From behaviour change to systems change: rethinking how we create impact
Shifting systems matters more than tweaking behaviours. For years, organisations have focused on changing individual behaviours — nudging people towards better choices, designing interventions that tweak habits. But what if the real transformation lies not in individuals, but in the systems that shape them?
We can encourage people to recycle, eat healthier, or use active transport — but if the infrastructure, policies, and incentives don’t support those choices, change remains superficial. What if we focused less on persuading people and more on redesigning the conditions in which they operate?
Towards systemic change
1. Isolated interventions to connected ecosystems
Too often, change efforts are designed in silos — programmes that focus on single issues without addressing the wider structures that reinforce them. Real impact happens when interventions are embedded within a broader ecosystem of change.
→ In Adur & Worthing, the councils didn’t just create a climate action plan; they connected it to economic regeneration, housing policy, and community engagement, ensuring environmental goals were integrated rather than isolated (Adur & Worthing News).
→ The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s ‘Rethinking Poverty’ report (JRF) highlights how tackling poverty requires changing housing, employment, and welfare systems — not just supporting individuals.
Step to apply: Map the wider ecosystem around your work. Who else influences the problem you’re tackling? How can interventions align rather than compete?
2. From downstream fixes to upstream redesign
Many interventions focus on mitigating harm — helping people cope with existing systemic barriers rather than removing those barriers altogether. True change happens when we stop firefighting and start redesigning.
→ The King’s Fund’s Prevention and Public Health’ research (King’s Fund) highlights how health inequalities persist because efforts focus on treatment rather than redesigning the social determinants of health.
→ Preston’s Community Wealth-Building model, the local council changed how money flowed in the local economy — shifting procurement to local businesses rather than relying on trickle-down economic benefits (Centre for Local Economic Strategies).
Step to apply: Identify where your organisation is fixing symptoms rather than causes. What structural shifts could prevent the need for constant intervention?
3. From designing for individuals to designing for relationships
People don’t change in isolation. Behaviour is shaped by networks — family, workplaces, communities, institutions. Yet many change efforts focus on individual compliance rather than collective transformation.
→ The New Economics Foundation’s ‘Social Infrastructure’ report (NEF) shows how investing in public spaces, community networks, and cooperative ownership creates lasting social resilience.
→ In Glasgow’s People Make Places initiative, city planners worked with communities to co-create neighbourhood transformations, recognising that sustainable urban change is driven by relationships, not just policy.
Step to apply: Instead of designing interventions for individuals, ask: What networks and relationships shape their choices? How can we strengthen those instead?
4. A call to action: Let’s design, not just nudge
It’s time to shift from changing individuals to changing the systems around them. The most sustainable transformations come when we don’t just tweak choices — but reshape the conditions that create them.
So ask yourself: What’s one problem in your organisation or sector that could be solved by redesigning the system rather than persuading people?
Let’s stop nudging. Let’s start rebuilding.
