The role of defining "the process" when communicating personal behaviour change

When dietitians are working with behaviour change at the individual level they are attempting to do 3 main things: 1) promote healthy eating 2) transform knowledge into useful strategies and 3) motivate people to change.  To achieve these successfully, a dietitian must understand and engage with the concept that acquiring new behaviours is a process. When we are striving to motivate people to change their personal behaviours, we must remember that people spend their lives cementing those actions into their catalogue of habits and it will take more than one attempt to inspire someone to abandon their old ways and adopt new healthy behaviours as their own. When we are addressing the changes we would like to see a person make, we must also expect that people will come to us in different stages of readiness for change and that gradual changes will be the key to success. Programs need to target specific steps, use direct experience and teach goal setting. If people are given the knowledge but not the tools to perform the task, there is less likelihood that a change will occur. When we counsel people as to why the change is needed, we must never forget to include HOW the change needs to occur in specific, do-able steps. By setting small goals, one can increase their self-efficacy with individual success and continually replace old behaviours with new ones.     

In ALES204, communication theory and practice, we learned how to effectively present a process change to a target audience. When giving a process talk there are 3 main points to hit during your presentation: the specific purpose of the process which will reinforce the importance and accessibility of the new process (gets your audience ‘on board’), the central idea which will define the steps of how to get there and finally, the main points or steps to take (what to ‘do’). This format can be used explain any process that you wish to describe to your audience and by following the steps above you will be much more effective at sparking peoples interest in makes the changes you are working towards. Let’s use my favourite example of stocking your fridge as an example of how this works:

1)      Specific purpose: “How to make the healthy choice the easy choice"

When you stock your fridge with healthy, ready to eat, easy to grab & go foods and snacks, you will immediately improve your diet. By having fresh, ‘real’ food ready for you when you need it, you will be less likely to eat out, snack on less healthy foods and make less healthy choices overall. This will not only improve your diet but also save you a ton of money. It doesn’t take a ton of time to do and once you learn the basics, your fridge will be stocked in a healthy new way that it never was before.

2)      Central idea: The first things to learn when starting the basics of a fridge stock include having healthy, simple sources of protein, fruits and vegetables and grain products at your fingertips. This involves hard-boiling eggs, chopping up vegetables, washing fruit, and organizing your meals for the next day.

3)      Main points: "The process at work"

-           As soon as you get home from the grocery store take a good look at what you have already in the fridge. Make sure that you are going to use what you already had before the new stuff so nothing gets wasted. Food is only nutritious if it’s eaten, not if it goes in the garbage. If you end up throwing out rotten produce you are not only throwing away money, but also valuable nutrients.

-          Start hard-boiling 5 eggs on the stove

-          While the eggs are boiling, wash all produce

-          Chop up vegetables and store in clear containers in the fridge

-          Place washed fruit in either clear containers (ex. Grapes) or in produce drawer (ex. apples)

-          When eggs are done, cool, peel and place in clear container in fridge

-          Take muffins out of the freezer and put in fridge for the week

-          Group foods together that will go in your lunch bag the next day

And that’s it! You have just learned to basic process of what to do right when you get home from the grocery store to get your fridge ready for the meals of the next week.

The final product of the process!
photo by Erika Brown March 25, 2012

To a nutrition student, this extremely basic process may seem like it is missing many fundamental components such as what to buy at the grocery store? How do you hard boil eggs? And where did the muffins come from? The key is to understand that each one of these questions addresses a completely different process all together. We do not want to set people up for failure, this will only make behaviour change less attainable. For this reason, the process above would not have been presented to an audience that has not demonstrated the knowledge and skills that would be needed for success. People can only digest a limited amount of new information at one time. When specific information is presented and associated with small, attainable goals, your target audience will be far more likely to adopt the new behaviours. When one small step is mastered, you can then work on expanding upon the knowledge and changes that have now become new behaviours.

Inspiring behaviour change in someone is not a simple task. People are complex and have developed their current behaviours over the course of their life time for many different reasons. When working in this area you need to be prepared to be understanding, be patient, and be diligent. When you are able to communicate efficiently and effectively your results will speak for themselves. Nutrition blogs are a great resource for people to use when they have mastered a new healthy change and are eagerly seeking to learn more. With the vast diversity of blogs out there such as "The Fit Life", everyone is sure to find ample information regardless of their different stages of readiness. When recommending such resources we just need to make sure that our target audience already has the tools in their tool box that will make these changes a reality and if so, success is inevitable.