One of the most effective approaches I have learned is called SCIPAB, a technique developed by Steve Mandel and now spread by the company he founded, Mandel Communications. I was lucky enough to be trained in SCIPAB by Mandel Communications as part of a more general “presentation skills“ training. I don’t want to steal their thunder (or their business!), but I do want to share some of the insights that I carry with me and use regularly.
SCIPAB is an acronym, which stands for the phases of a story:
Situation
Complication
Implication
Proposal1
Action
Benefit
In order for the software that supports collaboration and automation in production workflows to interoperate, common data models and schemas for data exchange are needed. MovieLabs and its member studios developed it’s Ontology for Media Creation (OMC) to improve communication about workflows between people, organizations, and software. The OMC can serve as the underpinnings for that by providing consistent naming and definitions of terms, as well as ways to express how various concepts and components relate to one another in production workflows.
We argue that the reason so little progress has been made against obesity and type 2 diabetes is because the field has been laboring, quite literally, in the sense intended by philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn, under the wrong paradigm.
This energy-in-energy-out conception of weight regulation, we argue, is fatally, tragically flawed: Obesity is not an energy balance disorder, but a hormonal or constitutional disorder, a dysregulation of fat storage and metabolism, a disorder of fuel-partitioning. Because these hormonal responses are dominated by the insulin signaling system, which in turn responds primarily (although not entirely) to the carbohydrate content of the diet, this thinking is now known as the carbohydrate-insulin model.
Its implications are simple and profound: People don’t get fat because they eat too much, consuming more calories than they expend, but because the carbohydrates in their diets — both the quantity of carbohydrates and their quality — establish a hormonal milieu that fosters the accumulation of excess fat.
Developed by the Right Question Institute, the Question Formulation Technique, or QFT, is a structured method for generating and improving questions. It distills sophisticated forms of divergent, convergent, and metacognitive thinking into a deceptively simple, accessible, and reproducible technique.
The QFT builds the skill of asking questions, an essential — yet often overlooked — lifelong learning skill that allows people to think critically, feel greater power and self-efficacy, and become more confident and ready to participate in civic life.
The framework comprises 6 key stages. Each building on the insights of the previous and each with its own objectives, tools and resources:
1. What - are the target behaviours?
2. Who - should we focus our resource on?
3. Why - do/don’t those people manifest the target behaviours?
4. How - can we empower people to change?
5. So What? To what extent were our interventions effective?
6. What Now? How do we apply our learnings at scale?
Key Terms in this Chapter
Behavioural Policy Cube: The policy cube encapsulates three core features of the ‘libertarian paternalism’ framework; namely if an intervention or policy tool is informed by the standard axiomatic assumptions of rational man theory or by insights from behavioural theories, if it is internality or externality targeting, and if it is regulatory or libertarian in nature (Oliver, 2017b).
Nudge: A nudge is any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people's behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives (Thaler & Sunstein, 2009).
Boost: A boost improves the competency of a decision-maker by enriching his or her repertoire of skills and decision tools and/or by restructuring the environment such that existing skills and tools can be more effectively applied (Grüne-Yanoff & Hertwig, 2016).
Think: A think is a schooling strategy that involves large-scale deliberations to enable citizens to own the process of behavioural reforms. These often include citizen forums and large-scale behavioural therapies.
Nudge Plus: Nudge plus refers to an intervention that has a reflective strategy embedded into the design of the nudge. It can be delivered either as a one-part device in which the classic nudge and the reflective plus are intrinsically combined, or as a two-part device whereby the classic nudge is extrinsically combined with a deliberative instrument that prompts individual reflection on the nudge. (Banerjee & John, 2020).
Design fiction is one of the tools the students learn to prototype the future of business. Designers often use this strategy to help stakeholders envision divergent scenarios for their organization in the context of uncertainty.
We asked the students to consider the forces at play in today’s fast-changing society, such as artificial intelligence and decentralized governance models, and write a story about the future. Zooming out of this aspirational story, they mapped out what would have to be true from a technological and business standpoint to bring positive aspects of that future to fruition, while calling attention to factors or decisions that could negatively impact our world years from now. At its core, design fiction is a strategic exercise that connects the dots between vision and execution, transitioning teams from imagining the future to taking action.
