collaborative change

Collaborative Change A people-centred approach to behaviour change

If we are to deliver on the urgent challenges facing our society, we must develop more effective ways of helping people change their behaviours.

In our new political climate, participatory design approaches – co-creation, co-design, co-production etc – will define how we respond to the challenges that health inequality, social exclusion, climate change and anti-social behaviour present. Collaborative Change is a participatory approach to behaviour change based on the simple principle that real, sustainable change must come from within – the individual, the community, the organisation.

It is designed to engage communities in defining their own challenges – motivating them to participate, empowering them to respond, building trust and transferring ownership on the way.

This pamphlet is a short introduction to the principles and processes of Collaborative Change. To find out more visit our blog: collaborativechange.org.uk or contact Steven Johnson at [email protected]

Collaborative Change – A people-centred approach to behaviour change

Real, sustainable change must come from within – the individual, the community, the organisation.

We are entering an era defined by the urgent need to do more with less – to develop more effective solutions with far less resources.

If we are to adapt to this new landscape we must focus our efforts on building sustainability, transferring ownership and developing resilience. To achieve this we need new ways to understand and respond to the needs of our citizens.

More effective solutions

By approaching challenges with our communities – rather than for them – we take a more direct route to the solution. By treating citizens as experts of their own experiences, we better understand their needs and empower them to take a stake in the response.

With this mind-set, and the tools that underpin it, we develop services and interventions that map against real needs; are relevant, engaging and sustainable; are more effective and efficient... do more with less.

Why collaborate?

Collaborative Change – A people-centred approach to behaviour change 3

Building sustainability

By engaging communities – or organisations – in Collaborative Change, the solution becomes embedded in the community as a matter of course.

A co-created service or intervention is necessarily of the community, rather than for the community. Buy-in, acceptance and relevance are by-products of the process.

Citizens involved in the Collaborative Change process are empowered as influential ‘early adopters’ of the solution: a team of enthusiastic champions to diffuse positive word-of-mouth through informal networks.

This process begins to devolve responsibility and transfer ownership, whilst simultaneously building the confidence and capacity for a community to deliver on its new responsibility.

In this way, Collaborative Change builds social capital, and creates citizens who are more engaged. It helps us develop more sustainable solutions and nurture more resilient communities.

Responding to citizen needs

The success of any public touchpoint will depend on how effectively it responds to both the blatant and latent needs of the community.

If we are to reliably understand our communities at both these levels, we must go beyond traditional social research approaches.

If a growing body of evidence from the behavioural economics field casts doubt on our ability to have insight into our own drives and motivations, why do most research and consultation projects rely on self-reported preferences, feelings and experiences? And if emerging science on the social foundations of behaviour shows that what we do is largely determined by who we are with, why are most projects built on insight gained in group settings (focus groups)?

The Collaborative Change approach responds to both these questions. It engages citizens in tasks and activities that bring unarticulated needs into conscious awareness – empowering the individual, whilst yielding insights that are both enlightening and actionable.

A co-created service or intervention is necessarily of the community, rather than just for the community...

...buy-in, acceptance and relevance are by-products of the process.


The concept of Collaborative Change and participatory design is undeniably attractive. It is intuitive, logical and is perfectly aligned with priorities across the political landscape.

But Collaborative Change doesn’t just happen. We cannot simply open the doors to participation and expect our communities to come flooding in to define their own destiny.

Opportunities to engage citizens need creating, nurturing and managing. The Collaborative Change approach is built around 5 core principles and a 6-point process to bring structure and aid practical application.

Collaborative Change:5 principles and 6 Rs Engage

Engage communities on their own terms make the is sue relevant

Motivate Motivate communities to participate

offer citizens a stake

EmpowerEmpower citizens to self-advocate

develop tools for expres sion

TrustBuild trust that participation will be acted upon

be transparent and give feedback

OwnershipTransfer ownership of the issue and the solution

build confidence and capacity

Collaborative Change: The 5 principles


Collaborative Change: the 6 Rs

It would be naive to suggest that Collaborative Change is easy to achieve. Although projects developed in this way offer greater potential for sustainable change, they can be complex to manage and challenging to deliver.

To aid practical implementation of a Collaborative Change project, we have distilled our process into a framework of 6 Rs. Its headline principles are outlined here.

Collaborative Change doesn’t just happen. We cannot simply open the doors and expect our communities to come flooding in to define their own destiny.


Research Using a variety of social research approaches, we begin to understand the issue and the community.

Respond Working in community settings, we co-design with citizens to deepen insight and develop initial prototypes.

Reflect Based on this initial insight we design activities and workshops based around the 5 principles.

