Theme → Culture change
Behavioural Design for culture change

Core values on the wall don't change culture. Behaviour on the floor does.

Most culture programmes run aground on posters and good intentions. Culture change only starts when daily behaviour changes, and you change that by designing the context: the habits and norms that decide what people actually do. That's what you learn with Behavioural Design.

View trainings → Individually or with your team
10,000+
trained
9.3/10
rating
EQAC
accredited
€690
from, ex VAT
Team working on culture change during the Behavioural Design training at SUE Amsterdam
Familiar in culture change

"We formulated new core values. On the floor nothing changes."

10,000+ professionals trained, including people from

ING Heineken KPN ANWB Randstad Achmea Eneco Centraal Beheer ING Heineken KPN ANWB Randstad Achmea Eneco Centraal Beheer
The forces behind your company culture

Seven forces that hold your culture in place

They are documented by Kahneman, Cialdini and Thaler. They apply to your employees, your managers and your board. And they are all designable. As long as you leave them untouched, every culture programme evaporates after the kick-off.

01 - The core-values illusion

Values on the wall don't change behaviour on the floor

Respectful, innovative, customer-focused: beautiful words. But between that intention and the daily behaviour sits a gap no poster ever closes.

02 - Comforts

The old behaviour is easy and familiar

People prefer comfort over effort. The current behaviour is known, socially safe and costs no energy. That makes it sticky, even when nobody is really happy with it.

03 - Status quo bias

The familiar beats the better

The effort of changing feels bigger than the benefit. People stick with the existing way of working, even when it is demonstrably worse.

04 - Social norms

People do what they see others do

Behaviour is steered by the example of colleagues and leaders, not by the poster. What looks like the norm becomes the norm.

05 - Defaults

The default decides what most people do

Whoever designs the standard way of working, the calendar and the systems, designs the behaviour of almost everyone.

06 - Resistance

Resistance is not unwillingness, but information

People who don't move along are rarely unwilling. Resistance tells you what makes the old behaviour logical and safe. Ignore it, and you push harder against the same wall.

07 - System 1

96% of behaviour is automatic

Most culture programmes address the conscious, rational mind. But behaviour sits on autopilot. Rational arguments never reach it.

Read the full article: why culture change fails → Reducing resistance to change →
Behavioural Design is the missing layer.

Culture is behaviour. And behaviour is designable.

Culture change is the process by which an organisation structurally changes the collective behaviour of its people. Not the values on the wall, but how people decide, discuss mistakes and hold each other accountable. Behavioural Design for culture change helps you understand why people do what they do, and how you design the context, the rules of the game and the social norms so that the desired behaviour becomes the obvious choice.

1
Diagnose the behaviour, not the mindset. You map which forces hold the current behaviour in place: which comforts, norms and barriers make the old behaviour logical.
2
Design the context. With the SUE Influence Framework you design interventions that make the desired behaviour easier than the old.
3
Prove the effect. You test the interventions and measure whether behaviour actually shifts, so culture change is not an assumption but a demonstrable result.
Read more about the Behavioural Design Method →
What professionals say after the training

From ABN AMRO to the City of Antwerp: they look at change differently afterwards.

The change managers among our 10,000+ alumni have one thing in common.

At the Academy you learn a lot about behavioural change and how to apply it in a short period of time. The training flew by and was very well put together. Amazing how complicated material comes to life in a fun and interactive course. I am definitely going to apply it in my work.

Alina Chakh
Alina Chakh
Change & Transformation Consultant - ABN AMRO
★★★★★

The programme with SUE taught me the importance of thinking about the human behind the client, because a client will not act from expected rational thinking patterns. As an organisation it is important that we start thinking outside-in at the right moments to create that much needed added value.

Koen Lauwers
Koen Lauwers
Team CDO - City of Antwerp
★★★★★

I am so happy with these results. The order of first doing a Behavioural Design Sprint, then testing and running an effect measurement worked very well. We are now in a position to roll this out with confidence. The numbers and effects help us to truly convince people.

Majka van Doorn
Majka van Doorn
Coordinator Behavioural unit - Ministry of Justice and Safety
★★★★★
The best first step

Learn the principles that really change culture.

Take the Fundamentals Course and learn the method to design behaviour and culture. In two days live, or 33 online lessons at your own pace.

Behavioural Design Fundamentals training on culture change
Most chosen
9.3/10
rating
EQAC
accredited
Max 16
participants
Behavioural Design Academy

Behavioural Design Fundamentals

You learn the full Influence Framework, the JTBD method and all the core tools of Behavioural Design. You work on your own culture case and go home with a worked-out intervention plan you apply the next day.

