The Building Blocks of programme theory - how to get better at driving behaviour change

Sep 18, 2026

A briefing paper outlining a practical approach for embedding consistent theory into programmes of change by decomposing behaviour change into essential “Building Blocks.” It describes the actor and intended behaviour, the actor’s rationale as a cost-benefit or business case, the blockers explaining why change has not happened, and the change resources needed to overcome blockers or strengthen the rationale. The paper also provides concrete examples of behaviour change, rationale, and blockers.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Building Blocks

Detail on what’s in each block

The Building Blocks of programme theory: how to get better at driving behaviour change Jake Lomax, PhD 1 Rachel Shah, PhD2,3 Briefing Paper 5 April 2020 1 Senior Associate, The Springfield Centre & Director, 3sd [Research. Email:](Research. Email: jakelomax@gmail.com)[ ](Research. Email: jakelomax@gmail.com)[jakelomax@gmail.com](Research. Email: jakelomax@gmail.com) 2 Consultant, The Springfield Centre. Email: [rachel.shah@springfieldcentre.com](rachel.shah@springfieldcentre.com) 3 Authors’ Note: We are grateful to Anna Cucknell and Archie Drake for comments on an earlier draft of this paper. 1. INTRODUCTION This paper introduces a tool designed to help embed more consistent theory into programme theories of change. The process of change is stripped back to its essential elements, or ‘Building Blocks’ so we can better understand what is actually happening when interventions work and improve our ability to design for success. The Building Blocks apply in any situation where you are trying to get someone to do something differently. It was designed for application to complex change processes in international development but applies just as well to corporate internal change projects, marketing new products, or just getting yourself off the sofa to go for a run. 2. BUILDING BLOCKS The diagram below outlines a basic model of how behaviour change happens. We first have in mind an intended behaviour change – something we want someone to do differently. This‘someone’ might be an individual, a firm, a government department, an organisation, or even ourselves. Whoever it is, we’ll call them an actor This could be a specific individual, several actors, or indeed a whole population. Where there are several they may be grouped as a set of actors. Our first question to answer is “What is the behaviour change we want for what actor?” The second question is “Why would they want to change their behaviour?”The starting point for any desired behaviour change by a given actor (or set of actors) is to figure out what the rationale is for that actor to change their behaviour. This is essentially a cost-benefit analysis, or a ‘business case’; if the behaviour change doesn’t deliver some net benefit for the actor, it is going to be very difficult to sustain. If there is a decent rationale for behaviour change, the next step is to ask ourselves: “Why haven’t they changed their behaviour already?”or to put it another way,“What is stopping them from changing their behaviour?” If it’s such a good idea – as the rationale hopefully demonstrates – there must be some other factors stopping the actor from changing their behaviour. We’ll call these factors blockers.4 Our final question is “What is needed to overcome the blockers?”The fact that the actor hasn’t changed their behaviour already suggests that they need something new in order to shift their behaviour. We’ll call this something new‘change resources’. Maybe they need information about the benefits of the change, some technical expertise to help implement the change, or a promise to pay for any losses incurred. Whatever they are, change resources must address the actor’s blockers to behaviour change (or else inform them of an improved rationale) or the intervention won’t work. 4 Following Lomax & Shah (2018), which built on work on incentives and capacities by the Springfield Centre (2015) . 2.1 DETAIL ON WHAT’S IN EACH BLOCK5 Behaviour change is an actor doing something new or different This can be a change in whether they do something, what they do, and what inputs they do it with See What is Behaviour Change (Lomax 2020a) for more information. We are usually interested in an ongoing behaviour change, which needs to be sustainable. However, we can also analyse one-off steps towards that behaviour change if necessary. See The Antidote to Systemic Change Frameworks (Lomax 2020b) for more information. EXAMPLE BEHAVIOUR CHANGE: Seed importers start importing higher

FAQs

What does the “Building Blocks” approach help with?

It helps embed more consistent theory into programme theories of change by breaking the change process into essential elements so designers can understand what makes interventions work.

How does the framework define the first part of behaviour change?

It starts with the intended behaviour change and identifies the actor(s) for whom the behaviour should change—an individual, organization, or even a population.

What are blockers and change resources in the model?

Blockers are factors preventing the actor from changing behaviour despite the rationale. Change resources are new inputs, information, or other supports needed to overcome those blockers or improve the rationale.

Sep 18, 2026

Uploaded by Aria Callaghan