If training isn’t the answer, what is?
To help employees do the right thing, business leaders often invest heavily in policies, internal communications, and lots of training. So when reports still aren’t raised, corners continue to be cut, or customer complaints emerge, it’s natural for leaders to feel puzzled and ask themselves:
Why, despite all this effort, is behaviour still falling short?
The everyday actions of employees are instrumental to organisational outcomes. It’s where risks are caught or multiplied, where customer experiences are made or broken, and where reputations are upheld or undone. The impact of behaviour falling short runs deep — in both business and human terms.
Often, organisations respond by individualising responsibility, asking who slipped up, who needs more awareness, who needs to know better?
Knowledge is not necessarily power
But behaviour doesn’t happen in a vacuum nor is it shaped solely by knowledge or awareness.
Human behaviour — whether in the workplace or beyond — is influenced by a complex mix of factors: incentives, habits, capabilities, unspoken assumptions, and the social cues people navigate daily.
The evidence is clear: organisations overestimate knowing better and underestimate the power of context in helping people do better. Consider:
- A 2024 review found that interventions targeting knowledge and beliefs were among the least effective at changing behaviour. The biggest shifts came from changing the context around people — removing friction, aligning incentives, and shaping social norms.
- A study published in 2025 reinforced the importance of the social environment: most people followed rules not just because they were told to, but because it felt like the right thing to do or because they believed others expected it. When shortcuts or silence become the norm, people tend to follow suit — even if they know better.
Clearly, people mainly take their behavioural cues from their environment, not from the policy handbook. (As much as we wish they did.)
That’s why progressive organisations are turning to behavioural science. Behavioural science is the systematic study of human behaviour, decision-making, and what shapes both. It offers proven ways to shift behaviour through practical, evidence-based interventions that work in the real world.
Intervention design: the tactical application of behavioural science
Behavioural science is often used to help design interventions that engage people more effectively. It can make communications more persuasive, training more actionable, policies more coherent, and tools more intuitive.
At BAD, we do this kind of work every day.
Take Jamie, for example. She works in operations at a major bank. Once a year, she completes her financial crime training. She ticks the boxes, promises to stay alert, and then returns to her real work.
Not because she doesn’t care — but because the risk still feels abstract or distant from her day-to-day. Fraud? That’s the fraud department’s job, right?
Jamie is experiencing something called psychological distance — the risks feel too far away in time, relevance, or impact to seem urgent or real. Behavioural science helps expose and address this.
We recently worked with a global bank to reduce that distance — not by piling on rules or threatening consequences, but by making the risk feel more relatable and immediate. We showed how financial crime harms the everyday lives of people like Jamie and her family: laptops disappearing from classrooms, fish vanishing from the market, medical equipment fading from view. Each scene served as a metaphor for how fraud and money laundering drain public funds and reduce access to essential services.
The goal wasn’t guilt. It was relevance — to help people like Jamie see that their everyday actions matter.
And it worked. Jamie now feels more connected to the broader impact. She’s more engaged and inspired.
Behavioural design: the strategic application of behavioural science
Six months later, Jamie notices a colleague rushing through customer verification checks to meet daily targets — skipping steps that could catch potential risks. She then faces a dilemma.
Jamie wants to raise her concerns, but her manager dismisses them as “not our problem” and reminds her about tight processing deadlines. The team’s KPIs reward speed and volume. The reporting process requires multiple screens and approvals. Looking around, she realises that no one else raises these issues either.
So, she stays quiet. Not because she’s disengaged, but because her environment makes staying silent the easiest, most obvious, and most rewarding choice.
This is where behavioural science becomes strategic — not just tactical.
We use evidence-based frameworks to understand what’s really driving behaviour. We help leaders see behaviour with x-ray glasses:
- What cues are people responding to?
- Where are incentives misaligned?
- Where does friction create bottlenecks?
- What social norms are silently shaping choices?
In Jamie’s case, her silence isn’t personal hesitation. It’s a rational response to environmental barriers:
- A manager who deprioritises risk
- KPIs that penalise careful attention
- Cumbersome reporting processes
- A culture where raising flags isn’t modelled
And these issues won’t be solved by better messaging or yet another training course.
What if we redesigned Jamie’s environment to support the desired behaviour? Picture this:
- Restructured manager incentives that reward vigilance, not just efficiency
- Streamlined reporting processes that take seconds, not minutes
- Visible recognition for employees who raise legitimate concerns
- Team meetings where successful risk catches are celebrated, not brushed aside
In that environment, when Jamie spots the next shortcut or concerning pattern, she raises it immediately. Her manager supports her. The report is processed efficiently. The issue is investigated and resolved.
Same person. Same training. Different environment — different outcome.
Ready to Make a Serious Impact?
Serious problems deserve serious behavioural thinking.
We're known for practical interventions that shift behaviour in the real world. But we also partner with leaders ready to look wider and change the environments that shape what people do.
If you're ready to move beyond surface fixes and redesign the working environments that drive behaviour in your organisation, let’s start with a 30-minute, no-obligation conversation about your specific challenges.
📩 Contact us to arrange your consultation.
