Madrid, Community of Madrid, Spain
A grounding in behavioral science and behavior change - the theory, the practice, and the courage to experiment that sits in-between - will provide the next generation with the knowledge and skills to more effectively overcome business and societal problems.
Behavior Change and Behavioral Science, including the Bachelor in Behavior and Social Science (BBSS)
I lead the Bachelor's Program on Behaviour and Social Sciences (BBSS).
My passion is to create sustained organisational change interventions - using the intersection of data and psychology to change behaviour at both a strategic and tactical level. I bring a mix of learning, change and agile methodologies to bear on business problems. My work has included starting-up a Learning Design Faculty, building a Data Science capability, and re-shaping organisational strategy for a range of public and private sector clients.
Following my work with Queensland Police Service and Durham Constabulary, I was employed by PSNI to design an interpersonal skills package - this time for experienced operational officers conducting Stop and Search. In the two months I was embedded within PSNI, I leveraged my academic and policing knowledge to design a suite of practical interpersonal and verbal de-escalation skills for specialist officers. This package will be subject to independent evaluation by Randomised Control Trial in early 2018.
Following the success of the Queensland Police Service training package in 2016, I was employed by Durham Constabulary on a short-term contract to develop a similar package for student officers. The aim of the package was to improve public confidence and victim satisfaction by developing student officers' interpersonal skills. More specifically, these skills would enhance the officers' ability to manage interactions with the public and verbally de-escalate situations. The skills taught in the package were reinforced through a series of roleplays, ensuring student officers practiced these skills and received detailed feedback from Durham Learning and Development staff. This package is now part of mandatory training for all of Durham's student officers.
The subject of the PhD was procedural justice policing; an evidence-based theory that posits police officers can increase public cooperation and satisfaction by demonstrating fair treatment and decision-making. The purpose of the PhD was to identify and examine the factors that prevent officers from demonstrating procedural justice towards the public. The studies employed a range of qualitative and quantitative methods (e.g. large scale surveys, stakeholder interviews, observations, and document analysis), from which it was found that there was a range of factors that inhibited officers' use of procedural justice. These factors included operational restrictions like limited time, the focus of police training on using coercive methods like commands to obtain compliance, and the difficulties in using procedural justice with the intoxicated and mentally ill. The thesis passed with no changes and was recognised for Academic Excellence in 2017. As a consequence, I was employed as a training consultant (see below) to design an interpersonal skills package for police recruits that allayed some of these barriers.