The Age of Authenticity: behavior change and the science of the say-do gap
Jeffrey Stier
People Strategy Architect. EY America’s lead: People Sustainability EY America's lead: Strategic Purpose & Vision Realized EY Global lead and co-founder: The EY-Simon Sinek ‘Why Effect’
Scientifically a more accurate name is the SAY-DO PERCEPTION GAP.
Why?
1. Human brains evolved as error + danger detection machines.
2. Human behavior is driven by perception.
When a government, company, or executive says one thing but does another, the brain perceives & registers it as an error or danger message. This can lead to cognitive dissonance which drives one type of behavior. When you close SAY-DO Gaps, you remove error/danger messages & you can drive different behavior. (article here.)
“When a SAY-DO Gap is perceived, a reflexive human instinct kicks in & we slow down, even stop, until that error/danger is understood. It’s one way the brain keeps us safe.” ---Mary Slaughter, EY
Research from Ahn, Hu & Vega support the link between behavior change and the SAY-DO Gap. Their paper “Do as I do, not as I say” (here) investigated social learning theory & found that "doing" is more important than "saying" because people watch and follow role models' behaviors and actions.
The science around coherence also supports this link. Stanford’s Karen Hammerness studied (here) conceptual coherence (SAY) vs. structural coherence (DO). Mary Slaughter translates: “You can SAY what you want, but until you DO and activate it within systems, structures & processes (coherence), the likelihood of behavior change is limited.”
This research suggests that if companies seek to:
- change customer or employee behavior, or
- reduce friction and increase adoption during a transformation/transaction
They can:
1) identify & assess SAY-DO Gaps,
2) close gaps to reduce signals of error/danger
3) rinse, repeat & consistently measure related behavior change
Humans experience coherence when the pieces of any situation fit together, make sense & amplify each other (no SAY-DO GAP). Increased coherence results in greater certainty; reduced error detection; more fluid learning; higher speed of adoption/change; & faster gains in productivity.