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.