Start with the why.
What makes the people do the things they do has been a question driving Natalia, the creator of Behava, since she completed a bachelors in Anthropology and International Relations at University of Aberdeen many many springs ago.
After this degree, which put her on a path to always question, always look underneath, to always look for the “why”, she completed a Masters in Eco-Innovation a Université de Versailles and then spent 8 years doing a job that was as far from Anthropology (but not humans) as possible: promoting fast charging stations for electric vehicles via various roles in PR, marketing and sales.
During her maternity leave in 2020, somewhere between trying to rock to sleep the little human she brought to life and surviving the 1st lockdown while keeping as much sanity as possible, she realised that, as much as promoting fast chargers is fun and exciting, she is not really getting to the very bottom of the problem: transforming the way people move. She went back to where she started, the “why”, and decided to change course.
Having completed an MSc in Behaviour Change at UCL, she found a missing piece to her curiosity in human behaviour – the how* of “changing the “why”” – when the “why” results in behaviours that have suboptimal consequences for the individual, the society or the environment. She now applies her knowledge and understanding of behaviour(s) and skills in changing them through Behava, a behaviour change practice helping companies, NGOs and (local) governments develop successful strategies for behaviour change.
*= methods, approaches, and frameworks of behaviour change that can or likely will help to change behaviour. The italics are there because human behaviour is, despite all the knowledge, tools and methods we have already, messy. In particular, changing behaviours that people feel fully comfortable with and that, at least of the surface and in the here-and-now, serve them well – like taking a car to do a 2km trip to get bread – is notoriously difficult. But also even more rewarding than building an IKEA wardrobe.