How Behavioural Economics will change the way you ‘change’ your people
‘Change’ is one of those terms that makes CEO’s bristle with delight and employees shiver in their boots. For many, it feels like change is never-ending and exhausting — as soon as they’ve mastered a new process or system, it gets replaced with something new that’s caught management’s attention.
This concept of ‘change fatigue’ is hardly new, but it’s exacerbated by how quickly technology in the workplace can up-end the ways we work these days.
It doesn’t have to be like this. Change is often a good thing — our employees just rarely see it like that. And that’s because we’re creatures of habit. Change means you’re barging in and messing with the status quo forcing us to switch from cruise mode to fight-or-flight.
The EAST framework was designed by behavioural economists to give policy-makers in the UK a way to design smarter policies informed by psychology. We’ve been using it at Croomo for a while now and getting great results for learning initiatives.
In essence, for any social change policy or strategy to succeed, it should be perceived as Easy, Attract(ive), Social, and Timely by the target audience.
Easy
Harness the power of ‘defaults’ — sure, we all pretend to love choice, but choice forces us to exert energy to make a decision. Present your ‘change’ as the default option, and people will typically just go with it because it requires the least effort.
Reduce the ‘hassle factor’ — it’s not that people are lazy, we’re just in the habit of overestimating the amount of effort something new will require. So, if you go to the effort of making things as easy for people to adopt as possible they’re a lot more likely to get on board.
Keep it simple! — a common issue I see with a lot of the organisations I work with is over-complicated messaging that leaves everyone scratching their heads. Keep your message simple: say one or two key things and make sure they’re heard properly instead of trying to impress everyone with exhaustive communication.
Attract(ive)
Design rewards and sanctions that encourage behaviour change — this is a tricky one because people are very good at ‘gaming’ reward systems. Spend the time mapping out potential ways that people would interact with the rewards and do what you can to limit abuse. Check in regularly to see how they’re responding helps too.
Make it sparkly — we’re all drawn to shiny new things. While you shouldn’t over-complicate your change initiative (see Keep it Simple), you need to go to the trouble of hyping it up. Attract people’s attention with great design, video, the ability to personalise their experience through content creation etc.
Social
The social aspect of behaviour change is arguably the most powerful in the entire EAST framework. We’re social beings and don’t relish straying too far from perceived norms.
Show that most people perform the desired behaviour —I’m a firm believer that all people inherently want to be great at their work and that it’s usually external factors keeping them from greatness. While it might seem like everyone is grumbling about the latest change at their organisation, most of them nonetheless fall in line pretty quickly. Make outliers aware that they’re outside of the norm — they’ll slowly gravitate towards the rest.
Encourage active commitment to others — numerous studies have shown that making a formal commitment to a course of behaviour in the presence of others helps people stick to change in the long run. This is the same reason why people tend to reach their exercise goals if they’re accountable to a gym buddy — we hate letting others down.
Harness the power of personal networks — it’s incredible how close friends, families, and even communities and cultural groups can facilitate change. I recently worked on a fatigue-management program where we designed the artwork with a shift-worker's children in mind — I mean, who could resist if your kids are telling you to manage your fatigue so you’re less grumpy over weekends?
Timely
Change takes time, but it’s also more likely to take place at certain times.
Prompt people when they’re likely to be receptive to change — Behaviour is easier to change when a habit is already disrupted by a major life event, a critical incident at a work site, or even a move from one office to another.
Help people respond — take the guesswork out of making the change. Don’t tell your people how to suck eggs, but at the very least give them a clear vision of how to get where you want them to go. It’s all about removing friction associated with change.
Change at any organisation is rarely easy but it’s totally worth it most of the time. Keep the four parts of the EAST framework in mind the next time you’re designing an initiative and you’ll immediately notice a difference in how people approach change.
