Your change initiative isn’t stuck because people resist change
It’s stuck because the conditions for the new behaviors don’t exist in real work. We help change teams diagnose the constraint—then equip them with practical tools to remove friction, reduce risk, and make adoption real.
Change programs fail, because the wrong barriers get addressed
Many change programs assume, people people will act once they have the information; however, new behaviors need to fit the reality of work, from workflows to the meaning of the change, the norms and risks.
Common pattern we see:
The plan targets comms, training, town halls more than behavior in context
Strategies treat adoption as an individual problem, when it’s usually a system problem
Teams add more pressure instead of removing the binding constraints
We help you do change differently
We help you ask what the actual behaviors are, what’s blocking them in real work and what levers you can pull, at the individual and system level, to make change sustainable
Traditional change approaches
Assumes people resist change and focuses on managing resistance
Assumption: people resist change; the job is to manage resistance
Primary levers: communications, training, sponsorship
When adoption stalls: communicate more, train more, escalate
Measures: awareness, readiness, engagement
Unit of change: the individual
Our change approach
Knows that behavior has to be the outcome
Hypothesis: change happens when we know the beavioral reasons we diagnose
Primary levers: diagnosis, targeted interventions, norms, workflow and system design
When adoption is low: which constraint did we miss—and what’s the fastest lever to apply?
Measures: observed behavior, usage quality, consistency in the workflow
Unit of change: the behavioral system (people + context + psychology + norms + system )
What happens when you diagnose instead of guess?
When you find the actual barrier and remove it, adoption changes.
If you guess…
You start with a solution you’ve seen before (usually comms, training, targets).
You treat “resistance” as the problem.
You build a pressure plan: more messages, more town halls, more escalation.
You measure awareness and sentiment and call it “progress.”
You over-index on individual motivation.
You roll out “training” before the system can support the behavior.
If you diagnose…
You start with the behavior that must change (who does what, in what context).
You realize the system is part of the problem: time, workflow, tools, permissions, incentives, risk, norms.
You build an adoption plan: remove friction, redesign the moment-of-action, install enabling structures.
You measure real behavior: completion in-workflow, consistency, quality, and drop-off points.
You get work-as-done change: the new behavior is easier, safer, and more normal than the old one.
You install the system components first, then train execution.
What we offer
We work with transformation and change teams at different stages
Diagnosis
Diagnosis
When:
People know the change, but key behaviours aren’t happening in real work
Usage varies across teams and workarounds are common
Culture/leadership gets blamed, but the real drivers aren’t clear
Timeline: 4-6 Weeks
Diagnosis + Strategy & Pilots
When:
You want an end-to-end package that produces interventions you can actually deploy
You want to pilot first, then roll out with less risk
The programme is high-stakes and you need confidence, not hope
Timeline: 12-14 Weeks
Implementation Support
When:
You’re already rolling out and need the change to work with reality
Adoption varies by team/site and workarounds are spreading
Leadership pressure is rising and the default response is “push harder”
Timeline: Ongoing (Minimum 3 Months)
Want to learn more?
Go deeper and explore our services in more details and see how we can help you transform behavior in your program and organization.
Capability Building
When:
You want internal teams to run this approach repeatedly (Change/Transformation, HR/People, Product, Policy)
You need consistency across initiatives, not bespoke heroics
You’re considering building an internal behavioural capability (lightweight or full team)
Timeline: half-day to 24 months
How we work: The SHIFT method
SHIFT is our diagnostic and strategy methodology. It's how we systematically find what's blocking adoption and design targeted strategies to fix it.
Specify the Behavior
We define the behavior in observable terms, in context. Not “use the system,” but “enter customer notes within 24 hours of contact.”
Hypothesize the Barrier
We generate testable hypotheses about what’s blocking the behavior (time, workflow, skills, tools, permissions, risk, norms)
Design Interventions
We design interventions that match the constraint—so you’re not defaulting to comms and training when the real issue is system friction.
Facilitate Stakeholders
We design for the humans who sponsor, approve, and unintentionally block change, so decisions and ownership hold
Test and Iterate
We pilot, measure actual behavior change, and iterate quickly, so you can scale what works with confidence
Who we work with
Primarily we help and enable:
Change & transformation leaders who need adoption without turning the program into communications and policing
Transformation offices / PMOs coordinating multiple initiatives and struggling with consistency across teams
HR/People teams driving culture and leadership change and needing behavior to move in day-to-day work
L&D teams when enablement isn’t translating into behaviour and managers need practical reinforcement routines
Operations and functional leaders who own execution and need changes to work with real workflows
We also apply the same methods to:
Digital Health & Product Teams
User engagement challenges, feature adoption, behaviour-driven product design. Why aren't patients completing the onboarding flow? Why aren't users returning?
Government & Policy
Citizen behaviour change, service uptake, policy implementation. When a policy should work on paper but citizens aren't responding, it's usually a behavioral barrier we can diagnose.
About us
Aim For Behavior is a consultacy focused on organizational change and transformation. We are behavioral scientists, anthropologists, designers and practitioners with a deep understanding of how behavior changes inside systems.
Founded by Robert Meza, we are based in Amsterdam, we work globally with start-ups, private sector companies and governments around the world.
Our mission is to make change practical and achievable, by designing the conditions that make adoption succeed.
Build capability in-house
We run a 3 or 6-week Behavioural Change Practitioner Programme where your team learns the SHIFT method by applying it to your live transformation.
The programme includes
3 or 6 weeks of live working sessions with your team
A live diagnosis on your transformation (behaviors + constraints)
SHIFT toolkit, templates, and decision tools
Implementation support after the programme to help you deploy what you built
Want to learn more?
Describe your change challenge. We'll tell you whether we can help and what a diagnostic engagement would look like.
