Understanding ‘behavioural change’

In my last blog, I asked you to focus on what you’d learnt from the business challenges you faced in 2022.

 How did you get on with this?

 Was it a daunting task, or quite easy to understand and get to grips with?

Are you now ready to grasp those challenges and drive your business forward with renewed passion, motivation, and determination?

Whatever the case, and wherever you find yourself, I’m sure that some of the decisions you need to take for your business in 2023 will require ‘behaviour change.’

So, I now want to delve deeply into this subject to give you a thorough understanding of exactly what ‘behaviour change’ is.

For almost every change initiative there’s an element of behaviour change. Sometimes the level of behaviour change needed is large and complex, whilst other times it can be simple.

Effective behaviour change is one of the most critical outcomes change practitioners hope to achieve. However, not achieving the anticipated behaviour change means the change hasn’t succeeded.

In her book ‘Wired for Authenticity: Seven Practices to Inspire, Adapt, & Lead,’ leadership expert Henna Inam, who founded Transformational Leadership Inc. in 2010 to help organisations develop authentic leaders who create cultures of innovation, trust, and inclusion, says: “to change any behaviour, we have to slow down and act intentionally rather than from habit and impulse.”

You have to “slow down” in order to enable behaviour change. Photo Ralph Ravi-Kaden

Meanwhile, Wikpedia states that “behaviour change refers to any transformation or modification of human behaviour.”

This seems like a general, all-encompassing definition that can include anything ranging from behaviour change in a psychological context or in a social or workplace context.  

However, a key part of behaviour change is to recognise that behaviour, by definition, must be observable in some shape or form.  

A behaviour can be verbal, non-verbal, or physical behaviour.  

However, a behaviour can’t be ‘perception’ or ‘thinking’ since these can’t be observed nor displayed necessarily.  

Another feature in behaviour change is that the behaviour must change from the current state to a future state. The quantum of the change determines the complexity of the change required and the extent to which a series of change interventions is required to achieve the desired future state.  

This means, if the behaviour change is easy from the impacted person’s perspective, then the change approach can be simple.  However, if the quantum of the change is large, then a heavy design of change interventions is expected to achieve the desired outcome.

Dr BJ Fogg, a Stanford professor who founded the Behaviour Design Laboratory at Stanford University, and wrote the New York Times bestseller ‘Tiny Habits,’ developed a simple and practical model highlighting three key elements which must converge at the same time for a behaviour to occur.

·       Motivation – Different motivators have different impacts on behaviour.

·       Ability – How easy is it to undertake a behaviour?  

·       Prompt/Trigger – Reminders of events prompting particular behaviours. 

Watch out for my remaining blogs in the ‘behaviour change’ series - how to implement behaviour change in the most effective way, and what are the benefits of behaviour change.

In the meantime, if you need any support or guidance relating to anything discussed in this blog, then please don’t hesitate to contact me via Email: russell@theresiliencecoach.co.uk, or visit www.theresiliencecoach.co.uk.