For whom → Managers and leaders

Behavioural Design for managers and leaders

Leadership is the art of influencing behaviour. It always has been.

Everything you do as a leader, from implementing strategy to building culture, runs on human behaviour. The question is whether you can read, predict and design that behaviour. That is exactly what Behavioural Design teaches you.

View the Fundamentals Course → Does this sound familiar?

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Managers and leaders during the Behavioural Design training at SUE Amsterdam

Familiar leadership challenges

"How do I get my team to really move, not just when I'm in the room?"

The core of the problem

Does this sound familiar?

Click on a situation you recognise.

The strategy that never reaches the shop floor

The slides went out, the kick-off was enthusiastic, the key messages were summarised. Three months later, everyone is working exactly the same way. Good communication is not the same thing as behaviour change.

The culture programme that just refreshes the screensaver

New values on the wall, a team day with workshops, posters in the lift. Six months later: business as usual. Culture lives in behaviour, not communication. And behaviour does not change through messaging.

The change initiative that reverts after three months

The first weeks go well. Then attention slips, old habits return and you are back to square one. Lasting behaviour change needs more than a launch. It needs context design.

The targets that trigger the wrong behaviour

The KPIs were hit. The result was still not what you intended. People reached the goal in ways you never anticipated. What you measure, you steer - including every side-effect you did not want.

The resistance that surfaces with every plan

The idea is sound, the data checks out, everyone nods. But the moment execution starts, you hit resistance. Resistance is almost never ill will. It is an automatic reaction to anything that deviates from the familiar.

Behavioural Design is the missing layer.

There is an explanation.

Behavioural Design for managers is the application of behavioural science to leadership challenges: from strategy implementation and culture change to better decision-making and getting teams moving. The method helps you understand why people in your organisation do what they do, and how to design the context so that desired behaviour becomes the natural default.

96% of behaviour is automatic. Most management communication addresses the conscious mind. The Behavioural Design Method teaches you to read the unconscious and design for it.

Six forces shape every behaviour. Goals, fears, habits, context, barriers and triggers. The Behavioural Design Method teaches you to recognise and use them to influence behaviour.

Behaviour is designable. The Behavioural Design Method gives you a step-by-step process to change the context, not the person, so that desired behaviour becomes the natural choice.

Behavioural Design × AI

What makes you an indispensable leader in the age of AI?

Understanding, predicting and changing behaviour is the one skill AI cannot take over.

The context

AI is changing how managers work, from decision-making to team communication.

But AI only makes you more effective if you understand how people really decide. Without that foundation, you use AI to design the wrong interventions faster. Technology amplifies what you already understand, not what you cannot yet see.

Behavioural Design × AI

AI gives you speed. Behavioural Design gives you direction.

The leader who understands behaviour gets more out of AI than the manager who only masters AI tools. All SUE training programmes include AI applications as standard.

Read our view on Behavioural Design and AI →

Why the SUE Behavioural Design method

Behavioural science made practical for professionals who are not behavioural scientists.

Most behavioural science knowledge sits locked away in academic papers and consultancy reports. SUE built its own method, the Influence Framework, that translates that knowledge into a practical step-by-step process any leader can apply, with no scientific background required.

No academic theory, you work on your own leadership challenge and go home with a worked-out plan

Built on Kahneman, Cialdini and Thaler, scientifically grounded but accessible for practitioners

Proprietary method, the Influence Framework is not taught anywhere else, described in the #1 management book bestseller

16 years of experience, from ING to Heineken to Buurtzorg: the method is proven on the biggest leadership challenges in the Netherlands

9.7/10

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4.8/5

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5.0/5

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Certified by

What leaders say after the training

10.000+ professionals have taken a SUE Behavioural Design Training.

The managers and leaders among them all have one thing in common: they look at their work differently afterwards.

After 7,500 working days, in just two days I learned how to influence behaviour. After that you can initiate change you would never have thought of before.

Harold van Puijenbroek

Managing Director · Eluced

★★★★★

The BDA raised the bar for all other academies. Insightful, practical, professional and great experts.

Karen Soens

Managing Director

★★★★★

Everything fell into place. You gave me a mental structure to tackle problems and challenges from now on. I had applied some techniques before, but never this clearly.

Eline Goethals

Strategy Director · Happiness Brussels

★★★★★

This programme made me realise there is so much untapped potential in your company. You just need the BDA system to fully unleash it.

Pieter Meijer

CEO

★★★★★

The BDA gave me more insight into behaviour that also occurs in the workplace. It taught me to look at things differently and made me aware that small things can have a big impact.

Raf Scroyen

Manager People & Organization

★★★★★

Valuable training that clearly processes existing knowledge into practical frameworks, making behavioural design accessible to everyone.

Sandra Ahlers

Change Leadership Consultant

★★★★★

The best first step

Understanding behaviour is the skill that changes everything.

And the Behavioural Design Fundamentals is the training that teaches you that. In two days, or 33 online lessons, you learn the method that makes you approach everything differently.

Behavioural Design Fundamentals

You learn the complete Influence Framework, the JTBD method and all core tools of Behavioural Design. You work on your own leadership challenge and go home with a worked-out intervention plan you can apply the next day.

Three ways to participate

Live in Amsterdam, 2 intensive days, max 16 participants Online self-paced, 33 lessons at your own pace With your team, in-company, at your location or in Amsterdam

View the Fundamentals → See start dates

Want to explore which format suits you best first? Choose the format that fits →

After the training

What you do differently from then on

No abstract knowledge. Concrete changes in how you approach leadership challenges.

You analyse before you design

You use the Influence Framework as your starting point: what drives these people, what holds them back, which context helps? Only then do you design an intervention.

You design context, not messages

You know how to set up the working environment so that the desired behaviour becomes the easiest choice, not the most communicated message.

You speak the language of behaviour

You have a shared framework with your team: goals, fears, habits, context, barriers, triggers. Leadership decisions become more concrete and better grounded.

Frequently asked questions

One more thing

Most participants start with no prior knowledge. The training gives you the behavioural science you need, directly connected to your own leadership practice. No academic theory - practical insights you apply the very next day in how you lead and influence your team.

You learn the SUE Influence Framework: a method to analyse why people in your team do what they do, and to design interventions that genuinely change behaviour. During the training you work on your own leadership challenge - from strategy implementation to team culture - and go home with a worked-out plan.

Precisely for experienced leaders, this is the most valuable. You have the practical experience. The training gives you the scientific framework that supports your intuition and strengthens your approach. Many participants say afterwards: I was already doing parts of this, but now I understand why some approaches work and others don't.

Deliberately a mixed group: managers, HR professionals, marketers, communication advisers and policy makers. Maximum 16 participants. That mix is what makes it valuable: you learn not just from the content, but from how people in other sectors deal with similar behavioural challenges.

Yes. We invoice to a company name and the training is EQAC-accredited, which makes expensing straightforward. Get in touch if you need a quote or additional information for your request.

Start with the Fundamentals. It gives you the complete Behavioural Design framework: the Influence Framework, the JTBD method and all core tools. The Deep Dive Creating Buy-in builds on this with specific leadership applications. Without Fundamentals, the Deep Dive lacks its foundation.

Ready to take the next step? View the next start date or ask us a question.

View start dates → Ask a question

10.000+ professionals trained before you · 9.7/10 rating · EQAC accredited

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Book by Astrid Groenewegen

The Art of Designing Behaviour

The complete practical guide to using behavioural science to change what people do.

#1 Bestseller · The standard in behavioural design

Astrid Groenewegen

Co-founder, SUE Behavioural Design

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1.5 minutes of Influence

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