Alexis Gordon
Alexis Gordon is Manager, Policy at the Land Title and Survey Authority of British Columbia. Alexis is an alum of both the BC Public Service’s BC Behavioural Insights Group (BC BIG) and UBC’s Advanced Professional Certificate in Behavioural Insights.
Alexis has held behavioural insights (BI) positions both inside and outside of BI units as well as incorporated behavioural insights into roles that aren’t BI-focused. In this interview, we learn more about the differences and similarities of each of these experiences, all in Alexis’s articulate, clear-eyed, and humorous words.
Hi Alexis! Thank you for doing this. We’ve heard about your journey in behavioural insights in your episode of the Calling DIBS podcast, “Learning from Every RIDE”. Rather than repeat that part of your story, we encourage readers to listen to the episode. Here we’ll focus on your valuable reflections on the different roles in BI that you’ve had. Not many have the multi-faceted experience you have!
I’d like to begin by talking about your transition from behavioural insights specialist with the BC Residential Tenancy Branch to methods specialist with BC BIG. What urged you to make this change and how was this role different to being a sort of ‘standalone’ behavioural insights practitioner?
I was very fortunate to have the support of senior management to create and foster the behavioural insights specialist role – the first in the BC Public Service. In an organization undergoing a major shift towards digital services, the application of behavioural insights seemed valuable across all lines of business. It was a great opportunity to build behavioural insights skills and apply what I had learned as a recent graduate of the UBC Advanced Professional Certificate in Behavioural Insights program.
But when a methods specialist position with BC BIG was available, I could not pass on the chance to work with a team of experts that could flex its behavioural insights muscle across all of the public service, and to learn about the discipline from influential practitioners in the field. That was the primary difference between the two roles: being the sole behavioural insights practitioner in a branch versus being part of a consultancy team that regularly interacts with multiple ministries and academic institutions.
In your various roles, what were your areas of interest or expertise? Are there any skills that you think are essential to the practice of applying behavioural insights?
I enjoy putting a behavioural insights lens on communication media. From crafting emails, building presentation decks, texting, and surveys, to speaking with varying audiences – there is an opportunity to apply insights from the behavioural sciences in almost any kind of communication. You don’t always have to design a full randomized controlled trial to see impact.
There are many skillsets that are advantageous for practicing behavioural insights, but my advice is to spend time focussing on problem articulation and defining desired outcomes, then come back to it after you have developed an intervention. Does your intervention design address the problem space and drive behaviour toward a desired outcome? For example: when a student puts an apple on their cafeteria tray instead of a brownie, are they actually consuming more fruit?
You’ve recently started a great, new opportunity to apply your skills with the Land Title and Survey Authority of BC. How is that going so far? Is it clear how behavioural insights may be implemented in your new role or organization?
Well, I am still getting my sea legs at my new role but there are opportunities to apply behavioural insights in any organization whether using a lens or a trial to test different conditions. If an organization uses forms, surveys, develops policy, interacts with the public, has a website, uses an application process, uses social media, or communicates to its users – there are ways to incorporate behavioural insights. And that is not an exhaustive list! Every business, association, institution, and government is influencing behaviour whether they are intentional about it or not – so why not explore way to use what we know about bias, judgement and human decision-making to optimize outcomes?
I am excited to apply what I have learned through the UBC course along with my experience as a behavioural insights practitioner to my new role at the BC Land Title and Survey Authority. There are many organizations that see the value in testing solutions for efficacy and gathering data to make evidence-informed decisions prior to scaling and expending resources. But oftentimes organizations want quick, inexpensive wins and positive results right away, so it can be a challenge to motivate decision-makers to invest in behavioural science. But that is a whole other blog post! The Behaviorally Informed Organization edited by Dilip Soman and Catherine Yeung is a great book on ways to embed behavioural insights into organizations and address many of the common challenge and pitfalls.
Looking across the different roles you’ve had, what are similarities in how you’ve used BI across roles?
Not surprisingly, the similarities across roles include the deliberate and focussed attention on systems, processes or products that aren’t working well and exploring ways to apply principles from behavioural science to improve outcomes. But part of an ideal future-state would be incorporating behavioural insights into the design of systems, processes, and products.
What are differences in how you’ve used BI across roles?
As a behavioural insights specialist, I was the sole practitioner within the organization so I looked at ways to build a behavioural insights culture and mindset within the DNA of the branch. In other words, help the branch identify opportunities to apply behavioural insights to common or critical pain points, and build behavioural insights into the branch’s standard problem-solving and design frameworks. I also designed end-to-end processes for the branch to operationalize behavioural insights.
My role with BC BIG differed slightly. Ministries would reach out to BC BIG for help with specific problems – and together we would co-design and test solutions with a very clear beginning and end.
What advice do you have for folks navigating how to apply BI in new roles?
Expand your BI network as much as you can. Join webinars, sign up for newsletters, and listen to podcasts to learn about all the great work that is happening in the BI world, and also learn about the debate and disagreements within the field as it evolves.
Apply a BI lens to the work that you do: are there ways to make an email or form more “Easy, Attractive, Social, or Timely” (EAST framework)?
Consider applying for the UBC Advanced Professional Certificate in BI to become a BI practitioner (eligible for the Pacific Leaders scholarship for BC Public Service employees!) – you will learn theory and gain invaluable practical experience from a suite of top-tier professors.
Incorporate behavioural insights into your work wherever you can: raise BI opportunities at team meetings, incorporate it into your professional development plan, and share learnings with your team.
Any last thoughts?
Remember, null results can be just as valuable as significant results!
Where can readers reach you if they’d like to ask questions?
Feel free to reach out via LinkedIn, I’d love to chat with you!
Thank you so much for your time, Alexis! You’ve used behavioural insights in different types of roles. Chatting with you has provided an overview of how they are different and how they might work together.