Yesterday I attended a great session on behaviour change at the FSA’s virtual food safety conference (well done FSA by the way!)
The speaker was a Professor of Health Psychology, Susan Michie, from University College London, who gave some great content on both the theory and practice of behaviour change. Most trainers address this by helping their participants to understand the reasons behind hygiene ‘rules’ and their responsibilities to follow them.
It seems to be that we might also discuss behaviour change more directly with them, such as looking at three areas that Susan suggested might have a direct relevance:
Capability, Opportunity, Motivation
So, when discussing handwashing (yep, that old chestnut!) and telling all the times when you should wash your hands (long list), maybe we should discuss the barriers to effective handwashing, a different kind of long list, and then categorise them as:
lack of knowledge or training (capability),
not being able to wash hands through lack of time, not enough basins etc (opportunity)
not giving it priority or not being led by example (motivation)
I am going to sit down after the conference (second day today) and map out a couple of powerpoint slides on this which trainers might find useful.
This conference is already proving value for money! (Ok I know its free!)
Keep training in these difficult times.
"The Creative Trainer" - by David Newsum 