Rory Gallagher

It’s a curious and wonderful thing about the human condition that we are often a mystery to ourselves

Think Small is not a checklist.

We usually assume that when we set ourselves a goal we will probably pursue it with focus and attention, drawing heavily on our slower, reflective system.

is hard to disagree with the basic idea that, in principle, it’s good to ‘encourage, support and enable people to make better choices for themselves’.

that the work of the Behavioural Insights Team, and psychology more generally, should be open. This is not just in the interests of institutional transparency, but because this is a body of knowledge that should be ‘democratized’, or open to all.

If any structure is to survive, be it behavioural or physical, it needs strong foundations, and to be wisely placed, to take the weight and stresses it will be subject to. As you start to build, its cement and structure will be weak. To succeed, you will need scaffolding to support its initially delicate joints and links. You will need to keep on building the scaffolding too, protecting your structure from the wind and rain as you go.

It’s sometimes remarked that our kids don’t come with manuals – neither do we. It’s a part of the human condition that our minds and behaviours are complex and multifaceted.

Melissa would normally have begun by asking Paul to start filling in forms. But now she was encouraging Paul to think about why he was at the job centre and why finding a job was important to him. He told her about how he wanted to provide for his family. Melissa wasn’t used to having the time or incentive to have these conversations, but found it came very naturally to her.

getting the new tools he needed for the construction work he was looking for. Focusing on completing each of these steps would help ensure that he didn’t feel that the ultimate objective – getting a job – was too distant. They would help him feel as though he was making progress along the way, and this in turn would stoke his motivation

Then, every fortnight, each time Paul met with Melissa, he was encouraged to think about what specifically he was going to do and when. He wrote down each of these tasks and linked them to a moment in his daily routine – like making sure he sent out three applications for jobs on Monday morning after breakfast. This would help create a mental link between moments of the day and week and the things he needed to get on with