McGrigor Group works with its network of associates around the globe, drawing on senior experienced consultants with deep regional and sector expertise. Here we throw our spotlight on Colin Bullen, one of our senior experts whose expertise is behavioural change and who helps companies build change-embracing cultures.

Colin is McGrigor Group’s ‘go to’ associate for measuring ROI from existing wellbeing programmes and for helping companies implement new wellbeing programmes for maximum effect.  As a ‘behavioural change actuary’ Colin is uniquely placed to assess how engaged employees are with corporate-led activities designed to increase productivity and promote healthier, happier lives.

Colin began his career in the health and wellbeing sector in South Africa where he was challenged by the ever-increasing costs of ‘fixing’ people who had become ill due to their unhealthy behaviours. Through his six years at Habits at Work he developed the BRATLAB research database with his friend and partner, Hanlie van Wyk. Here Colin discovered how sustained behaviour change is possible, and valuable to companies that achieve it. What makes his work so, so powerful is his ability to put numbers on what drives what. This is the bit that the CFO’s love, and it is hard and rare. He now helps organisations understand the true nature of the problem and how to apply novel methods to create the change they actually want.

At McGrigor Group we love Colin’s fresh approach and data-driven insights. He says 50% of change management programs fail to achieve their objectives, whether health and wellbeing or digital transformation, leadership transition or diversity and inclusion. This, says Colin, is curious given that change is natural. The truth is, you change effortlessly and all the time.

The primary job of the brain is to adjust your behavior based on the environment. The idea that “change is hard” is one of the biggest myths about human behavior. However, you cannot expect people to do things differently if your company does not itself create the proper conditions (contexts) for change

Colin will typically use qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate the immediate strengths and challenges facing a client’s current or future change readiness. Based on his agnostic behavior change framework, he helps teams and their leaders understand and profit from this key distinction: how people think they behave and make decisions, versus how they actually do these things in reality. 

If you’d like to hear more about how McGrigor Group can help you assess the effectiveness of your corporate health and wellbeing change programs or how you can create evidence-based ROI assessments of your current efforts, get in touch.