Your message is clear and everyone has read it. Still nobody does what you asked.
A clear message is not yet a choice. You learn to create communication that influences behaviour at the moment your reader has to act, so your message has real influence.
2 days · Amsterdam · € 1,490 excl. VAT · next edition see the calendarOnline · 33 lessons at your own pace · €1,190 excl. VAT
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Answer three questions. Then you see what is going on for you.
You said: people understand your message, and do nothing.
You said: your message does not even land.
You said: people react, but with irritation or pushback.
You said: you have adjusted all sorts, and it stays quiet.
And it is about customers or citizens. They read your message among a hundred others. The moment weighs more than the text.
And it is about colleagues. They look first at what their manager does. Only then at what the message says.
And it is about decision-makers. They too decide on feeling, context and what others in their position do. Arguments alone are not enough.
Your message did what a message can do: inform. But the behaviour happens later. When your reader is busy with something else. In that moment people do not decide on arguments, but on feeling, context and what others do.
Tomorrow, decide exactly what your reader has to do, and when. What holds them back at that moment? Design that moment first, and only then the text. You learn this in two days.
People do not read what is important. They read what stands out, at a moment they are open to it. Your message competes with the inbox and the next meeting. Sending it more often makes it worse: repetition without a reason becomes noise.
Tomorrow, find the moment when your reader is already busy with the subject. Let your message appear there. Short, with one action.
When people feel pushed, they defend their freedom. Even when they actually agree with you. A message that tells someone what they must do triggers exactly that. How you phrase it is up to you. How the reader filters it is not.
Tomorrow, rewrite your message so the reader keeps the choice. And show what others already do. Framing and freedom of choice decide whether someone moves along.
Text, channel, frequency: everything you adjusted was on your side. Writing better does not make you more persuasive. And a new tip does not solve the old problem. As long as you do not know what holds the receiver back at the moment of decision, every change is a guess.
Tomorrow, stop rewriting. First map what your reader wants and fears at that moment. Only then do you design the message.
The Art of Influence© · 2 days · AmsterdamThe Art of Influence© · online · 33 lessons
After two days you see what holds your reader back at the moment they have to choose. And you know how to design communication that leads to action.After the 33 lessons you see what holds your reader back at the moment they have to choose. And you know how to design communication that leads to action.
Start online now →€ 1,490 excl. VAT · next edition see the calendar · max 16 participantsOnline · 33 lessons at your own pace · €1,190 excl. VAT
SUE's communication training takes two days in Amsterdam. You learn why people understand your message and still do nothing, and how to design communication around the moment they have to choose. It is for communication advisers, marketers and anyone who wants a message to lead to action, with no prior knowledge required. It costs € 1,490 excl. VAT, for at most 16 participants.
“BDA knocks down some of the innate ideas on marketing and communication completely. And replaces them with well founded and easy to apply alternatives”
10,000+ professionals trained, including people from
You see what holds your reader back at the moment they have to choose.
You design a message around one action at one moment.
You use framing and social norms without your reader feeling pushed.
You test a message small, so you know what works before you send it widely.
You learn this with the Behavioural Design method and the SUE Influence Framework, the same training that communication professionals from organisations such as Centraal Beheer, Rabobank and the municipality of Apeldoorn took.
A maximum of 16 participants. You practise on real behavioural cases from practice, and after two days you apply the method to the message you are working on now.
| Writing course | Presentation training | The Art of Influence© | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is about | Writing clearly and correctly | Coming across convincingly | What the receiver does after your message |
| What you practise | Rewriting texts | Speaking and posture | Diagnosis and design on real communication cases |
| What you do on Monday | Write a better text | Give a better presentation | Design your reader's moment of decision |
If you mainly want to learn to write clearly and without errors, a writing course is the better fit. If you want people to act after your message, you are in the right place.
Trainer & consultant
Helps organisations understand why people do what they do, and steers it in culture and wellbeing programmes.
Trainer & consultant
Designs lasting change in healthcare and sustainability, in people and in organisations.
Product designer & UX strategist
Turns behavioural science into practical solutions that help teams innovate faster.
Trainer & consultant
Founded the Behavioural Design Circle at ABN AMRO and has spent 25 years on customer behaviour and change.
How nice this training from the Behavioural Design Academy. In a good tempo, you learn essential principles to influence behaviour. You immediately start applying it to practice. Practical, to the point, educational and also very fun.
Usually, a lot of attention is paid to presenting and articulating a message beautifully. In this course you will learn the step that is essential to take first: what is going to help our target audience to really modify behavior, with interventions that can be much broader and actually remove barriers. The practical experience of our trainer provided many application tips and a link to the practice and reality of complex environments.
What a beautifully organized and presented training! I leave. With a head full of new knowledge, and a warm feeling. Can’t wait to use my newfound ideas.
Maps, in one overview, the forces that hold your change back and those that carry it.
Translates your diagnosis into interventions that make the new behaviour easier than the old.
Shows what people are really trying to get done, and why the old behaviour fits that.
The questions that let you hear what people do not say in the meeting.
Pins down exactly which behaviour you want to see and how you test it small before rolling out.
After purchase you receive the AI Mentor, after the training your certificate and lifelong membership of the Behavioural Design Club.
Most participants take the training on their employer’s budget or their own training budget. The VAT invoice goes to your organisation: €1,490 excl. VAT. Open the email below, fill in three things and send it to your manager.
2 days · Amsterdam · € 1,490 excl. VAT · next edition see the calendar · max 16 participants · EQAC certificateOnline · 33 lessons at your own pace · €1,190 excl. VAT
You learn how framing, social norms and loss aversion decide what people do with your message. You practise on real communication cases and leave with an approach and a toolkit you apply to your own message the next day.
For communication advisers, spokespeople, marketers and policy officers who want a message to lead to action, internally and externally. No background in behavioural science required.
A maximum of 16 participants per edition, at SUE on the 's-Gravenhekje in Amsterdam. English-language editions run several times a year; the next date is shown next to the button on this page and you choose from all dates when you enrol.
€ 1,490 excluding VAT, including the Behavioural Design Toolkit, lunch, the EQAC certificate, access to the AI Mentor after purchase and lifelong membership of the BD Club.
An EQAC-certified certificate for The Art of Influence©. Participants rate the training 9.3 out of 10.
Yes. For teams there is the Sprint: the same two days at your location, with your own challenge as the case, for 5 to 24 participants.
Because it stops at style and structure. People do not read and listen rationally. They filter information through feeling, context and social norms. A training that only teaches you to write more clearly works on the wrong layer.
Yes. The method is the same for customers, citizens and colleagues. In internal communication, what managers do often weighs more than what the email says. You take that into your design.
With your whole team? See the team trainings.
What makes a text work, and why clear alone is not enough.
Read the guide →The same information, a different choice. How framing works.
Read the guide →How to design the last step so people actually take it.
Read the guide →Whoever communicates hopes for action. Whoever designs communication gets it.
