From Shunned to Celebrated — How to Design for Change
Knowledge alone doesn’t change behaviour.
You only have to look at climate change to understand that.
For years scientists, policymakers and the like have tried to ‘sell’ why we all should act on climate change. But campaigns wrapped in shock and fear, underpinned with gloom and doom data and visuals of shrinking ice caps have failed to generate the desired behaviour needed.
So where to next?
I wrestle with this daily as a founder of a movement committed to eradicating bottled water. All around me people are living in the moment, satisfying their immediate needs, defaulting to what is easiest. Bottled water is our default, now normalised and commoditised, despite not existing 20 years ago. However, rather than be numbed by the sheer enormity of the problem, I am outraged and energised!
One of my favourite business books is SWITCH: How to change things when change is hard, written by Chip and Dan Heath. It provides an amazing framework on how to facilitate change based on years of scientific research and has been a guiding bible for me in the design of the O initiative.
Switch outlines that change is affected when you engage the Mind, the Heart and the Environment, and the best results are when all 3 work together. The components of the framework are:
- Direct the Rider:
The rider is a metaphor for the rational side of our brain. Its strength lies in the ability to think long-term, to plan and analyze. With clarity and guidance, the rider thinks beyond the moment. You direct the rider by providing crystal clear direction — scripting the critical moves, where to go, how others got there and how they will get there. - Motivate the Elephant:
The Elephant represents our emotional side of the brain. If you want to create change you must find the feeling, the emotion that sparks action. Simply knowing something isn’t enough to create change, people need to see and feel it. - Shape the Path:
Tweak the environment by removing friction, make habit formation and the path to change easier.
Whilst the rider appears to be the leader, their control is precarious. The elephant can actually overpower the rider easily due to its size. That’s why it is so important to make the elephant feel the need for change, so the rider and the elephant stay in alignment.
DIRECT
So at the O initiative, we direct the rider by saying drink tap water, always and BYO refillable drink bottle when out and about.
We are lucky enough to have access to FREE high-quality drinking water, so why pay for something that is free and readily available.
MOTIVATE
We motivate the elephant through Art. Each O fountain is a beautiful sculpture with custom and individualised art that arouses interest and curiosity.
When we are curious we want to investigate.
When we’re interested we want to get involved.
The door to behaviour change is opened when we are exposed to an experience that makes us feel something new. The shape of an O fountain and the impactful artwork are completely different — on purpose — to the existing public water fountains. This supports a SEE — FEEL — CHANGE sequence, a hopeful glimpse at a solution that connects at the emotional level. Something that speaks to the elephant. Suddenly refilling your water bottle from a public fountain becomes an attractive option.
SHAPE
And finally, we shape the path by rolling out O fountains, nationally and internationally, in parks, shopping centres, airports, new housing developments — to make it much easier to refill a water bottle than to purchase bottled water.
The first surprise about change is what looks like a people problem is often a situation problem. — Chip & Dan Heath
Our current public water fountains are unhygienic and shunned.
If we want people to drink tap water and stop buying bottled water, we have to change the environment.
How?
The O initiative tackles the underlying reasons why people are reluctant to use public fountains.
- Cleanliness:
The majority of people are concerned about the safety or cleanliness of public bubblers and feel uncomfortable to drink directly from them. The O has been specifically designed for bottle refilling only. Designing for refill only addresses both the hygiene barrier as well as creating the infrastructure that encourages people to carry their own water bottle. - Taste:
Many people shun public fountains due to taste. They think bottled water tastes better. The O fountain mitigates this complaint by including a filter to improve the taste.
When designing for behavioural change it is important to minimise the barriers that create the unwanted behaviour as well as to facilitate the infrastructure to stimulate the desired behaviour.
Currently, people’s good intentions don’t necessarily translate into positive sustainable, choices. There is a discrepancy between wanting to do the right thing (save the environment) and actually doing it (drink tap water). I believe strongly that the current environment makes it very difficult for people to change their habits.
Our role is to create an enabling environment for people to action sustainable change.
The O fountain has been designed to make it easy for people to alter their behaviour. We direct the rider by clearly stating that we must refill rather than purchase, always. We engage the elephant through Art that arouses interest, enough for them to realise that this water fountain is an excellent way to refill hygienically. And we shape the path by continuing to work with organisations and community groups to install more O fountains.
At the O initiative, we refer to the guiding principles of Switch frequently to ensure we have the best chance of helping people do good, creating sustainable change and impacting the staggering plastic pollution problem we have.
How have you tackled behaviour change in your organisation? I’d love to hear.
