Local Government Nudge Training
Nudge can be used by local government in two fundamental ways. Firstly it can be implemented internally to encourage behaviours within or between departments. Secondly it can be used externally to encourage behaviours in the population and sub sections of it. However it is used, Nudge is a set of subtle influencing strategies, which can help achieve an objective.
Background
The team we worked with in Deschutes County, had objectives to use Nudge both internally and externally. One of the most important of these was the roll out of the Covid-19 vaccines.
Needs
The need for the training was to give participants a different way of thinking about communication. Specifically they wanted ideas on how to encourage behaviours amongst colleagues and their public clients.
Activity
We engaged in widespread discussion to understand the needs for the training and the culture of Deschutes County. This involved zoom meetings as well as email exchanges and questionnaires.
The result was a half day virtual workshop. This was a combination of training and coaching, in that ideas were introduced and then applied to the participants’ situations and objectives. There was lots of discussion and interaction, all applied to real challenges in the workplace.
Outcomes
Each participant gained a clearly defined number of actions, which had been discussed with the group as well as the training consultant.
Participant Feedback
“Really interesting.”
“Thank you so much, it has given me a whole new set of tools.”
“Brilliant session.”
Client Comment
“We will be exploring running this training for other groups, and I have one in mind straight away.”
“The nudge training has had impact. We have rolled out some new data dashboards. We discussed framing (WIIFM) for rollout and “making it easy” by putting a link directly on their desktop. We have a long way to go until it’s second nature to how we do our work, but we continue to try and employ it. (I also call out my team when I notice them trying to use nudge theories on me. It’s fun, and it is an indicator to me that they continue to think about how to influence behavior to achieve outcomes.)