The five psychobehavioral segments of Americans Surgo identified from its survey are:
1. The “Enthusiasts” (40% of the U.S. population). Every person in this group said they would
get the vaccine as soon as it is made available to them. There are no barriers to vaccination
1
for people in this group—in fact, the key challenge will be ensuring vaccine supply meets their
demand before they lose enthusiasm, as we’re seeing now as people struggle to sign up.
2. The “Watchful” (20% of the U.S. population). For this segment, social norms are important:
Before they get the shot themselves, people in this segment first need to see that others in
their peer group or community are getting vaccinated and having safe, positive experiences.
3. The “Cost-Anxious” (14% of the U.S. population). For this segment, time and costs are the
primary barriers to getting the vaccine. Every member of this group reports having delayed
seeking care for their health in the past due to the expense. The irony: Only 28% of people in
this group lack health insurance, indicating that their concerns about costs override having
insurance to cover them.
4. The “System Distrusters” (9% of the U.S. population). This group primarily believes that
people of their own race are not treated fairly by the health system. Members of this group
are likely to belong to, but are not exclusively, communities of color. There are multiple,
complicated barriers for this segment, but most of them are related to trust in and access to
a health system that has an inequitable history.
5. The “Conspiracy Believers” (17% of the population). This segment has perceived barriers
around COVID-19 vaccination that Surgo believes are simply too hard to shift in the short
term. It includes people who don't believe in vaccines in general, but the primary barrier for
people in this group is their very specific and deeply-held beliefs around COVID-19. Every
person in this group believes in at least one conspiracy theory:
○ 84% believe that COVID-19 is exploited by government to control people
○ 65% believe COVID-19 was caused by a ring of people who secretly manipulate
world events
○ 36% believe microchips are implanted with the COVID-19 vaccine
The three most persuadable psychobehavioral segments Surgo recommends prioritizing are the
“Watchful”, “Cost-Anxious” and “System Distrusters” for maximum benefit. Each segment has
specific barriers to overcome:...
TL;DR: A framework for having hard conversations with stakeholders and teams. Especially useful where there’s disagreement on what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, prioritisation, and what success looks like. You should be able to get people using this in 10 minutes or less.
The Journey Chart is an overview of the different elements of a project juxtaposed to show how they work together over the duration of the player/audience/reader experience. I’m sharing the Journey Chart Method because I’ve found it to be a nifty way to externalise, discover, inspire, unify, direct, and communicate the various elements of a project and how they are all connected.
Again: you don’t convince people. People convince themselves. Studies done as far back as the 1940’s by Kurt Lewin showed that lectures about why people should change their behavior were effective a measly 3% of the time. But when people self-generated reasons for the same activity, behavior change occurred 37% of the time. People reject ideas they are given and act on ideas they feel they came up with themselves.
In particular, a focus on habits is useful when:
The most effective approaches depend more on patiently persisting over long periods of time, rather than overcoming brief, but intense, obstacles.
The behavior you want can eventually run in the background of your life, not requiring lots of deliberate thinking and effort.
You’re looking to make long-term changes to your routine or lifestyle, rather than a temporary shift for particular circumstances.
Understanding the limitations of habits is part of what makes them powerful. If you go in with the right expectations, you’ll be far more likely to make them stick.
Looking at hundreds of campaigns over the last century, Chenoweth found that nonviolent campaigns are twice as likely to achieve their goals as violent campaigns. And although the exact dynamics will depend on many factors, she has shown it takes around 3.5% of the population actively participating in the protests to ensure serious political change.
Overall, nonviolent campaigns were twice as likely to succeed as violent campaigns: they led to political change 53% of the time compared to 26% for the violent protests.
Why is it important to make sure that emerging media and communications technologies are created by people from a wide variety of backgrounds and identities? The media we consume has an enormous impact on our perception of reality. With this toolkit, we are trying to achieve something that humans have not yet achieved in the history of mass media — fair and equitable representation of the world’s stories and images.
Forward-thinking public health professionals are reaching across sectors to build healthier communities. Recognizing that effective collaboration advances everyone’s mission, Public Health Reaching Across Sectors (PHRASES) supports an “all-hands-on-deck” approach with tools to build communication skills and strategies designed for success.
Launching and sustaining effective collaborations and networks requires that we pay constant attention to five activities:
Clarifying purpose
Convening the right people
Cultivating trust
Coordinating existing activities
Collaborating for systems impact