Reflect The co-design outputs are analysed and developed into workable prototypes for further exploration.

Refine We engage the community and stakeholders with the prototypes and co-design further refinements.

Result We build capacity where needed before transferring ownership to the community and stakeholders.

Research Reflect Refine ResultReflect Respond

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Applying the principlesInspiring young people

As part of a wide-ranging programme to inspire and empower young people in Tower Hamlets to lead healthier lifestyles, we applied a Collaborative Change approach to brand and service development.

After establishing a thorough understanding of our audience segments through quantitative surveys, focus groups and ethnographic studies, we designed sessions to map out the community’s ‘sphere of influence’ in relation to exercise and diet.

With each participant at the centre of a ‘map’ we ran a range of scenarios that allowed expression of how influential each element of the brand/service would be.

The findings have been used to develop an over-arching youth communications and engagement strategy along with a tool to map service provision across the borough and beyond.

For more in-depth Collaborative Change case studies, please contact [email protected] or visit www.collaborativechange.org.uk

Reducing maternal isolation

After being commissioned to explore methods of empowering young mothers in Leeds to breastfeed, our ethnography revealed a community not engaged with service and dependent on each other for support.

Whilst this revealed strong community ties, it constantly self-reinforced bottle-feeding norms and removed all motivation to breastfeed.

Based on these insights, we delivered a series of co-creation sessions to develop ante- and post-natal services that would be relevant and engaging enough for our community to attend.

Whilst plugging an obvious gap with this service, we would also create a channel through which we could begin to start shifting intransigent norms around breastfeeding.

Currently being piloted, the output will be a community-run service led by the same young mums that participated in the sessions. They will be supported to recruit a project leader, promote the service using a tool kit and develop the content on an ongoing basis.

Reducing alcohol consumption

Working with 3 contrasting segments of middle-aged drinkers in Stoke, we designed sessions to circumvent the self-denial and other psychological defences that prevent habitual drinkers representing their behaviour accurately.

Using immersive scenarios, we engaged the participants in simply ‘helping a friend’. Creating a persona, profile, family and lifestyle for this hypothetical best friend and bringing him/her to life through visual techniques.

By creating a ‘friend in need’ who shared the same profile as the participants, the session allowed the group to talk openly about their own behaviour and feelings by projecting their responses onto their ‘friend’.

After receiving a call for help from the friend’s wife regarding his dangerous drinking habits, participants embarked on a series of tasks to help their friend reduce his drinking. Each task corresponded to a key stage on the behaviour change journey, yielding rich insight and recommendations for each phase of the resultant intervention.

Creating early years services

Tower Hamlets is the third most deprived borough in the country and has received Beacon Status for its progressive approach to tackling child poverty. In this context, London Borough of Tower Hamlets commissioned our team to take a Collaborative Change approach to ensuring service provision responded appropriately to needs at the super-local level.

Going beyond traditional quantitative and qualitative methodologies, we conducted a deep-dive ethnographic study to understand the lives of families living in these conditions and unearth their latent needs. Building on the findings of this insight phase, we designed and delivered a series of co-creation workshops to involve the same families in the development of their own solution.

Using the ‘engage, motivate, empower, trust and ownership’ principles, we worked with the community to develop a range of specific service prototypes.


Collaborative Change:Brought to you by The Hub

The Hub is an award-winning social research and design consultancy focused on reducing inequality and raising aspiration in disadvantaged communities.

Through partnerships with local authorities, PCTs, charities, NGOs and social enterprises we develop results-driven programmes that drive tangible, sustainable behaviour change.

Combining social research, social marketing and design thinking, we have developed a people-centred approach built on co-creation principles, creative engagement and the latest advances in behavioural science.

For more information and case studies please get in touch:

Blog: www.collaborativechange.org.ukTwitter: @socialchangehubEmail: [email protected]: www.socialchange-hub.co.uk

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The Hub 52 Princess Street Manchester M1 6JX T 0161 235 8455 F 0161 425 1298 www.socialchange-hub.co.ukBlog collaborativechange.org.uk Twitter @socialchangehub

ServicesSocial researchCo-creationSocial marketing CommunicationsCitizen engagementCommunity activationService designEvaluation

The Hub is an award-winning social research and design consultancy focused on reducing inequality and raising aspiration in disadvantaged communities.

Blog: www.collaborativechange.org.ukTwitter: @socialchangehubEmail: [email protected]: www.socialchange-hub.co.uk

IssuesTobacco controlObesityChild povertyTeenage pregnancyAnti-social behaviourSexual healthRoad safetyAlcoholVulnerable adultsSubstance misuseBreast feeding initiationEarly years wellbeingWorklessness

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