TMG got our start in 1967, when Richard Manoff, an advertising executive, started a pioneering social marketing business to put commercial marketing methods to use for social good. More than 50 years and 70 countries later, The Manoff Group has built on the success of this early work to become an international leader in designing and implementing evidence-driven social and behavior change programming that effectively promotes behaviors to allow populations to enjoy an improved quality of life. TMG has distilled these years of experience to develop Behavior Integration.
Behavior Integration is the Manoff Group’s signature approach to designing, implementing, evaluating, and improving development programming. Behavior Integration defines outcomes as specific behaviors required to achieve the development goal. It ensures that behavior is considered along with technical and operational issues in every program element and phase.
The result is programs that maximize resources and accelerate impact, achieving lasting results.
Time to Think | BIG
Think | BIG (or Behavior Integration Guidance) is the process for applying Behavior Integration to development programs in order to maximize program resources and accelerate program impact to ensure lasting results.
Think | BIG comprises more than 200 tools and resources to help program designers and implementers apply Behavior Integration.
Developed in collaboration with USAID, Think | BIG provides tools, resources, and guidance to:
- Define and prioritize the behaviors most critical to change.
- Establish and measure behavioral and factor-level indicators.
- Develop SBC strategies that follow a logical pathway from desired results to the interventions or activities most likely to achieve behavior change.
- Identify commonalities across multiple behaviors and create opportunities for efficiencies in programming.
Why focus on behaviors?
All effective programming ultimately requires that someone do something differently than they’re doing it today.
Ensuring that the right resources are available at the right time, and in the right place, for that someone to change their behavior, is key to achieving program success.
Behavior Integration, using the Think | BIG process we’ve designed, ensures that programs put all of the necessary elements in place to enable that person to change their behavior.
The result is programs that maximize resources and accelerate impact, achieving lasting results.
Social and Behavior Change and Communication
TMG draws a distinction between social and behavior change (SBC) and social and behavior change communication (SBCC). For us, SBC is the process of enabling an environment where change can happen, ensuring the basic systems and supplies are in place, and generating demand and use for them, working closely with local partners and communities to do so.
SBCC is one possible tool to be used to achieve SBC, and belongs in an implementer’s toolbox alongside other interventions like policy changes, infrastructure strengthening, capacity building, and supply chain management. TMG has decades of experience designing and implementing targeted, effective SBCC, and building the capacity of our local partners in dozens of countries to do the same. To learn more, visit our Resources page.