Behaviour Change
GO TO: Workshops | Keynotes | Free resources | Research & Publications
Looking to encourage people to do things differently? Whether you’re focused on professional development or want to increase your knowledge about behaviour change, our expert-led training offers evidence-based techniques for motivating meaningful change.
Through workshops, keynote presentations, and free resources, Zoos Victoria can help you gain practical tools grounded in real-world examples to help you design and carry out effective behaviour change initiatives.
Behaviour Change Essentials
An exclusive workshop for businesses, organisations and networks, Behaviour Change Essentials offers practical, expert-led training to help start or level-up the behaviour change skills of your staff or team. Guided by Zoos Victoria in-house behaviour change experts, this training draws on evidence-based techniques and real-world examples to show how you can meaningfully influence behaviour in ways that support nature and society. You’ll discover how to use the Connect-Understand-Act (CUA) model, which is the secret behind Zoos Victoria’s award-winning conservation campaigns.
Suitable for anyone working on organisational, visitor, educational, community, or other human-centred change initiatives, this workshop can be delivered at one of our zoos, online, or at a location of your choice.
What’s included:
- A Connect-Understand-Act toolkit
- Certificate for each participant
- Pre-training consultation to discuss your team’s needs
- Access to Zoos Victoria’s behaviour change specialists
- Training for up to 40 people (we can cater for larger groups at an additional cost)
One Day Private Workshop
Learn about:
- Foundations of behaviour change
- Latest evidence-based techniques for encouraging behaviour change
- Real and best-practice examples of effective campaigns
- Practical tools that can be used right away
After completing the workshop, participants will be able to:
- Talk to others about behaviour change
- Use behaviour change tools to positively influence attitudes, beliefs and behaviours
- Use the Connect-Understand-Act model to design a new or improved behaviour change initiative
pricing (inc gst)
$5,324 – business
$4,840 – government or not-for-profit
*For bookings hosted at Zoos Victoria, this can be arranged at additional cost and pending availability. For offsite requests, travel incidentals apply.
Two Day Private Workshop
Day 1
- Foundations of behaviour change
- Latest evidence-based techniques for encouraging behaviour change
- Real and best-practice examples of effective campaigns
- Start a ‘design sprint’ to put learning into practice
Day 2
- Review existing behaviour change initiative/s or explore a new one
- Step-by-step 'how to’ for carrying out a behaviour change initiative, from start to finish
- Draft plan that can be shared with others for feedback and approval
- Ways to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of your initiative
After completing the workshop, you and your team will be able to:
- Talk confidently to others about behaviour change
- Use behaviour change tools to positively influence attitudes, beliefs and behaviours
- Use the CUA model to design or improve a behaviour change initiative
- Explain your team’s behaviour change initiative/s to others and assess its effectiveness
pricing (inc gst)
$9,200 – business
$8,360 – government or not-for-profit
*For bookings hosted at Zoos Victoria, this can be arranged at additional cost and pending availability. For offsite requests, travel incidentals apply.
Public Workshop at Melbourne Zoo
A 1-day workshop at Melbourne Zoo designed to teach practical skills for designing and carrying out behaviour change initiatives. Suitable for anyone wanting to start or level-up an existing organisational, visitor, educational, community, or other human-centered change initiative.
Explore evidence-based techniques for motivating behaviour change, guided by Zoos Victoria’s in-house behaviour change experts. You’ll also learn how to use the Connect-Understand-Act (CUA) model – the secret behind Zoos Victoria’s award-winning conservation campaigns – and walk away with practical tools you can use straight away.
Power of People
Shaping Business for Good
Learn the secret ingredients of Coffee for Wildlife, a business initiative that supports farmers, protects forests and provides delicious coffee to thousands of people every year.
Explore all of our keynotes here.
Free Resources
Zoos Victoria is committed to empowering people to take action for wildlife through our community conservation campaigns. By connecting the joy of zoo experiences with practical actions, we support individuals, schools, workplaces and communities to make a real difference, helping to turn concern for wildlife into meaningful change.
By sharing our knowledge and experience, we aim to build capacity, strengthen skills and support communities to live respectfully alongside wildlife.
Explore our resources below:
Community Conservation
This video introduces behaviour change principles and the Connect-Understand-Act (CUA) model, which underpin Zoos Victoria’s conservation campaigns.
Safe Cat, Safe Wildlife
This video case study explores a real behaviour change campaign example – Safe Cat, Safe Wildlife. This joint initiative between RSPCA Victoria and Zoos Victoria, supported by Petstock, supports households to keep their cats safe at home.
Research & Publications
Behaviour change happens by design, and at Zoos Victoria, our Connect-Understand-Act (CUA) model sits at the heart of everything we do. Grounded in conservation, education, and behavioural science, it provides an evidence-based framework for designing interventions that create real, lasting change. We have spent years researching and applying this model across diverse campaigns, and the results speak for themselves. Below we share some key research underpinning our work, and what it means for organisations looking to move beyond good intentions and into genuine impact.
Explore some of our research below:
Connection is where behaviour change begins
At the core of our work is a simple but powerful insight: people protect what they care about. Our Connect-Understand-Act (CUA) model is built on research that supports this foundation.
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Emotional connection to an animal increases concern for its survival and willingness to protect it (Howell et al 2019). Read more
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We designed the CUA model to harness these natural human responses, creating experiences that genuinely shift attitudes and inspire lasting action (Dunstan et al 2016). Read more
Real campaigns, real behaviour change
We design and deliver campaigns that demonstrate measurable behaviour change. Our research shows that interactive, story-driven experiences built on the CUA model consistently produce strong results.
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Visitors who engaged with a live presentation left with stronger conservation attitudes and greater intentions to change behaviour (Mellish et al 2016). Read more
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Our ‘They’re Calling on You’ campaign has resulted in over 115,000 recycled mobile phones with funds supporting gorilla conservation (Litchfield et al 2018). Read more
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Our Leadbeater's Possum campaign shifted purchasing behaviour toward sustainably sourced paper products (Dunstan et al 2014). Read more
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Our ‘Totes for Wildlife’ campaign increased species recognition through creative community engagement (Lancaster et al 2024). Read more
Effective behaviour change requires targeted effort
Designing campaigns that change behaviour requires knowing where to focus, how to frame your message, and how to set your organisation up for success.
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Our research shows that targeting the right behaviours from the outset is essential (Selinske et al 2020) Read more
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Framing messages around existing audience values dramatically improves uptake, which has informed our ‘Safe Cat, Safe Wildlife’ campaign (van Eeden et al 2021) Read more
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Targeted messages paired with easy conservation actions can create a ripple effect of further behaviour change (Lauren et al, 2026). Read more