Two ways to follow it
Live in Amsterdam, 2 intensive days, max 16 participants Online self-paced, 33 lessons at your own pace
View the Fundamentals → See start dates

Want to tackle it with your whole team or organisation? See the in-company formats ↓

Culture change for teams and organisations

Tackle culture change with your whole team

Three in-company formats, depending on how deep you want to go and how long you want to build. Always applied to your own culture challenge.

Behavioural Design Masterclass culture change
1 day

Behavioural Design Masterclass

An intensive day in which your team learns the method and applies it straight away to your own culture challenge. From behavioural diagnosis to the first intervention designs.

  • ✓In-company, at your location or in Amsterdam
  • ✓Max 16 participants
  • ✓€7,990 ex VAT
More about the Masterclass →
Behavioural Design Sprint team training culture change
Most popular
2 training days + interviews

Behavioural Design Sprint

Two intensive training days with interviews and prototype tests between the sessions. Your team learns the method while applying it to a real culture challenge from your organisation.

  • ✓Interviews between the sessions included
  • ✓Up to 8 or up to 20 participants
  • ✓€11,900 (up to 8) or €17,900 (up to 20) ex VAT
More about the Sprint →
Behavioural Design Learning Journey culture change
A to Z programme

Learning Journey

An organisation-wide programme from A to Z, facilitated by a senior SUE facilitator. For organisations that want to embed culture change structurally in the way they work.

  • ✓Interviews, prototypes and effect measurement included
  • ✓Senior SUE facilitator throughout the programme
  • ✓Tailored, price on request
View Learning Journeys →
Why the SUE Behavioural Design Method

Behavioural science made applicable for people who lead change.

Most behavioural science knowledge sits locked in academic papers. SUE built the Influence Framework, a practical step-by-step method that any change manager, HR professional or leader can apply without a scientific background.

SUE Influence Framework: the forces that shape behaviour and culture
No academic theory, you work on your own culture challenge during the training and go home with a worked-out plan
Built on Kahneman, Cialdini and Thaler, scientifically grounded but accessible for practitioners
A method of our own, the Influence Framework can't be learned anywhere else, described in the #1 management bestseller
16 years of experience, from ING and KPN to central government: the method is proven on the biggest behaviour and culture challenges

“ SUE Behavioural Design was a real experience that led me to look differently at behaviour. They take you along a very pragmatic way under challenging themes. I think the Influence Framework will solve many problems in the world. It is more than just a method, it is a fundamentally different way of thinking.

Eline Grouwels
Eline Grouwels
Founding partner - Umital
★★★★★
Springest
9.3/10
★★★★★
Google Reviews
4.8/5
★★★★★
accredited
EQAC accredited
Trusted by
ING Heineken KPN Randstad Achmea
In-depth articles

Culture change explained

In-depth articles on the behavioural science behind culture and change, written from SUE's practice.

Culture change

Culture change in organisations: why it almost always fails

The missing behavioural layer behind failed culture programmes, and how you do change culture for good.

Read article →
Change management

Why change initiatives fail and what does work

70% of change efforts fail. Not through unwillingness, but through wrong thinking about how people change.

Read article →
Resistance

Reducing resistance to change

Resistance is not an obstacle but information. How you turn it into commitment by designing the context.

Read article →
Buy-in

Engaging employees in change

Buy-in doesn't start with communication, but with understanding the forces that hold the current behaviour in place.

Read article →
See all articles on change →
Frequently asked questions

One more thing

Culture change is the process by which an organisation structurally changes the collective behaviour of its people. Culture is not a set of values on the wall, but the sum of the behaviour that happens every day: how people decide, discuss mistakes, hold each other accountable and share information. If you want to change the culture, you change that daily behaviour, and you do that by designing the context, not by convincing people.

Culture is behaviour, and behaviour is driven by context. Behavioural Design gives you the tools to analyse which forces keep the current behaviour in place and to redesign the rules of the game, defaults and social norms so that desired behaviour becomes the obvious choice. The culture changes as a result, not as a goal in itself.

Yes. Most organisations choose an in-company programme, where we apply the Behavioural Design method on site to your own culture challenge. That can be a one-day Masterclass for a team, a multi-day Sprint, or an organisation-wide Learning Journey. Your team works on the behaviour that is actually stuck in your organisation, not a case study from a book.

It depends on the format. An individual Deep Dive on change starts from €690 and the two-day Fundamentals Course from €1,190. For teams and organisation-wide culture change, we design an in-company Masterclass (€7,990), a Sprint or a Learning Journey. In a no-obligation call we look together at which format fits your challenge and scale.

Change managers, HR professionals, team leaders, executives and anyone responsible for culture or behaviour change within an organisation. You need no prior knowledge of behavioural science to start.

Ready to start?

Designing culture instead of managing it is the skill that makes change stick.

From the core values on the wall to the behaviour on the floor. The Behavioural Design Method gives you the framework to design it.

View the Fundamentals Course → Learning Journey for your team →