Why Behaviour Change?
Integrating behaviour change is a critical element in many development and social initiatives, including sustainability, health, education, and governance. At IMA we strive to follow our key values with all our training, being innovative, inclusive and always inspiring change. IMA's scheduled training programs, tailored training and consultancy always have a participatory approach and focus on behaviour change as a key tool to address capacity development and achieve sustainable development outcomes.
Understanding Behaviour Change
IMA’s training programmes often start by grounding participants in the theory and psychology of behaviour change. This includes understanding why people behave the way they do, their preferred learning styles and what drives or impedes behaviour modification. You'll also find concepts such as social norms, incentives, motivation, and barriers to change are explored throughout our training.
Designing Behaviour Change Strategies
Participants on our tailored or scheduled training are supported to develop practical and culturally relevant strategies that can influence and guide behaviour change in their specific contexts and work places. This might include creating awareness campaigns, designing community-led interventions, or promoting behaviour change through policies.
Integrating Behaviour Change in Development Programmes
IMA's courses cover how to apply behaviour change principles to various sectors like health, education, environmental sustainability, and economic development. Our leadership courses and consultancy inputs support participants to develop clear action plans. These will help them implement new practices back in the workplace like trying out a new leadership style from Goleman's work on 6 Common Leadership Styles — and How to Decide Which to Use When (hbr.org). Perhaps considering the skill will matrix, that will help them appreciate differences in colleague's motivations within their organisation. As mentioned earlier, we always consider our participant leadership journey on this course. This clearly informs where they may want to progress in terms of learning and subsequent changes in their behaviour as leaders. All this is supported through mentoring from our facilitators, as needed, to ensure great outcomes.
On our MEAL course, participants are given practical skills for application in their individual workplace settings. These can apply to a range of projects or programmes that they may be working on. Participants come away with knowledge of how to not only develop, but fix a 'broken' logframe. Also to identify problematic areas of their MEAL system and explore ways to improve. With the aim to develop the capacity of their organisation. It is the reflection on their MEAL training, and the skills they develop, that directly support our participants to be a MEAL advocate, and create positive change in their organisation.
From our Knowledge Management course, participants build up over a series of 12 modules, and develop their very own Knowledge Management Strategy. This gives them tools, skills and a practical strategy for harnessing their organisation's knowledge, and encouraging behaviour change. Overall this aims to Improve knowledge sharing practices, and develop an organisational learning culture. Our training empowers our participants to be KM champions and leaders in KM for their organisation.
Communication for Behaviour Change
Communication is key to driving behaviour change. IMA teaches participants how to use different communication tools and platforms to disseminate messages effectively. This includes digital campaigns, grassroots efforts, and working with stakeholders or leaders to amplify the message.
Monitoring and Evaluating Behaviour Change
The training programmes, particularly MEAL, emphasise the importance of tracking and evaluating behaviour change initiatives. Participants learn how to measure changes in behaviour, adjust strategies when necessary, and report on progress to stakeholders or funders.
Practical Application and Fieldwork
All of IMA International’s courses offer a hands-on, participatory approach where participants engage in workshops, case studies, and fieldwork. This is also supported by post course mentoring sessions delivered by the IMA course facilitators. This allows participants to practice integrating behaviour change frameworks in real-world scenarios.