Talk to the Elephant: Design Learning for Behavior Change

by Julie Dirksen

What do you do when your learners know what to do but still aren't doing it? Training is created with the goal of changing learners' behaviors, but anyone who has created learning experiences knows that there's a big gap between knowing and doing. You can create an engaging learning experience that informs and helps people remember, but often those people go back to their regular world and continue to do things the same way they always have. In the last few decades, the fields of psychology, behavioral economics, and other behavioral sciences have brought an enormous amount of scientific research into helping people with behavior change. Only a fraction of that research has made its way back into learning design. Talk to the Design Learning for Behavior Change shows you how to add critical tools to your learning design toolbox to affect behavior change. You'll find out how to use frameworks and strategies from behavioral science to help you research and analyze challenges, feel more confident that you're solving the right problem, and design and test solutions that can help people with difficult behavior changes. By the end of this book, you'll be able to

Genres: Nonfiction, Design, Professional Development, Education, Leadership, Reference, Communication

320 pages, Paperback

First published August 18, 2023

Reviews

[Beth Glicker · Rating 5 out of 5]

This author has a great way of making info more accessible and enjoyable to read. I am NOT an instructional designer, but do a lot of teaching as a non-teacher. This book was a little more specific and less applicable to my life. But I ordered it anyway and read the whole thing bc I enjoyed Design For How People Learn. Read that one if you want a more general overview of adult learning.

[Dimitri · Rating 4 out of 5]

📕 Why (Not) to read this book (Target Audience)

My high expectations for this book were not met. It covers a lot off research in a practical way focusing on behavioral economics.

👀 How this book changed my daily live (Takeaways)

Riding the elephant (thinking fast and slow)
• System 1 thinking: the elephant
• System 2 thinking: the rider

⁉ Spoiler Alerts (Highlights)

COM-B: A foundational part of the Behaviour Change Wheel is the COM-B model, which stands for capability, opportunity, motivation-behavior. This outlines the necessary conditions for any behavior to be enacted.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished this book as a book club read with other Learning and Development professionals. It provides a great combination of strategies and tactical approaches for behavioral change. Great for any professional trying to get people to apply what they are taught. We could have talked for many more hours about this book! It was well worth the time investment.

[Petra Petrella]

:) lettura per il lavoro (sono una corporate learning strategist)

[Janette McCarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great information and actionable ideas!

[emaⁿ · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who is completely new to instructional design and picked this book off a random reading list on LinkedIn, I still loved it a lot! Julie breaks down the concepts of learning into easily digestible bits that made it much more fun for me as a beginner. My background in psychology was a huge helper of course, so I might not recommend it to someone who has no clue about psychology or behavioural techniques, behavioral change etc., but it's a good starter for getting into designing instructional stuff for complete novices.

[Ann W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great follow-up to her first book. Very informative with helpful tools and case studies. Love all the elephant pics!