Capacity building

Learn how to solve challenges using behavioural insights

We are passionate about building a world informed by better understanding of behaviour. 

BIT can help you and your organisation develop the skills to challenge assumptions, measure impact and understand the behaviour of your stakeholders. These skills are highly valuable across sectors. They can enhance your organisational decision making, improve the impact of your work and, ultimately, help you achieve your goals.

We offer bespoke capacity building courses, ranging from two-hour workshops to 13-week or even multi-year programmes. BIT’s behavioural science and evaluation experts lead and deliver all of our training, bringing our deep experience to your capacity building needs. We know from our own evidence and work how people learn best – and use these insights to design effective skills-building activities. 

We also have a strong track record in helping organisations create and strengthen their own behavioural insights functions and units – from partnering with US cities to the Global Innovation Fund. 

How to design effective interventions

Are you interested in running an applied behavioural science project? Let’s jumpstart your first intervention. 

Over the course of successfully completing more than 1,500 projects worldwide, BIT has developed leading frameworks in the field, including EAST, MINDSPACE and Behavioral Government. We can train your team in how to use them, begin brainstorming solutions to your toughest challenges and prioritise your next steps.

How to run evaluations effectively and strengthen your use of evidence

There are many evaluation methods you can use to assess the impact of your interventions. We can teach you how to run them – from randomised controlled trials to more quasi-experimental methods, like difference-in-difference and regression continuity design.

Our team adapts to your needs. We can be more hands-on or offer light-touch coaching. For example, over the past decade, BIT has trained cities of all different skill levels in how to use data and rapid trials to measure impact more effectively.

We also have years of experience helping our clients translate their evaluation results into evidence-informed decision making. We do this in many different ways, including training teams in understanding the strengths and limitations of evidence sources, supporting the development of public sector evaluation policies and agendas, and building the capacity of systems to share and scale innovative, evidence-based approaches. 

How to set up a behavioural insights function and build effective teams that get results 

BIT began as the first behavioural insights unit in government. With this unique experience, we support public and private sector organisations around the world in establishing their own behavioural functions.

For example, we’ve helped set up behavioural insights units in the US, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, the UAE and Oman. We’ve partnered with international organisations to set up, train and institutionalise behavioural insights teams as well, including with UNICEF’s Europe and Central Asia Regional Office and UNDP’s Arab States Regional Office. In collaboration with the Global Innovation Fund, we built an ecosystem of behavioural insights capacity across 12 partners in Bangladesh, Guatemala and Indonesia.

BIT can help you understand the factors that can set you up for long-term success, navigate you through bureaucracy and help you avoid common mistakes in establishing your behavioural function.

Successfully tackling big, systemic issues will take effective, evidence-informed teams working across sectors and silos. We can help you build those teams. 

Adopt a mission-driven approach

Missions are a way for organisations to pursue bold and ambitious long-term goals. They require the ability to drive and spread innovation, shape systems and markets and harness intelligence to improve outcomes at pace. The approach is of growing interest to governments in the UK and around the world. 

Leading a successful mission is no easy task. It requires methods that are capable of driving change in a complex environment. At BIT, we have worked for years to help organisations adopt test-driven and evidence-based approaches, and we can do the same to support your missions.