Nigel Oakes Lecture at CSCC, Department of State

On January 24, 2012, Nigel Oakes, CEO of the Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL) Group and Founder of the Behavioural Dynamics Institute (BDI), spoke at a Center for Strategic Counterterrorism Communications (CSCC) seminar on “The Most Common Mistakes in Designing Influence Campaigns.

Nigel highlighted four very common errors made in designing influence campaigns, especially if one is trying to induce significant behavior change:

• Attempting to change attitudes, not behavior

• Focusing on individuals or audience segments, not groups

• Using broadcast messages, instead of leveraging existing motivations

• Using survey methods for audience analysis instead of group diagnostics.