Change your behavior, improve your mission outcomes
// By Jacqueline Brennan
Tom is Senior Associate at ideas42, which uses insights from behavioral science to improve lives, build better systems and policies, and drive social change (learn more about Tom). He says it’s imperative that changemakers understand human behavior to design policies and programs that effectively address the problems we’re all striving to solve.
“Working with human beings and not having an appreciation for behavioral science is like going to a foreign country and not being able to speak the language,” Tom says. “If you want to have the biggest possible social impact, you need to do your homework beforehand.
“Upswell is convening changemakers from across the country who are working on a range of issues. We believe strongly that behavioral science has philosopher’s stone-like power to amplify changemaking worldwide. And Upswell is a great megaphone to be able to share the power of this tool.”
Tom says there’s nothing better than “seeing the lightbulb go off” when changemakers draw the connection between the science and their work, and he’s excited about “presenting some of the more widely applicable principles of behavioral science and being a force multiplier for changemaking.”
He reminds us that we shouldn’t forget that while changemakers are all about creating value in the lives of those we serve, we’re human beings, too. “The beauty of behavioral science is that it makes you intimately aware of patterns in your own judgements, decision-making, and behavior. And having an appreciation for the science underlying some of our own work habits can actually help us become more effective in creating positive community change.”
Oh Behave! The Science of Behavior Change is happening Thursday, November 14 from 9:30 – 11:30am.
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