Transplant on organ donation to illustrate how BC BIG has evolved how they scope projects, design evaluations, and analyze and interpret the resulting data.

Ammaarah Martinus, Senior Program Office at UNESCO MGIEP.Ammaarah Martinus has applied BI in large organizations based in South Africa and India. Ammaarah shares how starting small, but strong helps build the necessary BI appetite and awareness for project success. She also shares other key requirements for rewarding BI project partnerships, including having unlike minds at the table, being willing to learn from and about each other, and sharing the same definition of success.

Meera Paleja, Program Head for Investor Research and Behavioural Insights at the Ontario Securities Commission.Over the last decade, Meera Paleja has worked in academia, management consulting, and different levels of government. Drawing on her diverse experiences, Meera shares a high-level look at BI in Canada and walks us through the similarities and differences in BI challenges and methods across organizations and sectors. We also talk about the benefits of bringing BI academics and practitioners together to enrich each other's work.

Jordyn Hrenyk, Michif researcher & PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University. Jordyn Hrenyk uses her background in strategy and entrepreneurship to study behaviour, business, and society at both the micro and macro levels. Jordyn's research portfolio questions a variety of implicit and explicit assumptions, such as how values are communicated through everyday business decisions, how entrepreneurs impact one another and create market norms, how business concepts are taught, and who can learn from Indigenous business leaders.

Brett Cloutier, Senior Research Manager at ATB Financial.From the BI perspective, personal finance is a classic example of an intertemporal choice problem where spending tomorrow depends on planning and saving today. Brett Cloutier is a UX/CX researcher who has added this type of BI lens to his work exploring barriers and solutions for financial planning. We talk about the importance of financial plans, areas of opportunity for BI, and the value of using qualitative research to complement quantitative research.

Britt Titus, Behavioral Insights Lead with the International Rescue Committee (IRC).Britt Titus applies BI to wicked problems in humanitarian settings around the world. These problems and settings require modifications to the standard BI approach to problem-solving. Britt walks us through how her team at the IRC has expanded the problem scoping phase to spend time: (1) validating assumptions with a variety of involved parties and (2) identifying leverage points that maximize impact and feasibility.

Craig Hutton, Senior Behavioural Scientist with the BC Behavioural Insights Group (BC BIG).In a great BI project, the behavioural and decision sciences provide the questions and data science provides the tools to answer those questions. As someone who is both a data scientist and a behavioural scientist, Craig Hutton is the ideal person to talk us through similarities, differences, and complementarities between these fields. Craig also shares best practices for managing, analyzing, and communicating about data.

Brianne Kirkpatrick, Principal Advisor with BIT Canada, & Ansley Dawson, Senior Manager, Financial Empowerment Program at WoodGreen Community Services.Ansley Dawson and Brianne Kirkpatrick tell us about their joint work using BI to support folks on social assistance. We focus on the innovative Income Transition Project, which is free social worker counselling to help folks understand the financial process of transitioning to employment. This project is a great illustration of how scoping, evaluation, and scaling can be tackled in a complex problem involving multiple partners, datasets, and outcomes that matter.

Stina Grant, Methods Specialist with the BC Behavioural Insights Group (BC BIG).Stina Grant joins us for a deep dive on secondary research. Stina walks us through the importance of understanding the existing evidence base -- what has been done in which context and to what effect. She shares tips for how to conduct good literature reviews, how to synthesize information from across sources, and how to feed in primary research. As Stina says, conducting secondary research is like finding the pieces to a puzzle and solving the mystery.

Stephanie Mertens, Behavioural Scientist at the Ontario Behavioural Insights Unit.Foundational research developing new theories. Applied research testing solutions in the field. Stephanie Mertens helps us explore different ways of contributing to the behavioural and decision sciences. She also shares her takeaways from her meta-analysis of BI's first decade: Nudges work, but we still have a lot to learn about how, when, and for whom. Stephanie explains how she applies these insights to her work developing and testing BI solutions.

Yarnel Bender, Associate Vice President, Corporate Change Management & Communications, at TD Bank.Changing behaviour and managing change are two inextricably linked processes. As someone who is both a change management expert and a BI practitioner, Yarnel Bender is the perfect person to talk us through how these two tools complement and enrich each other. We also talk about how to use BI in everyday work, how to communicate about BI, and the value of bringing your own background and expertise into your BI practice.

Jennifer Parisi, Manager of Marketing and Communications with Michael Smith Health Research BC. In her work across organizations in the health sector, Jen Parisi has come to appreciate the role that behaviours by patients, doctors, nurses, administrators, and others play in health outcomes. And, where there are behaviours, there are opportunities to use BI, from hand hygiene to program uptake to cultural safety and beyond. We discuss these opportunities and how initial BI projects can set the stage for future work by pinpointing the right questions to ask.