When it comes to actual behavioural change, I’m not convinced that running adhoc, one off workshops will cut it. However, this is still the default that most organisations offer when it comes to developing skills or changing behaviours.
 
We want better feedback? Run a half day feedback workshop. 
 
We want people to be more organised? Run a one day time management workshop. 
 
And one of my favourites…. We want people to be less stressed? Run a resilience workshop. This is my favourite because the organisation is actually saying, we are not going to do anything about the conditions that create the stress, we just want you to be able to work with it better. Sigh.
 
Like cultural change, behavioural change requires effort.  We have known this for a while with the 70/20/10 principle of workplace learning.  For those that may not be familiar with this, in a nutshell it says that 10% of learning happens in workshops, 20% through relationships and 70% experience and on the job.
 
What we need is an approach that is:
 
Blended: Accommodates 70/20/10 by offering workplace assignments/coaching and mentoring/training.

Sustained: Introduced over time and not a one off event.  Any behavioural change requires effort and support over time.

Targeted: Being very specific on certain behaviours and then somewhat relentless in the pursuit of this.  For example, if we want improved meetings, we target meetings for a specific amount of time and have a laser like focus on changing this one element.  
 
So, pick something in your organisation or team you would like to change, something simple like punctuality for meetings. This doesn’t necessarily require a workshop on how to be punctual, however a short session on how to run an effective meeting might be useful (10%) then coach, mentor and provide feedback to each other on how you are all travelling (20%) and finally make it part of business as usual. It’s not something new we do, it becomes how we do it (70%).