Jul 1, 2022
Today I am very excited to
introduce you to Wiam Hasanain. Wiam is a seasoned social impact
consultant, with 20 years of experience operating at the
intersection of policy reform, societal development, behavior
change, and civic engagement. She is a problem solver, utilizing
data-driven insights to create practical approaches to resolving
pressing social challenges on a range of projects and industries.
She built her foundation at Unilever, and over the last decade, she
has spearheaded nationwide programs in the areas of unemployment,
health, financial literacy, sports, and career planning. She has
established the structure and strategy for nudge units, set their
national agendas, and designed behavioral interventions to serve
public policy.
After consulting with Bain and
Company Middle East she moved onto a senior role in her native
Saudi Arabia; leading the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
function at a Mckinsey subsidiary and creating nationwide community
programs. From there, she spent a decade as a partner at the
foremost boutique consultancies in the GCC, leading social impact
and behavior change efforts. Her passion is advising on
behaviorally informed policies across sectors. Wiam believes
strongly in spreading knowledge about the implementation of
behavioral change across industries and has published a variety of
articles on the practical application of behavioral science and has
an MBA from UC Berkeley as well as a master's from the London
School of Economics and Political Science. In continuing to have a
more global view of the representation here on The Brainy Business,
Wiam is our first guest from Saudi Arabia. I'm excited to share
some of her work with you on a specific CSR project on the show
today.
Show Notes:
- [00:40] Today I am very excited
to introduce you to Wiam Hasanain. Wiam is a seasoned social impact
consultant, with 20 years of experience operating at the
intersection of policy reform, societal development, behavior
change, and civic engagement.
- [01:58] Her passion is advising
on behaviorally informed policies across sectors.
- [04:27] Wiam shares about
herself, her background, and how she found herself in this
space.
- [07:30] She is from Saudi
Arabia and has spent the majority of her life
there.
- [08:16] She worked with a
client on a corporate responsibility program that focused on
helping the youth in Saudi Arabia find their career
path.
- [10:41] They agreed that they
could help open the youths’ eyes to other careers that were out
there as opposed to the traditional STEM careers.
- [12:04] Their project was such
a success that it ran for three years in a row and kept growing
each year.
- [14:29] It is really nice for
her to see how the social norm has changed and know that they were
part of this change.
- [16:31] The parents along with
the career counselors had to work together to really help the
students bridge the intention to action gap. It was also important
for the parents to see that these other jobs were acceptable as
well.
- [18:20] The parents had a
different hang-up than the youth. (Know all your audiences and plan
accordingly!)
- [19:55] Wiam shares how they
reduced sludge and friction in their project and made things
easier.
- [21:41] They had over
double-digit changes in their perceptions of certain careers. The
short-term response was very promising.
- [22:27] An RCT is a randomized
control trial.
- [24:03] You are always adding
sludge and removing sludge in various ways.
- [24:54] Wiam shares how they
added some sludge to help with the problem they were trying to
solve. They made it difficult for students to leave without going
through all the exhibits (to help increase exposure to careers that
wouldn’t have been a focus previously).
- [26:57] They utilized augmented
reality in some of the exhibits so that would be where the majority
of the students were drawn (and these were typically for the
non-traditional careers to broaden horizons). The most desired
careers were also at the end, so you had to have some exposure to
the other careers no matter what.
- [28:08] There are times when
customer experience, behavioral science, and corporate
responsibility all come together so be more concerned with your end
objective.
- [30:18] Whether you think about
it or not you are influencing the decisions that people make with
the way you put the booths in the space even – so you should
definitely think about it!
- [31:43] Don’t think anything is
too small to be considered a small step towards behavioral change.
Be thoughtful and intentional.
- [32:52] Melina’s three tips for
setting up your own experiment are to keep it small, be thoughtful,
and test often.
- [34:29] Melina shares her
closing thoughts.
- [35:41] My upcoming
book, What Your Employees Need and Can't Tell
You, is now on
presale and will be in a bookstore near you on October 11,
2022.
- [36:21] If you enjoy the
experience I’ve provided here for you, will you share about it?
That could mean leaving a rating/review or sharing the episode with
a friend (or 10!)
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